Super! Judging by the comments to this post, the fact that there may be erroneous facts in Louise O’Sullivan’s platform itself are just another reason why nobody will take her seriously, whether they’re from the Reaganomics or Che Guevara end of the political spectrum. From a quick glance to her website, her entire campaign appears to be based around graffiti eradication.

Huh, the Montreal City State is an interesting proposal! So where do we sign up to make it happen? Also, who will design the license plates? I say the first move after Montreal becomes a City State is to invade P.E.I. and seize their potato holdings in order to corner the market in poutine supplies.

Are you serious? I’m from Vancouver and I can attest that there is not a single car-less street in downtown Vancouver, and that most of the streets are busy thoroughfare type roads like Rene-Levesque, Sherbrooke or Guy, not like the easy-to-jaywalk narrow sidestreets of most of Montreal. Not trying to nitpick Naomi, but I just don’t want people to think Vancouver is some pedestrian paradise….cause it ain’t. Montreal is much more of a pedestrian-frineldy city than Vancouver! Even on the transit front, Vancouver has 2 metro lines and one commuter train, while Montreal’s has 4 metro lines and 5 commuter trains! But more can definitely be done in Montreal to enhance the pedestrian experience, for sure!

She answers questions like a squirrel crosses the street.

Bergeron is just as much of a nutbar, but at least he can string a sentence together while talking about only one subject.

You might not agree with all of of his comments – but I believe that he has made a number of valid points – especially on how the population & economy of Montréal is somewhat different from the rest of Québec.

His document (about 35 pages) can be found in English or French at:

http://www.montrealcitystate.ca/index_en.html

- The idea of a car-less downtown core is perfectly reasonable. vancouver is one of the most car-centric cities in North America, yet they have a car-less dowtown core that functions effectively.

- Too many elected officials? Yes, because cronyism is so much better than elected officials.

- Notre Dame may not be finished but Tremblay did a very good job with the Parc-Pin interchange.

- A rich, white, blond chick with a anglo last name sounds like a fabulous mayoral candidate, for sure.

As for cars/autos… if there’s one huge thing the Tremblay admin’s right on, it’s getting lots of the autos out of Centre-ville.

Wake up, it’s 2009!!! We’ve toasted our planet. Every major city is enrobed in a blanket of smog. Not to mention the congestion and loss of productivity that comes with traffic (so, hybrids/electrics won’t solve the dilemma, either. They’ll just make it a cleaner case of inefficiency).

When will we EVER learn?!

It ain’t all about choice and money. Can’t you see that by looking south to the all-too familiar failures of the USA?

Margaret Thatcher helped create millions of precarious jobs without any security whatsoever so the entrepreneurs could get rich by not properly paying their workers, exactly like back in Dickensian times.

Louise O’Sullivan wants the entrepreneurs to have a free time with the city. This means that they will be able to open all sorts of disruptive businesses without any input from the well-established neighbours, all in the name of the sacrosanct “economy”.

Mr Robertson, although the Economy is indeed important, it is not the only thing there is. There are many things in life besides the Economy that are just as important, and it would be as foolish to dismiss them as it is when one dismisses all things besides the Economy.

The current banking crisis has demonstrated beyond any doubt that the economic actors are utterly incapable of disciplining themselves, and they will gleefully wreck the economic system in order to make a quick buck.

You may look fondly upon Margaret Thatcher, but the antics of Bush and his gang of robber barons have made sure that such behaviour will not be tolerated for a very long time in the future.

Expect far more economic regulation; it may choke the Economy, but if that’s needed to keep it from eating itself, we’ll gladly have that.

(in 1997 dollars)

1996: $24,547 per capita
2006: $30 442 per capita

That’s about a 24% rise in local “wealth” in a decade.

But don’t worry, I’ve been getting down to the bottom of this interesting piece of « information ». More to follow…

Sorry, Mr Robertson, we’ll never agree about the Iron Lady. Or anything else.

I have a master’s degree in history: labour and migration history. And many years’ experience fighting Thatcherism, the Bushes and their ilk.

Why are so-called “left-wing comments” a disgrace? You like environmental destruction and mass murder of people in Iraq? If they were left-wing comments say, supporting Pol Pot or the North Korean régime, you’d have a point, but nobody here was supporting any kind of totalitarian rule.

I most definitely do not want our beloved city to fail. I want us to be a guiding light unto the world, or at least North America, to see a way out of petroleum and car-dependency.

By the way, I didn’t attend the protest against that semi-literate war criminal, because I was working. Do confess I love this sentence structure:

“You absolutely do not know not of what you speak” (sic).

I guess the best thing that can be said about this petroleum-mad religious nutcase is that unlike Osama, so far she hasn’t called on anyone to commit crusade – le pendant chrétien du jihad. With the Opus Dei stuff, at least she is good for a laugh.

Maria Gatti – Margaret Thatcher was the best Prime Minister in British history. She brought the country out of the grasp of prolonged Labour rule. When she started there was massive unemployment and the UK was in decline. By the end, the UK regained its position as one of the economic powerhouses of Europe. You absolutely do not know not of what you speak. Don’t you have an anti-George W. Bush protest to attend?

She is the pro-pollution candidate. Public transport is important for EVERYONE in a city, including those who drive cars. For one thing, it means fewer cars on the road. We won’t go into people who can’t drive for a variety of reasons – people who can’t afford to are nothing but shit in the eyes of such a “pro-business” candidate, and those of us who refuse to for environmental convictions are unrepentant hippies, ageing or not. Fuck her. Thatcher was a woman too, and did more to harm women (and men) in the UK than any male PM.

Kyle, I think most everyone would agree about fostering enterprise, but it is such a vague motherhood slogan. That could be done in several ways – in her case I suspect it means no checks on pollution and environmental destruction.

I’d just love to take her on about that ludicrous public transport statement.

What metric is being used to measure the wealth of the city?

Right after the last debate on Radio-Canada, she gave a short interview where she said that public transit is only important to students but should otherwise not be a major issue.

What a nutbar! Luckily, she’s only polling 2%!