Montreal municipal election

Mayor Tremblay's response to Justice Gomery's entry in the race is rather pathetic:

"He made the choice to go into partisan politics, so his rhetoric is certainly tainted by his new role..."

There goes The Montreal Gazette's support he was taking for granted, counting on their PQ-phobia.

And with Conrad Black being denied bail... hard times for old-style politicos.

What do people think of Gomery's move? I wasn't that impressed with his handling of the sponsorship scandal but Projet Montreal does seem to have the most attractive vision for the city at the moment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gomery

"Jean Chrétien went to federal court to clear his name and have the Gomery report invalidated. On June 26, 2008, federal judge Max Teitelbaum criticized Gomery for having a preoccupation with the media spotlight that led him to give interviews he should have eschewed, making comments that indicated he judged issues before all evidence was heard, exhibited bias against Mr. Chrétien, and trivialized the inquiry proceedings. For instance, Teitelbaum pointed out that Gomery's remark halfway through the hearings that "juicy stuff" was yet to come made it appear that evidence of wrongdoing was expected before it was heard. The federal judge also ruled that Gomery's comments on "small town cheap" amounted to a personal insult against Chrétien. The court quashed the Gomery inquiry's conclusions that Chrétien and Jean Pelletier bore responsibility for the sponsorship scandal.[2] [3]"

In other words, weasel words from the Chretien cabal, and the judgement against Gomery is more legalistic than judicious.

Go Gomery.

Amazing development - didn't see this coming at all - thanks for the post, martin!

Vision are a carbon copy of Union and both are pro-business, ethically challenged and authoritarian parties. As someone who lives in Quebec, I've never heard Harel's name and the word progressive in the same sentence before. Rather I've always associated her with the mainstream PQ tendency whichh long since gave up on policy goals or social justice and turned their sights on sovereignty for its own sake.

The only progressive party, with transparent and democratic fundraising mechanisms and a platform that I or any other progressive can be proud to support (as opposed to holding your nose with Harel to get rid of Tremblay, only to see her act the exact same way) is Projet Montreal.

I too don't know anyone from the NDP who isn't working for Projet Montreal and I hope all other progressives will support Richard Bergeron and his party and not be suckered in by Vision. Projet will run the table in the Plateau-Mont-Royal and has a good chance to pick up enough seats in NDG, Ahuntsic and several other areas to form the balance of power in what will almost certainly be a minority city hall.

If Project has enough support a minority will mean they don't need to win to see many of their policies adopted. Let'ss get them as many seats as we can!

"Montreal's proposed code of ethics is full of holes: The plan, drafted by politicians, should not reassure the public"

http://tinyurl.com/lv6pmz

Montreal's scandal-ridden city hall urgently needs a code of ethics, but it doesn't need the sad excuse for one that was proposed this week.

A panel of councillors from all three municipal parties produced this draft code. That was the first mistake: If you want tough rules of conduct, you don't do as Mayor Gérald Tremblay did and ask people who would be most affected by them to draw them up. It's like asking the auto industry code to draw up the fuel-efficiency regulations ...