Governor General Mary Simon dissolved Parliament Sunday afternoon at Mark Carney’s request, starting an election campaign that will culminate on April 28.
Carney plans to run for an Ottawa seat. It will be interesting to see who runs in Papineau to replace Justin Trudeau.
A study presented in January claims that pedestrianizing Ste‑Catherine Street would cause traffic congestion in adjoining streets. Interestingly, in this piece, Luc Rabouin is quoted saying the city could have paid better attention to the desires of merchants in the area – an indication that his Projet won’t be Plante’s Projet.
The SPVM is also not keen, TVA also spinning this as the Plante administration keeping this report quiet. Among other things, the cops think Station 20 will be boxed in by the pedestrian sections.
Yes, I suppose reading studies about Madrid is more relevant than asking locals that know the neighbourhhod what they think.
/s
Ian, don’t be snide. People drive through the city – they don’t stop unless they have a specific destination. Pedestrians amble along, look in store windows, and follow their whims. Drivers can’t have whims, they need to keep moving.
Anyway, if it isn’t pedestrianization, store owners will complain about lack of parking or something else. Journalists make the most of that kind of kvetching to get a story.
Ste-Catherine still has a captive pedestrian audience of students, office workers, tourists, all of whom will enjoy the pedestrianization and not be in a car.
LOL as if you could increase congestion even more anywhere in this city. I note, in passing, that the early research on New York’s congestion pricing is incredible – by just about every measure, things are considerably better in Manhattan’s congestion zone: traffic has improved, transit ridership is up, there’s less honking, etc. Drivers are, after all, human beings with the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. We tried car-centric downtown for decades. Nobody liked it. We can try something else.
@Joey, I was just in NYC the other day and now that you mention it, there was considerably less honking than there normally is in Manhattan. Still lots, but less.
Silly me, clearly Montreal is so unlike every other city that finds limiting cars improves lifestyles that we can only make decisions by asking merchants and cops what they feel will happen.
I did say /s. Should I have said lol? Maybe included a winky?
Let’s go see what the good folks on the streets of Ulan Bator have to say about it, haha
Much like St Hubert, anyone trying to drive downtown is living in a fool’s paradis. Even just driving there sucks, I don’t know why everyone is so eager to preserve it. We’re never going back to the late 80s cruising up and down St Kitty on a Saturday night. Even then it was more fun to spend Saturday night clubhopping, cars were for hicks.
We can always use more winkies.
Cabane Panache, the first street festival of the season, photographed by La Presse, is on through Sunday. On the one hand, maple syrup; on the other, country music.
It’s…. interesting… that Bernard Adamus is one of the musicians involved. Maybe since he apologized for the sexual assaults, it’s okay now?
St-Henri had one in February, but not nearly as successful based on the crowds I saw.
They described it as country at the top, but when you look at the individual acts, it sounds like calling it the Jazz Fest. Saturday had a lot of country, but I think there are more folk/trad bands there than country. Might depend on how you count bluegrass.
Money from Ottawa is coming to save thirteen community organizations evicted by the CSSDM from a school building in Ahuntsic. (Unless Quebec stops it.)
Interesting how this should be the primary responsibility of the provincial government, yet somehow the feds are not only giving them money to save educational programs that help adults learn the official language of Quebec, they are also pouring money to improve our public transit infrastructure (the blue line extension etc).
I’m glad the feds are stepping in to offset the CSSDM’s negligence, but doesn’t this just enable the CAQ’s ideology and incompetency? It’s too bad the feds don’t have any say about how the QC govt is impinging on the constitutional rights of people they are prejudiced towards.
The federal government has been tiptoeing around Quebec’s weaponization of the notwithstanding clause for a long time, but a new administration might change that policy. The impending Supreme Court ruling on Quebec’s first secularity law, still commonly referred to as Bill 21, might also shake that apple cart. Add to this the way Quebec’s anti‑ROC sentiment has been undermined by Trump, and you have an interesting multi‑axial situation going on between Quebec and Ottawa.
>…somehow the feds are not only giving them money…
Almost like there’s an election coming.
Yep, suddenly starting to notice a lot of pork barrels rolling out…
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. If the CAQ could spend it on shoring up the French language they would, and the city would put it toward the cop budget.
@Kate, the federal government intends to intervene in the forthcoming Supreme Court case over Bill 21, which is slated for this fall.
Thanks for the clarification, Joey.
CE 14:51 on 2025-03-23 Permalink
The Liberals are going to run Marjorie Michel in Papineau. https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/article828485.html
Sorry for the Gazette link but they seem to be the only ones reporting on this.
H. John 15:40 on 2025-03-23 Permalink
Green co-leader, Jonathan Pedneault, will be running in Outremont this time. He ran in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Westmount in the 2023 by-election (where he placed 4th).
Once Elections Canada has finished their website maintenance, it’s a good idea to confirm your riding. New riding maps come into effect for this election.
Kate 16:16 on 2025-03-23 Permalink
Thank you, CE. Here’s a link to an archived version of that Gazette piece.
Good advice, H. John.
Ian 22:56 on 2025-03-23 Permalink
H John, are the federal Greens still self-described “fiscal conservatives” or have they truly evolved into a leftist party like some of their provincial offshoots?
CE 23:48 on 2025-03-23 Permalink
I’ve wondered the same thing Ian. That was how they sort of differentiated themselves from the NDP and is pretty common for Green parties around the world. It’s really only in the US where the (federal) Greens have a pretty leftist platform.
Chris 09:17 on 2025-03-24 Permalink
The Canadian federal Greens went very left many years ago. Just take a look at: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/our-plan
• tax the ultrarich
• tax big companies
• gender-affirming health care
• laws against hate speech
• Indigenous sovereignty
• large investment in public housing
• etc etc
I’d bet real money only May will get elected. At best.
Ian 17:48 on 2025-03-24 Permalink
Good to know – thanks for that, Chris.
Tim S. 21:13 on 2025-03-24 Permalink
Mike Morrice in Kitchener seems like a good guy, it would be nice for him to hold on.
jeather 11:24 on 2025-03-25 Permalink
I decided to do the Vote Compass thing to see how I matched up to NDP/Green and TIL I am in a new riding (in fact the riding office for my riding is no longer in my riding), did we know they redrew them?
Kate 18:28 on 2025-03-25 Permalink
jeather, H. John mentioned that there’s been riding changes, upthread.
Are you thinking of doing election day work this time out? I’ve emailed Elections Canada to apply, but haven’t completely decided yet.
jeather 09:27 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
I missed that! But I found this useful map of the redistricting if anyone is curious. None seem all that bizarre except that a lot of St Henri is now in NDG Westmount.
I don’t think I want to do it this time, no.
Joey 10:53 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
@jeather before it was NDG Westmount it was Westmount St-Henri
CE 10:56 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
Thanks for this map. I was really confused yesterday when I was seeing signs for candidates in the Outremont riding pretty deep into Laurier-Sainte-Marie territory.
jeather 11:28 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
Sure, but they didn’t rename them this time. I don’t know the rules about renaming, granted.
CE 11:45 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
I don’t think any new ridings were added to Quebec so no new names would be needed. In Montreal, most of the redistribution was moving borders a few blocks one way or another but the cores of the ridings stay the same.
GC 15:57 on 2025-03-26 Permalink
Thanks for that link, jeather. Interesting.