Soraya Martinez Ferrada has promised more street food and Luc Rabouin more sponge parks to cope with downpours, and more help for residents facing flood damage.
Updates from September, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Blue collar workers have voted 98% in favour of pressure tactics, up to and including a general strike.
Chris
That’s even better than Putin’s last election result. Fewer people think the earth is round even.
How do unions count their votes? Do they have representatives from different factions, or even management, to observe counting?
Nicholas
The Air Canada flight attendants, who voted down the proposed contract yesterday, voted electronically using Simply Voting, which is a Montreal company that has been doing this for various organizations for years. When you have workers spread out everywhere, that’s the only way to do it. Elsewhere sometimes votes are done by hand, sometimes by paper ballot, etc. I don’t know if there are specific secrecy requirements for strike votes, but I’ve seen hand votes for things like “Do we reduce how much our health plan covers to reduce the premium?”
Tim S.
It’s also worthwhile to point out that the initial vote, for pressure tactics, is usually the easiest to gain approval for. If you vote no, you’re basically voting to say, “I agree to not try to improve my salary,” which very few people would do, no matter the circumstances.
And being backed by CUPE and FTQ puts them in a very different place than the FAE a couple of years ago, which would give them more confidence to vote for the unlimited strike. If I were a member, I would still hope for some kind of consultation before that stage, mind you.
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Kate
A comedian and writer I’d never heard of writes a slightly hysterical and giggly review of several of the city’s restaurants.
The 15th annual Dîner en blanc was held Friday evening on Place d’Armes.
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Kate
TVA says that negotiations have broken down between the blue‑collar union and the city, making a strike more likely. The union is voting Saturday.
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Kate
Ken Dryden, the goalie who powered the Canadiens to five Stanley Cups in the 1970s – and was in the historic team in the Russia‑Canada Summit series in 1972 – has died. He was 78. After his stellar career on the ice he also helped run the Toronto Maple Leafs and was later an MP for seven years.
Another bit of goalie news is all over, Saturday morning: the Canadiens have traded Carey Price to the Sharks. Some analysis from Radio‑Canada.
I am told I should not refer to the opponent in 1972 as “Russia” but as “the USSR”. Noted.
Major Annoyance
Another notable Montrealer passed away about a month back. Like Mr. Dryden, McGill’s Dr. Maurice McGregor was all class and exceptionally accomplished.
jeather 08:40 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
Not that I don’t want street food, but as campaign promises go that’s weak sauce.
Ian 11:49 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
¿por qué no los dos?
DeWolf 11:51 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
It’s telling that even among the boroughs that allow food trucks, it’s not worth it for them to operate on the street. They pretty much exclusively operate at events and in the Old Port. Multiplying the number of locations where they can park won’t do anything when the entire game is rigged to favour established restaurateurs with a lot of capital. For street food to actually thrive in Montreal, there needs to be a fundamental overhaul of regulations that allows small entrepreneurs to open food stalls or food trucks without too much cost.
Nicholas 12:47 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
I saw someone say street food was part of Toronto or New York culture, not Montreal’s, and I thought, ok, but it could be ours. I would love if those trucks weren’t so loud, and one day they will be all electric. But DeWolf is right, we need a full overhaul to get real street food culture, and it’s not just trucks, but stalls, but tiny 100 SF restaurants where you stand on the sidewalk or sit at one of four stools. More variety, smaller capital to get started. I don’t have any hope for that.
jeather 14:02 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
Are these municipal or provincial restrictions? I assume municipal but I am not sure
DeWolf 18:05 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
Pretty sure they’re municipal. Rooted in a very deeply engrained Drapeau-era suspicion of street food, compounded by mediocre-but-influential restaurant industry players who are terrified they can’t compete with somebody selling food on the street.
Ian 19:10 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
Precisely. Like farmer’s markets and newspaper stands, Drapeau thought them insufficiently modern and banned them.
Kate 19:38 on 2025-09-07 Permalink
What street food has to balance out against, though, is food sanitation. Food carts and stalls may be picturesque and charming but they can’t be excused meeting MAPAQ standards.
This is a bit like the desire to limit packaging on food but still keep things fresh and sanitary and, in some cases, crisp and free of pests. You can’t always have both.
DeWolf 01:19 on 2025-09-08 Permalink
Right, but plastic packaging makes food rot faster and is therefore less hygienic. A lot of the idea that food in open air is somehow dirty has to do with the influence of the postwar plastics industry.
With food trucks there are basically no food safety concerns that are any different than with restaurants. Even little tents on the street can have proper refrigeration, water reservoirs etc.
Joey 12:45 on 2025-09-08 Permalink
@Kate how many other cities need to roll out food carts that don’t cause epidemics of gastro before Montreal can adopt something bigger than a lemonade stand but smaller than a giant truck affiliated with a chain of local restaurants selling food that’s hard to eat while walking for $28? Like, we should be able to handle hot dog carts.
Ian 10:37 on 2025-09-10 Permalink
Even boring old Ottawa manages it. Chip trucks should totally be allowed at the very least, it’s basically a rolling casse-croute.