Starting to see the warning signs – stacks of metal barriers readied against walls, bus stop signs hidden under notices that the route will be changed on Sunday. This is the map of the full marathon.
La Presse has an item on the event and another.
Updates from September, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Electoral maps are redrawn regularly to bring them in line with population changes. The Quebec riding map is due for adjustments, and Montreal may lose some clout even though its population has grown, because so many residents are not citizens and therefore have no vote.
The proposal would reduce the island of Montreal’s ridings from 27 to 26.
jeather
I absolutely thought that electoral maps were drawn based on population, not citzenship or population with the right to vote.
Ephraim
UGH! They CAQ is allowing 5 more electoral districts that are below population to continue to exist… So it’s not just Iles de la Madeleine that has more clout. Not happy. This is a light version of gerrymandering. If they don’t have the population, change the map. No one other than IdlM should be having more of a vote. That’s guaranteed by law. No one else!
Chris
jeather, you thought that, ok, that’s interesting; but are you arguing that’s how it should be? Seems quite correct to me to count based on eligible voters.
jeather
Yes, I think it should be based on population. You’re the MP/MNA for everyone — children under 18, immigrants, students whose permanent residence is in a different province. I can understand the argument for citizens (not for adult citizens only, though), but I think that ridings should be based on total population.
CE
If a riding has a lot of children who are under 18, is that taken into consideration in the same way as non-citizens? To be honest, I had never thought of this, I too assumed it was based entirely on population.
Ian
It’s always been based on registered voters as birth/death is the end curves that fluctuate most.
H. John
I’m embarrassed to admit I thought jeather’s suggestion was odd.
Then I read the Radio-Canada version of the article (which seems to be longer and more detailed), and I was struck by the fact that at the federal level our ridings are indeed based on total population.
D’ailleurs, le critère des «électeurs inscrits» dicté par la loi québécoise ne fait pas l’unanimité à l’international, souligne Louis Massicotte. Si certaines législations l’utilisent aussi, «beaucoup de pays dans le monde» – y compris le Canada, au niveau fédéral – se basent plutôt sur la «population totale» pour définir la manière dont les électeurs doivent être représentés.
jeather
That explains why I thought it was done that way, at least. It does feel more sensible than voting population, though I definitely see how the latter is much easier to measure accurately. This also explains why Montreal feels like it has less voting power than its population, because it has more non-voters.
Mozai
What would the maps look like if it was # of people who showed up to vote, instead of # of eligible voters?
JaneyB
‘Voting population’ or adult citizens? As @Mozai points out, only about half of adult citizens actually vote. Still the reasoning behind rep-by-pop redistricting based on number of eligible citizens seems rational to me. The country/province is supposed to be organized to express the voice of the people who have a permanent stake in its welfare, not the preferences of transient labour or visitors, whether tourists or visa students. People who spend their lives as non-members in a foreign space are relying on the goodwill of their hosts. If they want to be part of the system, there are numerous paths to that end. That said, Quebec’s non-automatic voter registration system is strangely opt-in compared to other provinces (Manitoba) where it’s connected to the birth registry.
-
Kate
Le Fromentier, the bakery on Laurier East which pioneered making bread with flours other than wheat, closed this week after 30 years, citing fatigue, rising rent and costs.
Daniel
Thanks for linking to this. Would likely have missed it otherwise.
Kate
I wouldn’t’ve known if I hadn’t seen the Radio-Canada piece. I used to make a special trip to get their bread sometimes when I lived in the Plateau. But I swore off bread awhile back, then moved, so hadn’t visited in some time.
Orr
I helped fund their move from their tiny tiny original location to their present digs. You paid $100 and then used the card they gave you to buy bread at the new location until the $100 was used up. Early version of crowdfunding!
Then the original owner sold it and moved to Sutton, for the quality cycling to be found there.
I heard a rumour that other merchants did not like the fact he was paying his workers a living wage, instead of minimum wage all the time to maximize owner profit.
-
Kate
The city is hoping to be able to do something to fix traffic congestion at the airport. Even the 747 bus is bogged down. But the REM will solve these problems, eventually – right?
steph
I thought they fixed this with the new on/off ramps (to bypass the Dorval circle). Does this confirm that more roads only makes MORE traffic?
Kevin
It’s a multi-part problem.
One factor is the province’s decision to abolish the Montreal Taxi Bureau, so now everyone with a car payment is hassling arriving passengers under a Lyft/Uber/whatever banner.
(I’ll contrast with my recent trip to Halifax, where I arrived at the airport to a nice orderly line of taxis and limos with a fixed rate for travel to and from the city).A second is the STM’s complete and utter inability to make it easy for tourists to take the 747 bus.
But a third issue, and probably the most problematic, is that the new ramp from the 20 west to the Airport is *only one lane*, and partway through drivers from the Dorval Circle (ie taking the 20 east) have to merge into that one lane. I00 metres later drivers from Cote de Liesse join that road, and 200 metres after that there’s a fork with bad signage splitting the passenger-bound airport traffic from cargo traffic.
Quebec highway designers don’t seem to understand that forcing drivers to merge while on a bridge is a recipe for congestion, and they definitely don’t understand what a normal traffic volume is in Montreal.
DeWolf
@steph The problem isn’t highway congestion, it’s congestion at the terminal itself. Too many cars going to drop people off and pick them up.
Nicholas
The issue is not the circle, but that passenger numbers are up and the parking garage is under reconstruction (partially for the REM station, partially due to natural replacement). So people don’t park for 30 minutes, but instead go up the ramps to departures or arrivals, creating more traffic. (It’s a common metric that something like a third of traffic in downtowns is just people circling for parking.) I do think the REM will reduce the traffic a bit, probably reducing taxi travel and taking nearly all the 747 riders (the 747 will apparently only run overnight). It’ll also get some drivers from Brossard and nearby, who will bus to REM or park at Brossard, and a decent number in the TMR/VSL area. But I would guess most of the people driving are coming from areas that aren’t directly served by the REM, and won’t take luggage on a bus to metro to REM trip. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Mark
Yeah if you look at the configuration of the airport, there is only about 300-400 meters of road where cars can drop off people in front of the terminal. This is comparable to Halifax and Ottawa, which handles 2-3 million passengers a year, not 20+ million. Trudeau is still essentially configured in the same way as it was when it was built in the 40s. Terminal space, hotels, and parking have been added, but the approach and road around the airport is the same.
If you look at any airport that handles equivalent amount of traffic, there are usually several terminals with their own road access, and of course, train/bus/subway services that reach the terminal. Look at the approach roads of Zurich, Sydney, Paris-Orly (that handle similar numbers to YUL)….there all have rail connections of course, but notice that the road that interfaces with the terminal where passengers can be dropped off is very long, usually 1-2-3 kilometres, not 300 meters.
Entirely predictable outcome that will hopefully improve with the REM. I think they need to create a new drop off zone maybe with a shuttle bus that has right of way until transit gets sorted and the parking garage is finished.
Ephraim
Did someone forget to mention the new “ghost taxis” at the airport?
The ADM has made a number of mistakes. Mostly created by the “Law of Unexpected Consequences”. You change a pattern, you try to profit, but in the end you make everyone miserable.
Parking at the airport has become so expensive that more and more people are getting people to “drop them off” at the airport which has created a congestion of cars. It has also lost the Car2Go, which parked at the ParkNFly lots, which also meant they came in by bus. And with no special fast way to get from the 747 to the airport (like a special lane), it just means that people look at the 747 as a slower way in, rather than a way to save time and effort.
My suggestion, making going up to the departures for taxis, limos, buses and such (Uber, eva, etc) only. Move the Eva/Uber waiting area to the CellParc and convert P6 into a drop off zone where you get a bus to the terminal. With the bus stop being on Arthur Fecteau (where the bus stop for the 204 currently is) or you could keep it where it’s also set on Therese-Hallé. Either way, you stop traffic from going through to the departures except for by bus. And if you need to, set up transponders that open the gates as you approach, so that cars can’t even try it. (It may also clear up the ghost taxi problem, if they can’t get easily in/out of the arrivals/departures area.)
Conversely depending on traffic, you could also allow emergency drop offs at arrivals
Long term, I think that even the economy parking lots will likely need to go multi-level,
@Nicholas – The statistic is that 30% of traffic downtown at most times is people looking for parking.
Aineko Marcx
Would it be possible to figure out any feasible betterment to expedite the construction of REM’s YUL branch
and end this ordeal quicker? e.g. synergy to blow open blocks/red tapes/bottlenecks. After all, this twig is not crossing any rocky mountain or unsteady water.Tee Owe
As someone who regularly and recently used airports in Montreal Toronto Copenhagen and London I support Aineko Marcx that Montreal needs an airport train
Ian
We’ve known we need a direct train for decades, property rights and so forth have always been the stumbling block. I don’t understand why expropriation didn’t happen but I imagine brown envelopes played a role….
In any case like everything else in Montreal I think we would do well by creating a grift office whose job it is to figure out how any new legislation can be manipulated by operators-in-bad-faith. Then again, that would mean end to brown envelopes.
-
Kate
Monday morning, opposing groups in Park Extension held demonstrations pro and con the proposed bike lane on Querbes.
Orr
Mary Deros solidly pro-car and anti-bike path.
Some things never change.Ian
Is that better or worse than governing by fiat? Just because you agree with the results doesn’t make it representative of the public will.
Kate
The city can’t hold a referendum over every decision it makes. Is this governing by fiat?
Ian
No, but it can hold referendums ovr the obvioulsy controversial ones. As I’ve said before there’s more to governing and democratic particiaption than voting in elections and attending meetings where tehe official stakeholders have already made up their minds & circle their wagons at any sign of dissent.
There has been a lot of talk about voter disnfranchisment and the need for more particpatory democracy at the civic level to improve, well, civic-mindedness. If it’s just talk, then yeah, who cares.
Kate
Has that ever been so anywhere, Ian?
I mean, you can consult, but then you run into situations where the people you agree with are blocked by some intransigent NIMBY forces.
Ian
Then why talk about it if everyone cycnically believes it will never happen? No wonder voter turnout is so low.
In 2023 Montreal West residents had a referendum over a sports complex.
In 2022 Lachine held a referendum over condo construction.
In 2016 Outremont had a referendum over new religious buildings on Bernard.Referendums do happen.
After all, look what happened in 2021 when Tomlinson, the PM mayor of Outremont decided to introduce resident parking stickers by fiat. Is he even in politics anymore?
jeather 16:41 on 2023-09-19 Permalink
It took me a long time to figure out that map, why is east north?
Blork 16:44 on 2023-09-19 Permalink
@jeather, I think they wanted it to fit on a landscape-oriented page.
Bert 20:51 on 2023-09-19 Permalink
@jeather, did you not mean “why is north, east”? Bienvenue à Montréal. 😉
Orr 22:38 on 2023-09-19 Permalink
What is a Beneva?
dhomas 04:10 on 2023-09-20 Permalink
Beneva is the company that resulted from the merger of La Capitale and SSQ insurance companies. They ran some really weird radio ads earlier this year.
Sim 09:03 on 2023-09-20 Permalink
i live near Champ des possibles, I really can’t get out.
Kate 11:00 on 2023-09-20 Permalink
You can get out, just wait for a lull and walk across. They won’t stop a person simply wanting to cross the street if you’re not impeding people.
Orr 19:59 on 2023-09-20 Permalink
My best friend podiumed in his age group last year here. He’s hardcore!
Always fun to go out and cheer on the slower runners doing their once-in-a-lifetime marathon, especially late in the race.