La Presse posted this week a piece on facing veterinary emergencies in Montreal, noting that the only 24‑hour service, DMV, is not only expensive but hard to get to without a car. Fair enough, if you have to pay veterinarians to work at 4 a.m., it wouldn’t come cheap. The item considers how to prepare for emergencies, but the advice is mostly to gird yourself for a large invoice if your animal needs help outside office hours.
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Kate
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Kate
Soccer I kind of understand as a game, but how the teams are selected to compete and what the standings are remain opaque to me. CF Montreal, which seemed lacklustre all season – although I admit I don’t really know when the season begins or ends either – became Canadian champion Sunday by beating the Toronto team. Where did that come from?
Faiz imam
The impact (I refuse to use the idiotic rebrand) play in Mls and compete for the Mls championship. They have failed miserably at this this year.
In parallel, there is another totally unrelated series of games that involves any Canadian professional team (representatives from 4 different leagues currently take part). This side tournament is run by the Canadian soccer association and they play for the Voyageurs cup. This is what the team has just won.
Winning this makes them eligible for the concacaf champions league, which is a tournament of the best teams in North America / Caribbean. These are the games in the spring vs Mexican teams at Olympic stadium that are occasionally played.
Kate
Thank you, Faiz Imam.
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Kate
François Legault was on the ice at the Bell Centre this week pushing for more hockey. Not only that, he’s appointed a Minister for Getting the Nordiques Back. Patrick Lagacé shakes his head over the premier’s priorities here, LE HOCKEY, NOTRE FIERTÉ – but who is the “nous”? CBC notes that of Legault’s new 15‑member team on this issue, all are white, and they talked to Georges Laraque and Innu chief Mike McKenzie about what that says about “nous”.
Update: More on this from Dave MacIntyre on CultMTL and from Michel C. Auger in La Presse.
JP
I heard about this…just another reason I can’t wait for him to no longer be in office.
The popularity of sports evolve….hockey is expensive and very few would be able to make a living out of it. If I had kids I would encourage them to participate in sports they enjoy (and ones which would be cheaper for me overall) and invest more money and effort into their overall education and some other hobbies.
Kate
As Lagacé says, distraction by diversion has been a political ploy for millennia, because it’s effective, at least for a time. But baseball did not save Denis Coderre.
I don’t think we can expect anything but a second Legault term, because both the PQ and the PLQ are in disarray and Québec solidaire is too lefty for most people outside Montreal. Living here we tend to forget how conservative the ROQ mostly is.
Chris
Québec Solidaire is too lefty for most people *inside* Montreal too.
Spi
It’s just more coded signalling to his “us” base, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if recommendations come in the form of “we need more sporting facilities and make the sport more affordable” which is obvious as day and has been known for decades. Timely political promises of new arenas in swing ridding and maybe even hockey specific subsidies for children enrolled in the sport arriving just before the elections.
Ian
Panem et circenses, sure, but how do you say “dogwhistle” in Latin?
mare
I have a hockey arena nearby but it seems to me it is vastly underused.
Almost every time I pass there while walking our dogs (at varying times) the entrance and area in front of it is completely deserted. I’d expect a bustle of parents dropping kids off or picking them up for practice, and a bunch of kids hauling their huge bags of gear but I have only seen that once. The bunker-like nature of the building doesn’t help.From many other dog walks I know that another sports facility, the 40 million dollar (!) soccer practice center on Papineau—which is not bunker-like at all with its walls of glass— is also very underused. I remember when it opened that soccer clubs were complaining it wasn’t big enough and that each club wouldn’t have enough time scheduled so you’d expect there should be kids all the time. However it’s almost always completely deserted, especially in the weekends. No trainings in the weekends because too many kids and their parents are staying at their cottage? I’m pretty sure the kids of St-Michel don’t have cottages and the outside soccer fields a few blocks to the east are *always* full, even when it’s raining.
*It might be Covid related now, but three years ago it was not different.
Spi
The stade de soccer on Papineau is a special case, it pretty much completely shut down during COVID and last winter served as a shelter for the homeless, to be seen if that will be the case again. I don’t think it’s fully reopened, it was utilized by other people than just children, mostly sec leagues. There’s also a few factors to take into consideration, despite the rather imposing size of the building it only houses 1 full size field that can be divided into 2 or 3 depending on how small the kids are and 1 full size field outside. If memory serves it’s quite a bit more expensive than other places to rent.
Kate
Ian: sibilus canum.
JP
There is also cricket being played more and more in the city. Maybe that’s also being seen as a bit of a threat. I can’t recall the details, but there was a park in the city where the cricket infrastructure was vandalized.
Kate
JP, it was back in July and you commented on it then, and that was followed by comments saying there was no proof the vandalism was sparked by racism. But most folks playing cricket here would be “visible minorities” so I don’t see how it can be ruled out either.
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Kate
La Presse went to Europe to look at the elevated trains in Copenhagen, The Hague and Paris (still under construction – could the REM have been conceived in admiration?) to see how other cities cope with the intrusion on their streets.
Daniel D
I bookmarked this link the other day because I knew further discussion on this topic was inevitable
Many parallels with Montreal, although the backdrop is different.
Kate
Ha. “Andy Burnham demands underground station for new route rather than cheaper series of viaducts.” Very familiar indeed – thank you, Daniel D.
Tee Owe
Kate- elevated trains are not a feature in Copenhagen – quoting from the La Presse link – ‘Ici à Copenhague, la station aérienne Orientkaj constitue une exception dans le développement récent du réseau de transport collectif’ – the elevated sections are out of town. The REM plan would not fit to Copenhagen’s reality.
ant6n
I´d say the bigger folly is that they´re putting in a long distance rail station that´s a terminal. In the rest of the world, terminals are being replaced with through-stations, often with the use of Tunnels (see recent discussion on twitter).
This relates to the REM, because REM 1 converted Mont Royal tunnel precluding the possibility to turn Gare Centrale into a through-station for a future HFR or even HSR. REM 2 proposes to create a downtown terminus for a rapid transit line, rather than a through-connection with lines on both sides. Such stupid planning.
david4229
^ This is a very good point.
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Kate
The Centre des Mémoires looks at Place Ville-Marie with a couple of shots of the outdoor and sunken terrasses, which were seemingly popular for awhile, but didn’t thrive over time. Maybe something about the looming buildings and the wind tunnel? Some would say it had bad feng shui.
A second piece Sunday remembers the Great Antonio.
Orr
Speaking of PVM, the fountain with the sculpture on the Place Ville Marie esplanade has been removed.
it was a nice and scenic landmark to have at the foot of McGill College avenue.
I miss it.
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Kate
The Christmas market is back in the Quartier des spectacles, although this brief La Presse piece doesn’t explain why it hasn’t been held for four years – and “back” is also odd, because I don’t think it was ever a longstanding tradition here.
There will also be a Santa thing going on downtown over the next few weeks, but seemingly not a single big parade.
More in Metro on Christmas markets.
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Kate
Three men in their twenties are in hospital following a downtown scrap early Sunday in which all three got stabbed. One is in critical condition.
jeather 10:09 on 2021-11-22 Permalink
I had to bring one cat there when he broke his leg in a way that required some specialised surgery (I learned from this and would, in the future, amputate), and they are incredibly expensive for scheduled visits too. Cat did recover (though he’s, much later, since had a series of strokes and is not recovering great from those), and is purring next to me right now.
mare 11:36 on 2021-11-22 Permalink
There is another vet hospital downtown that is cheaper, but has slightly limited opening times compared to the DMV. I have no hands-on experience, but my neighbours, slightly overbearing with an aging dog with various medical issues, went there regularly at odd hours, instead of the DMV. They have lots of experience with the DMV as well and like the downtown clinic better.
https://www.hopitalveterinairevictoria.com/en/contact-montreal/
I myself have spent a ridiculous amount of money at the DMV 10 years ago and i remember it was quite a schlepp to 54th avenue in Dorval for a daily visit to my dog who was on an IV for 5 days. (The fact I still know that avenue number by heart worries me.)
Kate 12:04 on 2021-11-22 Permalink
mare, thank you, I will note that place down. My cat is healthy, but any animal can have an emergency.
kb 12:30 on 2021-11-22 Permalink
I brought my then-kitten to the hopital veterinaire Victoria that mare mentions about 1 ½ months after everything got shut down due to COVID (he had climbed up onto moldings around on the walls and fallen off, breaking a few ribs), and all the vets were closed or had absolutely no room to see any animal. We were able to get him in within a few hours, and the cost wasn’t terrible (though he didn’t really need any treatment).