I left the metropolitan area, congratulate myself every day and return there as rarely as possible.
My friends who remain in Montreal oscillate between angry anger and discouraged cynicism. Their reactions seem to be widely shared.
catastrophe
Valérie Plante insisted for days on keeping her number two, Dominique Ollivier, in office because she was embroiled in an overspending case.
Anyone with two cents of political judgment would have understood that Ms. Ollivier was beyond saving and would have acted immediately.
As I write these lines, Ms Ollivier’s successor at the OCPM, Isabelle Beaulieu, and her buddy Guy Grenier, who also drives a carriage, are still in office.
What part of the word “outside” don’t they understand? What is Ms. Plante waiting for? Is your telephone line busy?
Apparently, Ms. Plante herself is saddled with embarrassing meal bills paid for by Montrealers.
Bochra Manaï, another brilliant idea from the mayor, is responsible for the fight against all forms of racism, because they are all equally reprehensible.
As anti-Semitism rises in Montreal, Ms. Manaï, a supposedly neutral official, attends pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
A secret? No, all you had to do was take a look at his Facebook page.
The mayor contents himself – again at the time of writing – with saying that Ms. Manaï was called to order.
Should we return to empty construction sites and orange bags?
Then came the municipal budget.
Expenses increase, taxes increase, the number of municipal officials increases.
The mayor invites Montrealers to a huge idiot’s dinner, then discovers that the people aren’t as stupid as she thinks.
Result: Citizens are angry, the economy is angry, the media reaction is consistently negative.
- Listen to Joseph Facal’s column on QUB radio :
The last days are being taught at the university under the theme: How to do as much stupidity as possible in as few days as possible.
107 more police officers? Naturally. But 400 new hires out of a total of 25,162 full-time municipal employees?
When the economy was doing well, the city spent more instead of building a buffer for rainy days.
Now that the economy is slowing, we decide to increase taxes to maintain spending levels.
And there are no plans to control spending. And Ms. Plante is smiling!
helmet
The mayor will obviously say that it is the fault of the Legault government for neglecting Montreal and brazenly spoiling Quebec.
However, Montreal has its new commuter rail and preparatory work for the expansion of the blue subway line is beginning.
Quebec, the capital, has no bridge, no streetcar, or anything except two subsidized NHL exhibition games.
One wonders if the mayor doesn’t put on a virtual reality headset every morning before work.
