Temporary shelters extended
Winter shelters that were put up for the homeless have been extended till June, but some are choosing to rebuild tent cities like we saw last summer. CBC asks here why people would do this, but knowing that Covid is mostly transmitted indoors in poorly ventilated places might make anyone choose to sleep outside when it becomes possible again.
In this item it’s noted that Denis Coderre “toured” a tent city and carped at Plante for not doing enough for the homeless. He’s evidently decided to act like the mayor in waiting.
Bill Binns 11:01 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
“He’s evidently decided to act like the mayor in waiting.”
It worked the first time didn’t it? He seems to be running on the “I am not Valerie Plante” platform which may actually work. I’m really depressed about the choices so far. Still hoping for a late entry by someone I can get excited about.
The city has severe financial difficulties around the corner and I don’t think Coderre is the person to lead us through them. On the other hand, everything that came out of Projet’s convention was frankly terrifying.
If I had to bet right now, I would say get ready for four more years of bread and circuses.
Kate 11:15 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Did it work the first time? When Coderre first emerged, I remember some head-shaking that this old federal Liberal lag thought himself a suitable candidate. But after the lengthy shambles of the last Tremblay term and the mess of the Applebaum debacle, voters stayed away in droves and Coderre stepped into the job. He had never publicly expressed any interest in municipal-level issues, but he was a recognized political name.
What was terrifying about Projet’s convention?
Joey 11:52 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
This kind of thing (the endorsement of rooming houses, not the posturing) reminds me that there isn’t necessarily a huge amount of distance between Denis Coderre’s view of things and Valerie Plante’s. Not that you can just swap one for the other, but elections are designed to heighten differences, perhaps to an extent that stops being helpful. Granted I am more aligned with PM’s pet projects than Coderre’s (give me a REV over a Formula E any day), but a lot of these issues are likely closer to the margin than the core. Maybe Coderre as mayor with PM running most boroughs is a decent scenario?
Of course most of us can’t really stomach Coderre’s posturing, but the PM equivalent (ah Luc, Alex Norris fighting with everyone on Facebook, etc.) isn’t much better. And we’ve all seen just how little can be accomplished *for* Montreal without a willing participant in the Premier’s office.
Joey 11:59 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Forgot to add Joey’s first rule of politics: all politicians are assholes, especially the good ones.
Bill Binns 11:59 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Defunding/Disarming the police and the per kilometer driving tax (on top of N America’s highest fuel taxes).
Also no mention of where they are going to get the money they will desperately need in a year or two. Very alarming if you pay taxes rather than living off them.
The funny thing is, I don’t think she will lose over any of that. She’s going to lose because she closed that damn road over the Mountain. This, more than anything else has made her into the “Bicycle Mayor”. My wife, who would fit in with the regular commenters here far better than I do (and voted for Plante last time, despises Plante because she walks everywhere, often with 2 dogs and is sick of dodging bikes on the sidewalk. Absolutely everyone I know in this town who is 55 or over is still furious about the road over the Mountain. Apparently, driving to the summit is a critically important post retirement activity in Montreal.
Joey 12:03 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
@Bill I think you’re right
Alex L 12:18 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
@Bill: Kilometer driving taxes are meant to replace fuel taxes, as electric vehicles become mandatory in Quebec (2035 is not far away).
Defunding and disarming the police is something linked to our vision of society, I guess. Did you know that police forces are not armed in the UK?
Kate 12:36 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
It’s true that regular patrol police are not armed in the UK, although there are also special police squads that are armed.
Joey, you’re right, I think, that with a Quebec government that has no need to please Montreal, there’s only so much any mayor can do.
david337 12:45 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
God help me, I’m also coming around to seeing a best case scenario of Coderre mayor and counsel/PM running the boroughs.
Plante’s focus is all wrong for Montreal right now, and she has a very weak team around her. She should have been focused like a laser on housing and transportation, instead, she’s dicked around and accomplished nothing on either, and in the case of housing, to the extent she has done anything, it has been negative, trying to slow down the increase of housing, and looking at developers not as housing partners, but as an enemy or a source of cash.
When it comes to city governance, the number one focus coming out the pandemic should be growth, and I have no confidence at all in Plante and her team to get this right. At least with Coderre, you know that growth is his mantra.
david337 12:46 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
That said, aside from their worst-in-class positions on zoning/development/housing, PM’s gangs have generally been excellent stewards of our neighborhoods.
Bill Binns 12:47 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
The UK does not have a 3000 mile border with an ocean of guns. The UK has also all but eliminated hunting which is one of the biggest obstacles to banning private gun ownership. I’ll get behind disarming the cops 10 years after the last murder by gun is committed in the city. I would never support defunding the cops. I’d vote right now to double the number of cops on the street if I could. Taxes be damned.
I saw no mention of dropping fuel taxes in exchange for the per kilometer tax. Such a promise to do so in the future would be a lie. There is no such thing as a temporary tax in this town. This whole thing was just another provocation of drivers in the impossible attempt to get them to give up their cars for the pleasant, convenient and reliable STM.
Alex L 13:12 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Taxes on fuel might not be dropped, but since the sale of gasoline cars will be forbidden in 2035, it will eventually disappear of its own.
Bill Binns 13:17 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
So until 2035 (should the ban on gas cars actually go into effect) drivers will pay both. Then we can hope that whomever is in power in 2035 will honor the promise of a long dead municipal party?
Nice fairytale.
ant6n 14:49 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
As usual we see that neoliberals think that taxes are really bad, anybody who proposes using taxes to pay for things like infrastructure or the well-being of people is probably some sort of out-of-touch socialist or a leech on the proper tax payer people.
The exception of course is if taxes pay for something they want (like a more oppressive police state), in which case taxes are an utter necessity.
dhomas 15:40 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Most people I heard griping about the mountain road were either a) never going to vote for Plante anyway (for a variety of reasons), or b) from off-island, in which case who cares, they have no say.
CE 16:03 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
I’ve never once heard anyone in person complain about the mountain road closure.
walkerp 16:20 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
Yeah, I am highly skeptical that the mountain road closure is going to be an issue at all. That was blown way out of the proportion by the big money/big car media outlets and then further amplified by twitter goons. It got so loud because that is the one place where suburbanites go when they come to the city, probably on their once a year trip to Beauty’s.
Bill Binns 16:25 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
I don’t particularly care about the road on the mountain myself. I don’t think I have driven up there in 10 years. The age group that does care is also known for being reliable voters though. Let’s remember that Plante won with 51% of the vote. She can’t afford to lose anyone really and I doubt she has gained many fans while in office.
Maybe it’s just the people I know (most of whom have dogs). We’ll see.
Chris 17:07 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
>b) from off-island, in which case who cares, they have no say
If I’m not mistaken, business owners also get to vote in Montreal, and they don’t all live here.
>Defunding and disarming the police is something linked to our vision of society, I guess.
And what vision is that? Maybe we use different dictionaries but:
defund: “prevent from continuing to receive funds.”
disarm: “take a weapon or weapons away from (a person, force, or country)”
Now, is that what defund/disarm advocates really mean? Because if so, no thanks. Usually, they actually mean they want the police to use force less often and only when necessary, and they want funding redirected away from militarization and towards ‘community policing’, and that kind of stuff. OK, sign me up! The defund/disarm terminology is *horrible* marketing. It doesn’t mean what it says on the package.
Even in the US, polling shows only 18% support the “defund the police” movement. Partly because the name is just so stupid.
ant6n 21:57 on 2021-04-28 Permalink
There´s a bit of a spectrum for activists who want to change the police.
The most extreme are the police abolitionists, which I have encountered, people close to BLM, people of color. They say that the existence of police is worse for their communities than not having police at all would be. So they want to flat out abolish police… it`s easy to get into a long debate about how security would be provided in society without police, until you realize that its not their primary concern. Their point of view is that police are effectively the worst gang, getting rid of that comes first. To me, it´s quite a change of perspective, although I’m not sure how it translates into actionable policy.
Alex L 11:30 on 2021-04-29 Permalink
Just a side thought, but isn’t it curious that non resident business owners and landlords have the right to vote, but not all permanent residents?
Tee Owe 14:09 on 2021-04-29 Permalink
I am with Chris -(Chris+1) on the defund/disarm point – these words go way beyond the original intention and their use is confusing and counterproductive, they drive people away from an important issue