Updates from December, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 19:39 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

    Lachine borough mayor Maja Vodanovic has joined the race to become head of Projet Montréal.

     
    • DeWolf 19:49 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

      Fantastic. The more (quality candidates) the better. We need municipal politics to be a real competition.

  • Kate 19:37 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

    Pre-trial dates in the murder of Romane Bonnier, killed in 2021 in the McGill ghetto, is scheduled for February despite the stalling of the defendant, who still doesn’t have a lawyer.

     
    • Kate 19:31 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

      Mayor Plante called out François Legault Monday over the death of an unhoused man sleeping rough on Place Valois on the weekend. “Nous, Montréalais, souhaitons que François Legault se montre aussi intéressé par les gens qui dorment dans la rue que par les gens qui prient dans la rue.” Zing.

       
      • Dominic 20:27 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        She has no more elections left to win, glad to see her speaking her mind.

      • carswell 20:42 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Plante is apparently not intending to run as a CAQ MNA candidate in the next provincial election.

      • Ian 21:25 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        It’s also a very unserious way to continue the “my hands are tied” routine, shunting everything the municipality could do at all to the fact that the province doesn’t enable absolutely everything. Plante is getting in some good jabs but the municipal government is patting themselves on the back for good intentions and blaming the province for everything else as usual.

    • Kate 16:37 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

      The city is buying up buildings adding up to 700 residential units for affordable housing in Côte‑des‑Neiges. The photo with this story is a different vintage from the buildings in question, which CBC radio says are along Goyer.

       
      • DeWolf 19:52 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Great news, but there needs to be more investment in the OMHM to make sure these apartments don’t end up like the many public housing units that are currently uninhabitable.

    • Kate 11:08 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

      Chrystia Freeland has just quit her cabinet posts as minister of finance and deputy prime minister – announced in a post to X, just as the federal fall economic statement is about to drop.

       
      • Chris 15:50 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Good for her! Hopefully this will bring down Trudeau finally.

      • Ian 16:11 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Yikes Chris, are you a PP supporter? Because that’s who’s goin to get in if Trudeau doesn’t. If he had stepped down in say, the summer, they might be back on their feet by now, but after this budget? Nope.

      • Kate 16:38 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Chris might enjoy having an idiot at the helm.

      • Chris 17:08 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        >Yikes Chris, are you a PP supporter?

        Hell no. (I appreciate that you put this in the form of a question, instead of assuming.) There is still 10 months until an election, an eternity in politics. The Liberals still have time to choose another leader, though they should have done so earlier, I agree. If they stick with Trudeau, I agree they will certainly lose.

        >Chris might enjoy having an idiot at the helm.

        How friendly of you to say. /s If I say I’m offended, will I get a groveling apology too? This kind of demeaning, dismissing, attitude against people you disagree with is exactly why we will end up with PP as PM. Did you learn nothing from the elections in the US? Keep belittling, keep alienating more of your countrymen, keep crying wolf that PP is the boogeyman, and see the backlash you’ll get. Many Liberals, even in their caucus, even in their cabinet, want Trudeau gone. God forbid I agree with them. Clearly the only possible reason why is that I’d prefer an idiot, because I’m an idiot too, right?

      • Kate 18:10 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        Actually, I thought you might enjoy shooting down PP’s expressed views and ideas, Chris.

        You certainly enjoy having an idiot at the helm of this blog.

      • dhomas 18:30 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        At this point, I think the best option for Trudeau is to go down with the ship. The Liberals will likely lose no matter what. Trudeau losing the election gives the next Liberal leader a chance at a fresh start without a big ‘L’ out the gate.

      • Blork 18:40 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        I think Kamala Harris is looking for work…

      • Kevin 19:50 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

        The only thing I know when it comes to politics is that no matter how bad it is, the conservatives make it worse for the people at the bottom.

      • anton 04:16 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        Here’s an idea: unscuttle electoral reform, and the conservatives won’t have absolute power.

      • Ian 11:57 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        At this point it would definitely be perceived negatively but could do us lasting good – provided the Conservatives didn’t simply repeal it. Then again without a clear majority in the house, maybe they couldn’t…
        It would certainly help the NDP, BQ, and maybe even the Greens.

      • CE 12:22 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        Polievre will likely win a majority with 35-40% of the popular vote. The Liberals had a mandate to change the electoral system in such a way that the percentage of the vote would be reflected in the seat count. After this election, he will not only have blatantly lied to Canadians about fixing (or at least improving) our elections, he will have handed the country over to the most unpleasant politician I’ve seen in my lifetime.

        I’ve never voted for Trudeau but I still can’t help but to feel some sadness that a government which started out with so much promise for making the country better place is going to be brought down so ignominiously. At least weed is legal I guess.

      • nau 17:17 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        On current polling (via the 338 website), a proportional system would help the Liberals and NDP and also the Greens if they could get above whatever minimum % threshold was used. It would absolutely not help the Bloc, whose seats it could cut almost in half. Even though prop. rep would help the Liberals right now, they’ll never do it because they’d rather the Cons win a majority under a system the Liberals expect will put them back in power in another election or two.

        I can’t say that I ever thought the Liberal government had any promise. Their standard OP has always been talking progressive during election campaigns, then governing as the slightly more generous to voters wing of the Lib/Con business-first double team. Legalizing pot was a perfect issue for them. They created a new product category from which business could extract profit and the govt. could extract tax revenue. At least it removed a source of pointless criminalization of otherwise more or less law-abiding people.

      • thomas 17:33 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        Just want to point out that the Liberals never promised electoral reform based on proportional representation. Rather, they favoured and proposed a ranked ballot system which no other party supported.

      • CE 17:55 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        Trudeau said after winning his first election as Liberal leader that the election would be the last to use FPTP. The next election used FPTP and the next one will. He lied and I’ve felt stupid ever since for believing him.

      • Ian 21:27 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

        Campaign left and govern right has been the Liberal leitmotif for generations.

      • Joey 11:23 on 2024-12-18 Permalink

        @Thomas IIRC, Trudeau didn’t specify what would replace FPTP during the campaign, and had his democratic institutions or whatever minister (Monsef) abandon the effort when it became clear that nobody else but JT wanted a ranked ballot system – I think most Canadians, as is the case in this thread, assumed it would be some straight-up proportional representation system, presumably with party lists to determine who gets the ‘unelected but selected by proportional rep’ seats… I am increasingly sympathetic to the notion that breaking this promise was a bit of a point of no return for JT when it came to keeping his electoral commitments – and paved the way for things like the SNC Lavalin scandal, the WE charity mess (more Morneau than JT, no), etc.

      • Tim S. 12:32 on 2024-12-18 Permalink

        The abandonment of electoral reform also tracks with the point pundits have been making that JT seems to have no concept of a future in which he is not in power – not even minimal prep for a future Liberal-leadership contest, never mind actually getting some of his policies implemented instead of perpetually kicking them off to the future. This will matter in the coming weeks.

    • Kate 09:30 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

      The Canada Industrial Relations Board has ordered postal workers back to the job, so they’re meant to resume work Tuesday.

       
      • Kate 09:10 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

        A record number of unhoused people have been ushered out of the metro system at closing time over the last week, some brought to shelters but others left to fend for themselves.

         
        • Kate 09:08 on 2024-12-16 Permalink | Reply  

          Some residents of St‑Michel have been in the dark all weekend after a Hydro‑Quebec equipment failure, and probably won’t have power till midday Monday.

          …Almost 7 pm Monday and the same areas by Pie‑IX in St‑Michel are still shown as out on the Infopannes map.

          …9 am Tuesday, ditto. Generators have been brought in (and the milder weather has to be a plus).

           
          • Ian 09:40 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            This right here is why I’m still salty about the fireplace ban in my borough. When our power goes out, I can smell the woodsmoke from the next boroiugh over while we shiver in the dark.

          • Kate 10:07 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            Do you have a fireplace, Ian?

            Looking on the Hydro outages map, the dwellings in the St‑Michel locations – streets off Pie‑IX, just east of the Francon quarry – aren’t from an era of constructions with fireplaces.

            Also, isn’t the fireplace ban citywide, except that Outremont dwellers know they can get away with it?

          • Joey 12:20 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            You can also get gas fireplaces…

          • Kate 13:10 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            True, but Ian mentioned woodsmoke…

          • Bert 14:26 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            “However, you are allowed to use your stove or fireplace, whether or not it is certified, if there is a power outage in your building lasting more than three hours.”

            From https://montreal.ca/en/topics/solid-fuel-burning-stoves-and-fireplaces

          • Joey 14:27 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            Yes, but the idea was to have a redundant heat source that isn’t reliant on hydroelectricity. The ban of wood fireplaces is a lot less consequential given that you can install a gas fireplace. You don’t need a big chimney or anything – the chimney can vent outside directly through the brick.

          • Kate 14:57 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            Do gas fireplaces not rely on an electric starter or some kind of electrically powered fuel distributor?

          • Mark 16:01 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            Gas fireplaces have an electric starter but most have the ability to be lit using batteries (2 D batteries in my case), which allows us to light it during an outage.

          • Ian 16:06 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            We do have a fireplace but my landlord sealed the chimney when the law came into effect. As a renter, I am also not at liberty to install a gas fireplace – although we do have a gas waater heater “just in case”.

          • Joey 18:01 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            Yeah, it’s common for them to function on a thermostat (so clicking on and off like any other kind of heater, e.g., baseboards) that has a couple of small batteries in it to send the ignite signal.

            Out of curiosity, where does the steam from the gas water heater go, if not out a chimney?

          • Ian 18:14 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            It has its own vent, since the chimney used to be functional. I guess once the non-renewable sources ban comes into effect we’ll be switched entirely to hydro.

          • Bert 20:11 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            A gas fireplace can either be started by a sparker, which will probably also require electricity to open a gas valve. They can also be run off a pilot light. The pilot light heats a thin supply tube that shrinks closed if the pilot goes out. In other words if the pilot goes out the gas supply to the pilot eventually is cut. My old water heater had such a pilot system and it would run just fine through power outages. Gas stoves and ovens also used to run with a pilot system.

            With a gas water heater there are two basic setups, a direct vent or a forced vent. Much as the name implies the gas fumes are directly vented, no forced air is required, no forced air venting system is required. On the other side is the forced air setup, there is an electric vent motor required and without a functioning vent motor the sparker doesn’t spark. Both used a double-walled chimney setup, with (I can only guess) the hot exhaust gas running in the center cavity and the fresh air in the outer cavity, thus acting as both a heat exchanger and insulation layer. The difference between a direct vent and a forced vent all comes down to how long and how many bends the chimney has.

            The decision to condemn a fireplace chimney could also come down to an insurance issue, i.e. getting it off a policy.

          • CE 20:35 on 2024-12-16 Permalink

            I closed off the old chimney in my building because it was causing draughts in the apartments in the winter.

          • Ian 11:59 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

            Yeah, fair enough. Ours just capped the outdoor chimney and put in insulated panels in each of the fireplaces. Seems effective in terms of heat retention. You don’t want raccoons, squirrels & birds (and maybe opossums now) nesting in there either.

          • Joey 14:36 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

            Also if you don’t cap an unused chimney, you will inevitably have brick problems as humidity accumulates and causes bulges, etc.

          • Ian 21:29 on 2024-12-17 Permalink

            All good points. Still, it sucks that we lost fireplaces & Christmas bonfires because there were some air monitoring devices too close to pizza ovens.

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