No fear, no loathing

It seems that few Montrealers will actually be going to the polls on November 6; nobody I've talked to can tell you the difference between Gérald Tremblay and Pierre Bourque, much less between the various posts to be filled (do you know which responsibilities belong to the city councillor and not the borough mayor?).

In any case, the youth/third-way/intelligentsia (i.e., my friend Tim) suggested I check out Projet Montréal. The PM's platform is prertty typical stuff: naive and noble. I am one hundred per cent in favour of any initiative to slow down, let alone stop, urban sprawl. Entire sectors of the Montreal core are ripe for development, something which has not gone unnoticed by just about anyone who's thought about the future of a great city for a couple of minutes. That said, and as Tim correctly pointed out, nothing is going to bring three million people downtown. The PM promises to create development by parking lots into affordable residential development. Unless they plan on splitting the cost of real estate development down the middle with the builders, the market will continue to dictate what gets converted and what remains cheap parking. Montreal isn't exactly lacking new housing. And thanks to the existing affordable housing grant program, which provides amounts in the neighbourhood of $6,500 to purchasers of affordable housing in the city centre who promise not to move for three years, there's no need for a new mechanism to intice young people to buy property downtown (though some publicity might help: how many people under 35 pay more in rent than they would in mortgage payments?).

The real housing crunchy the city faces, and the trend it needs to reverse, has to do with young families. Imagine a married couple that together earns a decent living. They decide to have a child, maybe two. Mom will take maternity leave and see her pay reduced to a quarter of what it once was. No biggie, they'll get by - but they need a place to live. The five-and-a-half is great but not what they have in mind for their kids. Interest rates are low and there's some money in the bank. Where do they go? You've probably seen this story played out, so you know that the West Island, Laval or the South Shore are add a happy new family to their tax base; they'll buy a nice house, with a yard and a deck, and raise a family.

If the City of Montreal (the old city, not the new additions that haven't demerged yet) is going to last long-term, it's got to make a case for families like these. The residential project that sprung up on the undeveloped land south of the St. Lawrence could have been built in the vast swath of empty lots that fill the southern half of downtown. The options should not be a half-a-million dollar home in NDG or the suburbs.

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Projet Montréal has some ideas about making the city green, and not in the Pierre Bourque put-flowers-everywhere way. It would reduce speed limits (a smash at the ballot box) on main arteries in the city, because traffic isn't quite fucked up enough, and would order the cops to issue more tickets. Pro-environmental sustainability is crucial to long-term development. Public transit should be fast, efficient and inexpensive. Driving your car shouldn't be the only option, especially for those who would prefer choice. But an anti-car platform is a big middle finger to a middle class that, though it's not toally squeezed, doesn't have a lot of room to move. It also demonstrates an unwillingness to accept that a city needs to be governed by a party that can at least empathize with its total diversity of citizens.

Also, there's nothing easily accessible about how the PM would pay for any of these great initiatives (the $40 bus pass that cost half what it's worth, for instance), let alone surmount the cruel and urgent problems Montreal faces, i.e., the incredible shittiness of our above- and underground infrastructure. It makes me wonder why anybody would want to be mayor of a city that just went through an unwanted wedding and a messy divorce with itself. To top it off, the provincial government, which controls the noose around the mayor's neck, won't pony up the dough to restore the economic centre of the state it governs.

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The issues seem important and complex, if not urgent - to me, at least. But the candidates have been spending time appropriating and pimping big ideas put forth by others and bickering about non-scandals. Voters have no idea what any of the parties would do in office and get no help from the press. With less than a month to go, what does the Montreal Gazette do? It writes a story blaming everyone but itself for the lacklustre campaign. This from a newspaper whose sole contribution is to try and trump allegations of corruption at city hall (stop the fucking presses). A sampling:

Media coverage has focused more on the leaders' race and campaign glitches - Team Tremblay's English-language "Go" slogan, last-minute candidate dropouts from Team Bourque - than what's at stake for voters, Giasson said.
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Part of the problem with the 2005 elections in Montreal could be the similarities in Tremblay's and Bourque's programs: beautify the city, keep taxes in check, upgrade infrastructure.

Instead of beginning with that as a premise and then writing about the different levers each candidate would use to bring about those goals, or exploring their records of promises and achievements, the Gaz decides to wallow in its laziness and accuse the candidates of not being interesting enough to cover. Here's hoping that some actual coverage might show up in the next few weeks.