Canadian municipal elections 2009

[Linus Van Pelt]

There's an NDPer running for Vision Montreal. Is it safe to assume that they're now the left wing party?

The Montreal parties are kind of weird since they basically come from the controversy over municipal mergers which didn't exactly map onto either economic policy or the national question. Union Montreal was the suburban anti-merger party and so kind of was more anglo and right-of-centre and Vision Montreal was more from the old city of Montreal and so kind of more on the left and francophone, but it doesn't seem exact to me. The real progressives, though, are Projet Montreal, especially on the environment/urban planning/transit.

Of course MaxQue and Hashemite are welcome to correct any misunderstanding I have since they're more familiar with the situation.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Angus Reid/La Presse poll this week

total
Harel 40
Tremblay 35
Bergeron 20
O'Sullivan 3

Franco
Harel 54
Tremblay 27
Bergeron 15
O'Sullivan 1

Anglo
Tremblay 55
Bergeron 30
O'Sullivan 7
Harel 6

others
Tremblay 41
Bergeron 33
Harel 17
O'Sullivan 6

[Linus Van Pelt]

I remember the name Harel from somewhere - was she a member of the National Assembly or summet?

Yes, and not only that but she was interim PQ leader between Bernard Landry's resigning and André Boisclair taking over.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Just a little note re the poll and the last few posts, the question the poll asked was "language spoken at home", so lots of people of Italian, Greek etc. ancestry who grew up in Montreal will come up as "Anglo", with only the actual immigrants coming up as "other".

[Linus Van Pelt]

Montreal was lucky to de-amalgamate and have the politically contentious leave the city. Ottawa should be so lucky.

Some of them took the de-amalgamation a little too literally!

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/06/10/qc-lachineroadblock0610.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Extension#Fence_with_Mont-Royal_.28TMR.29_along_L.27Acadie

[Linus Van Pelt]

Montreal now neck-and-neck according to the latest La Presse poll: Harel 37 Tremblay 36 Bergeron 23 O'Sullivan 2. La Presse didn't link to the crosstabs as far as I can see, so not sure about any linguistic breakdown. Harel's had a bad week; one of the main council candidates on her team was alleged to have taken money from the mafia.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Richard Bergeron surge!

Angus Reid/La Presse (taken Oct 28/29): Harel 34, Bergeron 32, Tremblay 30, O'Sullivan 4.

Total free-for-all with two days to go.

On transportation, the contrast with even "progressive" Anglo cities is remarkable. Tremblay's approach is basically like that of David Miller or Alex Munter - expand bike lanes, build new tramways, and discourage cars from the downtown - yet in Ontario such views face a howl of opposition and all kinds of b.s. about "war on cars", while in Montreal there's now a serious chance that the mainstream candidates will lose to an even more hard-core environmentalist, and the only really pro-auto person in the race gets 4%.

[Linus Van Pelt]

It is worth noting that while Richard Bergeron seems to have sane views on things that actually have to do with Montreal politics and is the only candidate who is neither hopelessly corrupt nor an old-style linguistic nationalist, he has also claimed (a) that smoking is good for your health, and (b) that he is at least somewhat sympathetic to the view that 9/11 was a US government conspiracy.

[Linus Van Pelt]

In Gatineau, both Ducasse and Charlebois lost.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Ah, the irony: Harel, the main force behind the municipal mergers when she was a PQ minister, thus prevented herself from becoming mayor: she won the pre-merger city, but Tremblay came through because of his greater margin in the new arrondissements. Lucky for Harel that she didn't get her wish to force the very anglo cities into "une île, une ville" as well.

(source, only in French: http://www2.lactualite.com/jean-francois-lisee/harel-a-gagne-dans-le-montreal-pre-fusions/157/)

[Linus Van Pelt]

Montreal by arrondissement (which are not equal in population). Tremblay in red, Harel in blue, Bergeron in green.



Edit: whoops, some link problem there. Fixed now.