Valérie Plante, "the man" for the mayor's job?

Try this link: Opération déchiquetage à l'hôtel de ville de Montréal

Speaking of arrogance:

Ousted in the election, Richard Bergeron seeks a job with the party he founded

Now, unemployed after losing his seat on city council, Bergeron makes no secret of the fact that he wants a job with Valérie Plante's administration — even if, three days before the election, he warned that Projet Montréal was "radical" and "far left."

His criticism of his old party, he said, was part of the "political game."

Already with the executive committee there are no visible minorities and no anglophones (first time since 1978 that there are no anglos in the executive committee.) Still don't regret voting for her because Coderre is a clown, but also less excited for what's to come because the fact that they believe that exclusively white and francophone is representative of Montreal and represents diversity starts to confirm some of the wariness some people had about Projet Montreal.

Still just begun her term so I'll give them a chance, plenty of time to change course.

I wouldn't have been worried anyway had their been no anglos. I want Plante to have every opportunity to succeed and become a very longstanding mayor of Montreal. For that she needs the strongest most supportive council she can get. She can only pick from the people elected. I believe she made the effort to have a diverse cabinet and will continue to make that effort because that is the kind of person she is. I wouldn't want Denis Coderre's people on council unless Plante wanted them there. I trust her more than any other politician I know of in Canada to make decisions on behalf of the people. When she spoke English in her victory speech she genuinely wanted to reassure. It is more important to have a mayor that genuinely cares for all Montrealers regardless of race, language, or gender than it is to have token representatives on council.

Just because someone is female or of a particular race or language doesn't mean they are progressive or honest. Of course it would be nice to have more diversity but just because someone has a vagina doesn't mean they will automatically represent my interests. I am delighted that Plante is female but I would have voted Projet over Coderre under almost anyone. I have extra confidence in her because she is a female progressive but the progressive part comes first. I hope that with this win the party can attract more diverse candidates for the next election and I do believe that they will try to.

Lagatta, I am sorry your post vanished. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. As a general tip I find if I use the preview button periodically on a long post the post becomes recoverable. Given the narrow window we have to type in it also makes it easier to read what I wrote. 

pietro_bcc wrote:

Very disappointed with the budget. Valerie Plante made a point of saying numerous times that Montreal relies too much on property tax to raise revenue in comparison to other large cities which is true and would find other revenue sources, promised that the tax rates would be held to inflation, blatantly broke that promise and is now pretending she kept the promise.

It is unfortunate but I'm not giving up on her yet. I knew when I voted for her than once elected the realities of the job would interfere with her goals.

She is taking over an existing machine that is used to being run a certain way and needs fuel to continue operating. I agree it is disappointing but I don't feel betrayed. I don't think she would have done it had she any other choice.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:

I knew when I voted for her than once elected the realities of the job would interfere with her goals.

I think it would be a good thing if politicians could acknowledge "political realities" when making false promises.

It's too easy to say "Oh, yes, I did promise no more tax hikes (or no more tax cuts, or whatever) and then, having won, say "Gosh, the political reality won't permit me to follow through on my promises at this time..."

It's also pretty funny to me that conservative governments are assumed to have all the power in the world to (for example) tax the hell out of businesses, but they don't, because they're broken and empty humans without a soul.  But when a left-wing government is elected and doesn't tax the hell out of businesses that's just an unfortunate side effect of "reality".  They totally wanted to!  They even promised to!  But for a multitude of reasons that they could have easily studied prior to the election, they just CAN'T!  It's the system's fault, really!

I didn't say she gets a free pass indefinitely but she is a rookie. I'll judge her during the year and then after a few more years to see if she has achieved sufficient progress. For example, if she fails to keep taxes down, but succeeds in getting free bus passes for people on limited income, that will mitigate her failure on the tax issue.

Everyone knows, including yourself, that all political plans hinge on what they find in the books and it invaribly isn't what they thought it would be. I think it's unrealistic to expect a candidate to preface their plans with "if the budget is what I expect".

I have always interpreted platforms as aspirational not as a list of promises because that is how it has always turned out to be.

So far accusing politicians of breaking promises doesn't seem to have been a successful tactic in preventing them from being re-elected.

pietro_bcc wrote:

I like a lot of what Plante is doing, but the snowclearing this week as been pathetic. Its been 2 full days and the city hasn't cleared the sidewalks on either side of my street once, I have to walk on the street to reach the bus by far the worse snow clearing job I've seen in my life because its still untouched.

I agree - although in "fairness" the snow is way crazier than usual these last few days.

While we're on Plante - what do you think of her decision not to use body cameras for cops?

Unionist wrote:

what do you think of her decision not to use body cameras for cops?

On the subject of body cameras in general, I personally do not believe in them. There are several instances of police officers caught on camera violently attacking people and no charges end up filed. I doubt that body cameras are going to make any difference. They also introduce other problems, like privacy concerns, and just the sheer amount of time it takes to go through all the necessary footage. The problem is if police officers say they feared either for their own safety or for that of someone else's, that is enough to "excuse" their behaviour. Take the case of Jordan Edwards. The police officer who shot thim was convicted and sentenced to 15 years. One of the noteworthy aspects of this case is that another officer on the scene, Tyler Gross, said that he never feard for his life during that encounter. I don't know if there is any video of the shooting, but Gross' testimony undermined the "I-feared-for-my-life" defense that is so crucial in that case. More important than body cams is instilling a culture of concern for public safety in police departments, and having officers speak up and say that there was no mortal danger in these kinds of situations is an important part of that.

Pondering wrote:

Body cameras have been shown to reduce citizen complaints and they may well act as a bit of a check on police behavior.  There is no need to comb through all the footage. They only need to watch footage of interactions in which there are citizen complaints or police want to prove the suspect did something.

The decision was based on cost/benefit and I guess the cost was too much for now to equip all police officers all the time. Having said that I think they should have some that are deployed for specific circumstances. For example, riot control and any arrests where violence is logically predictable.  At night downtown would make sense. 

I agree. And given the history of racial profiling, attacks on student demonstrators, attacks on Indigenous people, etc., I think there's a lot of wisdom in this op-ed by Alain Babineau, who is an advisor to CRARR (Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations):

Montreal shouldn't be so quick to dismiss police body cameras

I'm still puzzled as to why Plante rejected the idea almost immediately after the Montréal police service published their report.

..my kind of politics

MISSION STATEMENT
Montreal Urban Left

We are a group of citizens who have assembled from various boroughs throughout the city of Montreal in the wake of the 2017 election of a new municipal government avowedly committed to “sustainable development, democracy, sound management and transparency.” We welcome the election of Valérie Plante, Montreal’s first female mayor, and we believe that a Projet Montréal government opens up genuine possibilities to move City Hall and Montreal in a progressive direction. But a party in power is subject to different pressures than a party in opposition. The entrenched interests of real estate developers, local elites, and international capital will not easily yield to democratic process and the needs and will of the majority of Montreal citizens. Moreover, history shows time and again that political parties with progressive aspirations are not immune to the afflictions of power: complacency, cooptation and corruption.

The Montreal Urban Left has constituted itself as a forum for reflection and discussion on the efforts, achievements and gaps of the new municipal government. We aim to pay close attention to its policy decisions and its success in fulfilling its commitments regarding democracy and transparency. We are prepared to mobilize around issues we see as critical to making the region of Montreal more equitable, inclusive, greener and liveable. We seek to build a democratic common front of citizens and social movements who share a broad vision of the future of our city and are eager to make their voices heard.