I’m never sure whether to consider these lists as news – lists of best cities, best universities, or – this week – most legendary world restaurants. Three Montreal establishments made this list: Au Pied de Cochon, Schwartz’s… and La Banquise. Two weeks ago, another list named four others as the best in town.
Updates from December, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
CBC considers the three Projet members with an eye on the top spot in the party.
Meantime Le Devoir says Anjou mayor Luis Miranda is considering a run at the city mayoralty with his own party, currently called Équipe Anjou. Miranda made news in 2022 for castigating a teenager who asked a civil question at a borough council session. Miranda’s been mayor of Anjou for 27 years.
DeWolf
Paraphrasing Luis Miranda:
“I love bike paths, just not the ones we have. They should be invisible, like all the bike paths we’ve had for 40 years in Anjou.”
“The Plante administration spends too much money, I will freeze the budget as soon as I get into office, but I also want to provide housing and social support to every homeless person. Also, I want to spend millions of dollars setting up a vehicle registration system for bicycles.”
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Kate
The Queen Elizabeth Hotel is closing over the Christmas break, announcing that the ongoing labour issues keep them from offering a satisfactory level of service.
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Kate
It’s being reported all over that Quebec has made a new deal with Newfoundland and Labrador over the cost of Churchill Falls power, and while headlines emphasize that Quebec will now be paying thirty times the previous rate for
NewfieLabrador power, nobody has yet ventured to estimate what this will mean on our hydro bills.It’s also not been made clear what leverage Newfoundland used to make Quebec abandon a deal that was clearly good till 2041 to get that power for 0.2 cents per kWh, and agree to adjust it to 5.9 cents. Here’s the
NewfieNewfoundland version of the story.H. John
I thought Michael Sabia did a good job explaining what we know, and what we don’t about the future, when he spent more than 30 minutes with Patrice Roy on Radio-Canada.
Roy (and team) again did a thought provoking review of the issue.
Nicholas
The leverage is the deal will last for 50 years, so rather than 0.2 cents for 16 years and then market rate of ?? for 34, it’s a smooth 5.9 cents for 50. Also NL was considering building a link through to Cape Breton and then the rest of the Maritimes, plus New England, which would cost a lot, but then they had another way through to the US and Quebec might get little or nothing. Also Quebec is going to build the third dam, Gull Island, and shoulder the entire financial risk, and then guaranteed power from it, most of the total, at a fixed rate. NL Hydro has a cash crunch, and their most recent project has had some overruns, so they’re happy to not have as much risk and get something from it. It seems both sides get something out of it, and it’s hard to know who “won”, but hopefully both did.
Kate
Thank you both.
DeWolf
As Nicholas said – for Quebec, the short term increase in cost will pay for long-term stability and a new source of affordable power. In exchange, Newfoundland gets a windfall that will vastly increase its provincial budget and both provinces get to end a decades-long conflict.
Warren
I don’t love your use of “Newfie”, as it would be seen as a bit insulting to Newfoundlanders.
Kate
You are, of course, free not to love it.Editing to add my deepest apologies for the slur.
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Kate
Longueuil’s reduction of the deer herd in Michel‑Chartrand park has been completed, and the town will add new trees and shrubbery next year.
Blork
It will be weird to walk in the park and not see dozens of deer, but really that’s just bringing things back to normal. (It used to be there was maybe a 10% chance of seeing a deer on a walk through the woods; in the last few years changed to about 98%.)
The replanting has already begun. Hundreds of trees have been planted along the pathways over the past month. It’s good to know that many more will be too. There are entire sections that are essentially dead zones because they were ash groves and now they’re just standing deadwood zones (some have been cleared but many not). Some of the deeper paths have been closed for more than a year, apparently because of the risk of falling dead trees, which I think is a bit much. Loads of people just walk around the barriers and go there anyway.
Orr
On a windy day tho it would be good idea not to go into a dead forest. Don’t ask me how I learned this.
Ian
Noted, sounds like good advice & I won’t ask.
In the end, did we hear what was done with the deer? I know there was talk of the meat being sent off to food banks but it would have to be inspected first & all that so I wondered.
Kate
Toward the bottom of the Radio-Canada piece it says, “Comme lors de la première opération d’abattage, en octobre dernier, la viande de gibier a été donnée à Moisson Rive-Sud afin qu’il la distribue à des gens dans le besoin. La première phase avait permis d’offrir 12 850 portions de viande à l’organisme.”
Ian
Ah, i missed that. Thank you.
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Kate
The painter John Little died in October at 96. Radio‑Canada looks back at his œuvre, which is all about urban views of this city.
Ian
Weird that they reported on it only now, CBC reported on it back on Hallowe’en.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/john-little-painter-1.7369309Kate
It sounds like the current story was sparked by his gallery representative, since some Little paintings are on show there this week.
Ian
Fair enough. The Klinhoff gallery is a great spot to see the kind of Quebec art you don’t always see in the museums.
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Kate
Montreal and Quebec City have the lowest homicide rates among cities and towns in Canada, although this piece goes on to balance the story by reminding us that there are a lot of illegal firearms in circulation, and plenty of vehicle thefts and assaults. The Gazette says the metropolitan area saw a drop from 66 to 54 homicides from 2022 to 2023.
I’d like to see a comparison of arson in Montreal vs other Canadian cities.
rob
Legalizing abortion, thus reducing unwanted children and reducing poverty are the top contributors to lowering crime.
Ephraim
Correct, the statistical correlation is with apprehension and not punishment… even though the Conservatives keep on pushing punishment. (So, does putting your child in time-out deter them, or the fact that you catch them deter them?)
JaneyB
The Conservatives keep pushing punishment mostly because, in the Prairie provinces, the fallout from decades of residential schools is extensive. Quebec didn’t have many residential schools (relatively). Homicide rates out there are high, as are addictions, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder etc. Young offenders in particular, are a huge problem (and the population is younger) – the reverse of Quebec. This is one of those cultural gaps between the West and the East that translates into big policy differences.
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Kate
A group of women has been going to borough council meetings to give positive feedback to councils, in an attempt to counteract the anger and nastiness that politicians frequently encounter.
walkerp
Very cool. I applaud them.
David
I spent 1 hour in a taxi trying to get out of downtown tonight because everything including the ville Marie tunnel is closed. I took the train into the city and had to take a cab back to the “dreaded” West Island because there are no public transit options after 9:30. This city is a joke. Fuck Val plate. Fuck transports Quebec. Language is a foolish way to decide who matters in a society – clearly.
CE
I always find it funny when West Islanders complain about the city. They had the option to have a say in its governance and gave it all up to keep their little fiefdoms.
DeWolf
“There are no public transit options after 9:30”
The 470 Pierrefonds Express runs from Côte-Vertu metro until 1:30am. The 211 Lakeshore runs from Lionel-Groulx until 1:20am.
Even in the middle of the night, there are three night bus lines running from downtown to the West Island.
dhomas
Also, Val Plante (or any other mayor) doesn’t dictate what transit options are available to the West Island. All transit is managed at the Provincial level. There were a number of non Val Plante mayors before, and none of them addressed transit to the West Island. When the REM’s Western expansion is completed next year (if it maintains that schedule), will you give credit to Val Plante, David?
Nicholas
I will give credit that Exo trains are run laughably badly, but that’s not the city’s fault. Exo is a regional body, but the key is the trains run on freight tracks, and those are federal responsibilities. So there is no leverage, and the feds don’t care. I’ve been told that basically no one who matters, even the train operators, cares about the trains.
But as others have exemplified, the West Island actually has some of the best suburban public transport anywhere in North America. Open up your favourite transit app (Google Maps, Transit, Chrono, Citymapper) and you’ll get options all evening or night long, including express service to Dorval 24/7. I guarantee they’re much better than most places 20-30 km from downtown in Montreal, but also most places on this continent. You just have to be willing to ride a bus.
Orr
REM opens next year and all your problems will be solved.
We’ll be expecting a note from you about how good life is again with the combination of ville de Montreal downtown attractions while being able to go home at the end of the day back to the good life in one of the west-island’s suburban low-tax-fiscal paradise fiefdoms.Uatu
Getting back to the West Island will be easier. Getting home from the REM station outside of rush hour is another story. You can direct your displeasure to your local transport at that point.
Ian
LOL no. I can tell how few of you visit the West Island. Rant incoming.
Considering the Ste Anne stop for the REM is north of the 40 and not even as far west as the Ecomuseum, it won’t be helping anyone out that way. After Sources most people still live south of the 20 (where the EXO train goes), like Pointe Claire, or so far north of the 40 the REM won’t help them, like Pierrefonds. The STM says there’s going to be a 20 minute shuttle bus to get into Ste Anne proper even during school hours – but realistically probably longer, becasue it;’s always longer. For all of you lauding the 211 I’d like to point out that as it’s considered a student route the buses are very poorly maintained – often windows don’t fully open or close and the doors don’t properly seal, so cold and wet or stiflingly hot depending on the time of year – and I suspect it’s considered a punishment route as the drivers are invariably unsympathetic and miserable. It’s also worth noting that unless you get on at Lionel Groux there’s a good chance you won’t get a seat, and even then you might have to stand the full hour ride if you’re unlucky.
I have taught night classes in Ste Anne, and left John Abbott College at 10:30. I would get back home in the Plateau no earlier than 12:30. When the VM construction was going on, it once took me 3.5 hours to get home after a class that ended at 2:30. All this to say, even at the best of times unless you are travelling at rush hour toward downtown in the morning and toward the west island in the evening, the schedule is not serving you, nor is it meant to.
Unlike David I certainly don’t blame Plante for the vomit comet (the local nickname for the 211) but pretending that whether or not all of the West Island stayed amalgamated would have any affect on the REM or the STM is silly. Besides, I thought we were supposed to be encouraging on-island exurb types to leave their cars at home to reduce congestion in the city proper. I never owned a car until I started working in the West island, in part becaseu only getting home at midnight when you have to get up at 5:30 to take public transit back outo the West Island to teach an 8:30 class is, frankly, utter bullshit. Not to mention that even on the very best day I would spend 3 hours on the metro and various buses for what takes me on average half that tiem to drive, even during rush hour.
I would happily ditch my car forever if we had reliable, comfortable, regular public transit. It’s expensive, it’s annoying, and at its core insulting that I should need one in a grown-ass city. Ridiculing people that aren’t healthy, childless, or lucky enough to live close enough to everything to be able to bike or walk is, frankly, stupid – and totally unhelpful whether you want to improve accessibility, save the environment, reduce pollution, increase community, or whatever progressive urbanist flavours you like.
/rant
DeWolf
It’s a tall order to provide high-quality, frequent transit to low-density suburbia that is 30km away from the city centre.
Even if and when Pointe-Claire and Dorval densify, Ste-Anne will be another story entirely. It’s a village of 5,000 people 31km away from downtown. That’s the same distance as St-Jean-sur-Richelieu which has only recently been considered part of Greater Montreal.
Ian
5000 residents in the actual town of Ste Anne alone, and almost that number of people going to McGill, John Abbott, and McDonald College as well as the hospital and all the other businesses in the area. We don’t measure transport by how many people live there, but by how many it serves. That’s about another 10k cars on the road that won’t be replaced by public transit since by your reckoning they don’t matter – just in Ste Anne alone. I guess they can go screw themselves for having the audacity to be half an hour away from downtown (via the 20, depending on time of day). Don’t forget to apply the same math to the east end, too – but without the schools I suppose. Throw in the south shore and north shore too, just for kicks. But of course they don’t matter either. Anything more than, let’s say 10 km in any direction from Lionel-Groulx is nowhereseville, so they can go suck eggs.
This points to the kind of elitism I often mention. Do you or the others posting here imagine people west of Dorval or east of HoMa should all just stay where they are? Not everyone gets to live, work, and go to school downtown. In fact some of us even live downtown and go off to these distant fiefdoms, and let’s be real, we all know the REM is unreliable and meant to create development opportunities, not provide transit solutions to existing populations – and actually makes other existing transit options worse as lines are cancelled.
THAT is a fiefdom mentality.
DeWolf
“We all know the REM is unreliable” except it’s actually more reliable than the metro and a hell of a lot more reliable than the bus or commuter trains. And you’ll have a station that is 10 minutes by bus or bike from the heart of Ste-Anne. It’s not as good as having a station fully within the town centre, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the status quo. But if you want to write off the REM as useless when most of it isn’t even open yet, go ahead.
“I guess they can go screw themselves for having the audacity to be half an hour away from downtown”
Why are your replies always so histrionic?
Ian
Nice ad hominem. 10 minutes by bus or bike, sure, but the proposed shuttle is already supposed to be 20 … just because something is a 10 minute drive sdoesn’t make it a ten minute bus ride, much like the 1 hour ride from LG. The REM really is unreliable – as you may recall certain posters here from the south shore have considered going back to driving, and as we know, the bus routes that used to exist straight into town were cancelled.
Why are YOU always such an apologist? You’re the one who said these people that live out in the sticks don’t merit high-quality, frequent transit transit service, not me.
FWIW I did the math and nearly a quarter of the population of the Island of Montreal’s population lives more than 10k from Lionel-Groulx – in fact, even parts of Ahuntsic.
3764 Baie d’urfe
19277 Beaconsfield
48403 DDO
19413 Kirkland
4394 Montreal-est
33488 Pointe Claire
5027 Ste Anne de Bellevue
951 Senneville
73194 Pierrefonds
85857 Montreal-nord
45288 Anjou
80983 St Leonard
19857 Île Bizard
14626 Mercier=451432 total
Of 2004265 (Island of Montreal)
=22.5%
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Kate
A driver crashed his vehicle into the Thaïlande restaurant on the weekend and the building was damaged, but CTV’s headline on this story may be misleading: Restaurant forced to close after driver crashes into building. But the closure’s not permanent, as the story goes on to make clear, although they will miss out on the bump of holiday season revellers while repairs are done.
Meezly
People who DUI are so deplorable and selfish. We’ll definitely visit restaurant Thaïlande when they reopen.
Nicholas
I hope the restaurant and the employees sue the driver (and their insurance) for compensation. The car looked salvageable, so hopefully it can be sold to satisfy the judgement, and the driver, once he’s out of jail (lol) can take the 55 (or the 363).
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Kate
Luc Rabouin has formally announced that he’s joined the race to head Projet.
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