A commission is looking into why Montreal’s municipal elections have had such low participation. Only 38.3% of eligible voters turned out in November 2021, down from an already pitiful 42.47% in 2017.
As Jeanne Corriveau writes, interest in last year’s vote could have been weakened by Covid, by the federal election that closely preceded it, or by the narrow restrictions on voting by mail, but none are complete explanations. But how do you get people to feel more involved, at least to the extent of feeling it’s worth casting a vote?
Two things are not raised in the item, which have been mentioned before on this blog, but are worth considering:
1. Educating people on the functioning of city government and making clear what’s done for them by city hall and what’s done by the borough. People are amazingly vague on the domains of operation of the levels of government and, I think, often don’t realize that the quality of life in their surroundings is largely a municipal realm, so if you want a say in how things look and feel in your neighbourhood, go vote in the next municipal election.
2. Find some way to allow permanent residents to vote. I don’t know how deep this would have to go in changing Canadian or Quebec law, but there must be some way to do it. Or even, to get around that, have an election in which permanent residents could choose a parallel council that would have some participation in city hall decisions! If this worked right, I bet actual citizens would take more interest, but I don’t have any idea whether it’s workable.
Emily 21:03 on 2022-08-30 Permalink
Gazette editor’s own note about the cartoon: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/gazette-editors-note-about-the-controversial-boris-cartoon
Kate 23:19 on 2022-08-30 Permalink
Bert Archer has not learned to read the room. Thanks, Emily.
H. John 08:46 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
This morning Paul Arcand interviewed the artist:
https://www.985fm.ca/audio/504943/entrevue-avec-l-auteur-de-la-controversee-caricature-de-rene-levesque
Kate 09:09 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
Thanks, H. John.
Toula Drimonis sums it up: This is not a good cartoon.
Is Bert Archer fool enough to think that being talked about is better than not being talked about? During an election campaign, to boot? The Gazette has never done any favours to Quebec anglos, so I guess it’s continuing that tradition, at least.
Tim 09:31 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
The dog is wearing a Canadian flag. The rest of Canada generally reviles Lévesque; he’s known, rightly or wrongly, as the man that tried to breakup Canada, didn’t sign the Charter and collected a Federal government pension along the way. The nuanced view of him from Quebec anglos does not extend past provincial borders. This obviously offends many in this province, but the cartoon accurately captures the sentiment of those outside of Quebec.
Kate 09:35 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
Yes, but the Gazette is not (in theory) produced for the ROC, but for Quebec anglos.
Kevin 11:32 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
Boris should have used labels, like Stan Kelly of the famous “Sickos” meme.
Kate 18:19 on 2022-08-31 Permalink
Those labels feel so early 20th century. If you have to include footnotes, your drawing is not doing its job.
Orr 10:32 on 2022-09-03 Permalink
As someone with 12 feet of shelf space of the many great Quebec/Canadian/American/British/French op-ed/political cartoonist’s books, I have never regarded Boris as a particularly talented op-ed cartoonist. Boris doesn’t seem to hit his target very well, and/or chooses his targets poorly.
On the other hand this week we learned that PSPP reads the Gazette every morning.