Alex Norris has over 50% of the vote, when I looked just now.
Debater, I see you've stopped by for a little Liberal triumphalism on the Montréal municipals. Funny we haven't seen you discussing Michael Ignatieff in the Canadian Politics forum for awhile ... geez, I wonder why ...
I've looked at the results by district and Harel only won in three districts. She was an awful candidate to run against Tremblay - who wants to vote for someone wh was such a fanatical pur et dur sovereignty that Rene Levesque himself literally refused to ever be in the same room with her - and the fact that he biggest claim to fame was being the most hated minister of municiapl affairs of all time when she tried to ram municipal amalgamations down everyone's throats.
If you want to see Tremblay defeated - give people an alternative who is electable and not someone with such strong negatives.
BTW: I see that Piper Huggins who I believe was Thomas Mulcair's campaign chair got elected to the borough council of Plateau Mont Royal as well.
One more reason to acknowledge that the issue of Quebec demands must be settled before the Left can make significant gains here.
Exactly - and that has been true for decades - which is why it is heartening to see the federal NDP seeming to start getting the message.
In terms of the voting breakdown, Harel seems to be leading in 6 arrondissements, Bergeron in Plateau, and Tremblay in the other 12. I know that's not "linguistic", but I'd venture to guess that Tremblay held his own among francophones - subject to better data proving me wrong of course.
Congratulations to Piper Huggins:
Piper Huggins has lived on the Plateau Mont-Royal for almost 20 years with her spouse and two children. Ms Huggins is passionate about social justice and democratic participation. She worked for the new Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) during almost ten years as political organizer and campaign director responsible for Québec. She was subsequently elected to the position of President of the Quebec Section of the Federal NDP (2006-2008). Ms Huggins currently works for the Centre for Research and Teaching on Women at McGill University. Her educational background is in Political Economics which she studied at Concordia University. Ms Huggins is a ‘City Girl’ who adores Montreal, the life of its neighbourhoods, its rich history and culture, and its enormous potential. Piper Huggins is running for the position of Borough Councillor for the Jeanne-Mance District.
Administrative Coordinator, McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies:
Piper Huggins' professional experience prior to joining the IGSF (MCRTW) team is dominated by her work as a political organizer and her work in support of Montreal's independent arts community, as well as her endeavors in photography and design. As Director of Organization for the NDP in Quebec and subsequently as President of the Quebec Section of the Federal NDP, she made the promotion of the participation of women her top concern. Piper brings this practical experience with regard to the barriers and challenges we face in our pursuit of gender equality in Canada's political institutions to the work of the IGSF. Her academic pursuits have centered on study in the fields of Political Economics and Political Philosophy.
I'll be interested in looking at a linguistic breakdown of the vote, to the extent that it can be assessed... and that such an exercise isn't demonized as "divisive"... Despite the widely known corruption of his administration, The Montreal Gazette was practically begging its readers to vote for Tremblay on Saturday. One more reason to acknowledge that the issue of Quebec demands must be settled before the Left can make significant gains here.
I just got back from Montreal after having spent the past week there and I was in town when The Gazette came out with their editorial. All they said was they were endorsing him as being the lesser of three evils. In fact, almost all the papers endorsed one candidate or another on that basis. No one got a glowing endorsement this time around.
And it makes sense that The Gazette would endorse the only federalist candidate in the race. It is what most of their readers and members would expect. It is the voice of federalist Montreal.
What do we know of Bergeron's views on Quebec independence?
I don't think that the Gazette or federalists in Montreal as a whole would necessarily ipso-facto refise to support anyone for mayor who had ever been a sovereignist etc...Jean Dore was mayor in the 80s and early 90s after Drapeau when the MCM first took power in Montreal He had been in the PQ and had tied there - but that didn't stop him from winning landslides and being endorsed by all the major papers etc...No one would have had a problem with voting for a credible candidate for mayor who was fluently bilingual and who had been a PQ or BQ member in the past who might have even voted Yes in 1995 - as long as that person was now seen completely as a municipal political figure and who was pledged not be neutral in any future referendum etc...The knock against Louise Harel is not that she's a sovereignists - its that she's a fanatical, partisan sovereignist - who led people to believe that as mayor of Montreal she would actively push the sovereignist agenda etc...
TRemblay was once a Quebec Liberal cabinet minister and is obviously a federalist - but he has always made it clear that he would never intervene on any issue to do with sovereignty and that he would not take sides in any future freferendum on sovereignty etc...Harel might have won if she had made a similar pledge. She also might have won if her party had been exposed as being full of crooks.
What do we know of Bergeron's views on Quebec independence?
I don't think that the Gazette or federalists in Montreal as a whole would necessarily ipso-facto refise to support anyone for mayor who had ever been a sovereignist etc...Jean Dore was mayor in the 80s and early 90s after Drapeau when the MCM first took power in Montreal He had been in the PQ and had tied there - but that didn't stop him from winning landslides and being endorsed by all the major papers etc...No one would have had a problem with voting for a credible candidate for mayor who was fluently bilingual and who had been a PQ or BQ member in the past who might have even voted Yes in 1995 - as long as that person was now seen completely as a municipal political figure and who was pledged not be neutral in any future referendum etc...The knock against Louise Harel is not that she's a sovereignists - its that she's a fanatical, partisan sovereignist - who led people to believe that as mayor of Montreal she would actively push the sovereignist agenda etc...
TRemblay was once a Quebec Liberal cabinet minister and is obviously a federalist - but he has always made it clear that he would never intervene on any issue to do with sovereignty and that he would not take sides in any future freferendum on sovereignty etc...Harel might have won if she had made a similar pledge. She also might have won if her party had been exposed as being full of crooks.
Bergeron is not a federalist - those are considered his views on Quebec independence.
And I would say that unless the candidate had long renounced sovereignty, it's unlikely that The Gazette or federalists in Montreal would want to support them.
federalists in the English community votes en masse for Jean Dore in 1986 and 1990 - and he never "renounced" sovereignty - he just promised to be neutral in any future debate or referendum and to be mayor for all Montrealers.
There is a big difference between someone who may have voted Yes in a referendum but has no history with the PQ and has never talked much about the issue (ie: Bergeron) and someone who's entire political career has been consumed with being a pro-sovereignty FANATIC (ie: Harel).
Tremblay's lead over Harel has grown over the course of the day:
I don't think it matters much whether or not someone is a separatist or a federalist. Quebec cannot separate without a referendum. There views on language are important but even more important than that is if they are a person of integrity and what kind of future they envision for Montreal. The environment, transportation, housing, economy, those are the issues that matter. It was on that basis I supported Bergeron. I admit it would give me pause if I thought he was actively anti-English but it still wouldn't be the deciding factor because at the municipal level it wouldn't make much if any practical difference. I vote Bloc and I'd vote for the P.Q. if I believed they were as dedicated to social justice as I percieved them to be in the past.
I don't suppose the election much changes Macleans' opinion as it makes the city sound like it has the excesses and corruption of Chicago and New Orleans rolled into one.
I agree, but I also don't think it would be good for anyone elected this week for Projet Montreal to then resign and run federally three months from now. That would look really bad.
Obviously the winners can't be recruited unless the next federal election doesn't happen for a year or so. Close second and third place finishers are fair game. Between the Projet Montréal crop of this year and some of the unsuccessful candidates in 2005, the NDP has a lot of potential names to comb through.
Projet Montréal did very well. There are several close second or third place candidates that the NDP might be able to approach to run- even some first place finishers without much in the way of a margin of victory as well. The areas where Projet Montréal got elected will be easier to organise for NDP because it shows where local voters were willing to opt for a left of centre (francophone) party.
Peter McQueen was elected in NDG. He gave the Greens their best(?) provincial result in Québec and actively campaigned for and endorsed NDP byelection candidate Anne Lagacé-Dowson in Westmount-Ville Marie in 2008.
I hope Mulcair (or Layton) has been phoning around to offer his congratulations to successful candidates.
For those interested, Justice Gomery's daughter got 20% of the vote in Loyola. Also, apparently Peter McQueen endorsed NDP candidate Peter Deslauriers over Marlene Jennings in NDG-Lachine in the last federal election.
Having had a chance to look over the municipal results a little more closely I noticed that NDPer Nicolas Thibodeau placed a respectable 3rd in the race for Mayor of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension. Incidentally far from the seat where he ran for the NPD (Mont Royal). Most of that arrondissement lies in the long-in-the-tooth, Liberal-held, very diverse, federal seat of Saint Michel-Saint Leonard.
Projet Montréal seems to have done best in the Laurier Ste Marie federal riding, with respectable results in Ahuntsic, Rosemont-La-Petite Patrie, Pierrefonds-Dollard, LaSalle-Émard, Hochelaga, Ville Marie, and NDG-L (in roughly that order).
If Projet Montréal support is an indication of where the NPD could make inroads, then the maps on this page provide some tantalizing hints as to where that support might materialise. I was also impressed by what I have seen of Luc Ferrandez. He looks like someone with some real political skills. With Julius Grey's involvement with Vision Montréal, I am wondering what elements of that party might be friendly to the NPD.
It seems like for the most part, Projet Montréal ran second to Union Montréal- doing better in more francophone parts of the city. Projet Montréal and Vision Montréal seem to have divvied up more of the francophone vote. Vision Montréal carried the hardcore PQ parts of the city.
PM's success is probably the best sign that Montreal is ready to go progressive politically again. If it weren't for such a divisive figure like Harel scaring some anglos into voting Tremblay and splitting the progressive vote, Bergeron might be mayor today. He's now on the executive committee, though:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Tremblay+takes+quite+gamble+prom...
While I'm sure Tremblay and company will still be calling the shots on the EC, at least there will be someone to push them in the right direction that they can't ignore.
Projet Montreal has been spreading a lie in one of his NR that Mulcair has been endorsing Alex Norris on the Plateau, in the race against Piper Huggins.
François Cormier (@fcormierRC) from Radio-Canada has verfied with Mulcair's office, which categorically denied the support.
Projet Montreal understand people from the Plateau Borough have had enough and his feeling desperate.
Someone just joined to spread this shit. E_Bori has been a member for one hour and 30 minutes, as I write.
[url=http://on.fb.me/19oSsfw]Some reminders about Équipe Bergeron and Projet Montréal[/url]
Montreal’s municipal elections take place this Sunday and many allies continue to unequivocally (and in some cases, shamelessly) promote mayoral candidate Richard Bergeron and his Équipe Bergeron/Projet Montréal candidates as a progressive alternative.Crucially, all four major mayoral candidates (Bergeron-Coderre-Côté-Joly) and their affiliated coalitions and teams do not question any of the fundamental assumptions about prevailing class and property relations in Montreal. Their differences are particularly superficial in this election.
However, Équipe Bergeron / Team Bergeron (the name chosen by Projet Montreal members for this election) have openly advocated two retrograde measures, at least through the public proclamations of their leader Richard Bergeron, that no other municipal party or politician has felt the urgency or need to put forward.
Specifically, Bergeron has called for: i) the banning of the annual March 15 anti-police brutality march in Montreal; ii) a policy of removing homeless youth who come to Montreal in the summer (a sort of “municipal deportations” policy). Taken in conjunction with Bergeron’s core political positions about the development of downtown Montreal, Projet Montreal is using poor bashing to promote a particular kind of gentrification (with bike lanes and tramways).
Someone just joined to spread this shit. E_Bori has been a member for one hour and 30 minutes, as I write.
Very suspicious I agree
I strongly disagree with those statements by Bergeron and have written and said so to my friends in Projet Montréal. But Jaggi is more than a bit ultraleft here, with nothing concrete to propose. And more than a bit infatuated with himself. That won't prevent me from defending him when he is arrested or otherwise harassed by the police, but I certainly feel free to criticise his stance.
Almost sounds like he's against trams and cycle paths - what is this crap? We don't want any environmental improvements before The Great Revolution comes? Awfully Stalinist stance for an anarchist. The people who have been fighting for bicycle lanes and a carfree city for 40 years now were certainly not Richard Florida types. We can't prevent developers from using (much needed) urbanistic improvements as a selling point for condos. What we can do - and are involved in - is fighting for more social housing, tenants' rights and against subsidies and tax breaks for condo development.
What he is saying sounds like miserabilism. I'm glad Sibel weighed in - she is really left wing, but much more grounded than Jaggi seems, by his rather sectarian comments.
Quite the tangent we've developed in this 2009 election thread in the Ontario forum.
What's wrong with just using the, like, ummm, [url=http://rabble.ca/babble/qu%C3%A9bec/qu%C3%A9bec-municipal-elections-2013... thread[/url]?
I'll see if there's any mod around to shut this down.
i agree, Unionist. But there was no way I was letting that stuff by Jaggi go unchallenged.
I like Jaggi, actually. But he was really doing his "more radical than thou" schtick.
And I agree with you, lagatta. So, I'll just quote one comment attached to Jaggi's article which I think sums it up well:
I agree, Bergeron's an ass. But the most fervent opponents of P6 are on his team and are furious that he has completely discredited their hard work. But this is politics after all and discrediting the party leader during elections campaign would be political suicide. My hope is that Projet Montreal fares well and then kicks out Bergeron. Thanks nonetheless for reminding people that we need more than just green urban spaces to make Montreal a great city.
