Photo taken October 21st on Guy, just above de Maisonneuve. Also, Fagstein launches an adult conversation about municipal corruption and calls for an Everything Inquiry.

Democracy is produced "as a matter of enterprise not [vision]...is designed to appeal to everyone" and "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste." It is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward...and, in [ideaological] terms, it is essentially conservative." It is "provided from on high rather than being made from below...Democracy is not a do-it-yourself political system but is professionally produced and packaged." - POP Democracy There is an election happening in Montréal? Has anyone else heard this question asked of them? At first it angers me; we are currently in the information age and there is no longer any excuse for ignorance. It is unfortunate that, despite the freedom we have over information, our laziness prevent us from informing ourselves. However, I will admit that something seems to be missing from this year’s electoral campaign. As most of you know, democracy in Canada has become a vast marketing machine. Politicians don’t give speeches, they generate sound bites. They don’t foster visions, they fabricate photo-ops. Democracy can now even be boiled down to colour associations: RED = Liberal BLUE = PQ and Conservative (strange bedfellows) ORANGE = NDP GREEN = Green Democracy has come to mimic the Wikipedia definition of advertising: The most important element is not information but suggestion. « It makes use of associations, emotions and drives dormant in the sub-conscience of people (such as sex drive, herd instinct), of desires (happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward), of fears (illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty, security), or of prejudices, learned opinions and comforts. » In democracy, image is everything. De facto and de jure. Don’t believe me? Ask Robert Stanfield. Stephen Harper performs at an arts gala in Ottawa, and now everyone thinks he is Ringo, the misunderstood Beatle. The E, F#m, B chord progression has secured the Canadian Prime Minister a future majority government.

Ville-Marie borough mayor Benoit Labonté has announced his intent to run for mayor next November and promises voters audacity. Perhaps the slogan has a better connotation in French but my dictionary suggests "recklessly bold", "arrogant disregard for normal constraints" and "impudent" among definitions for the term. Which may be appropriate for a guy who was elected as a member of Tremblay's party in 2005 only to split two years later and start his own to take the reins of the opposition party, Vision Montréal. As leader of the opposition, Labonté has bashed the current administration for ...

Les élections provinciales sont ce lundi, et il est temps de faire notre récolte d'affiches vandalisées. Aujourd'hui, je suis passé devant cette affiche de Pauline Marois, chef du PQ, "modifiée" par ce qui a l'air d'être plus qu'un simple passant. Tout près de la maison de Radio-Canada, quelqu'un muni d'autocollants de couleur pourpre s'est amusé à coller des répliques à saveur étudiante aux slogans des trois ...

Despite the general feelings of aggravation at being faced with yet another election this fall, this poster for Green Party candidate Peter McQueen deserves a mention for the way it makes local issues so tangible. Located on the corner of De Maisonneuve blvd and Addington in NDG, the arrow to the left points at the bike path, and the arrow to the right points to a new exit of the Décarie expressway that remains closed....