Sure, you could go to the party websites, read their platforms, call up your local candidates and decide for yourself who you’re going to vote for. But why do that when the media is ready to just tell you how to mark your X?
Even in this election campaign, where none of the candidates for mayor has prompted Barack-Obama-like enthusiasm, most seem content with endorsing a candidate anyway, and each of the big three is getting a piece of the pie.
In fact, not even do major media outlets not agree on whom to vote for, they can’t even form consensuses within their own newsrooms. Both La Presse and The Gazette have columnists making endorsements for mayor that differ from the main editorial line.
With the candidates neck and neck and neck a day before the election, and no clue how even strategic voting would work, I’m afraid you’re all on your own here.
Still, here’s how the endorsements break down:
For mayor
Gérald Tremblay, Union Montreal
- The Gazette: “The least distressing candidate in an unprepossessing field. … Richard Bergeron is clearly not ready to govern. … Harel’s claim to be a unifier is preposterous.”
- CTV (Executive Producer Barry Wilson): “At this point, it seems not be a case of who is the best, but who is not the worst choice.”
- The Suburban: “Montreal’s greater good will be served by a mayor who can communicate in English, the lingua franca, to the outside world … by a mayor who does not make war on cars and does not want to make a pedestrian promenade of our busiest commercial artery.”
Louise Harel, Vision Montreal
- Le Devoir (Bernard Descôteaux): “Guérir Montréal du cancer de la corruption est un préalable à toute chose. … L’expérience est ici l’élément déterminant, et entre Louise Harel et Richard Bergeron, il faut donc choisir la première. … Elle possède le sens politique qui lui permettra de créer les nécessaires consensus au sein du prochain conseil municipal.”
- L’Aut’journal: “L’administration Tremblay a complètement perdu la maîtrise de ses projets au profit de l’entreprise privée. Le candidat Richard Bergeron présente un excellent programme municipal … Cependant, il faut reconnaître qu’il n’a pas réussi au cours des quatre dernières années à s’entourer d’une équipe aguerrie. … Il est nécessaire de restructurer la fonction publique municipale et revoir la répartition des pouvoirs entre la ville-centre et les arrondissements. Pour y arriver, il faudra une grande dextérité politique et seule Louise Harel a l’expérience, le savoir-faire et les années de service pour y arriver.”
- Lysiane Gagnon, La Presse: “Je crois que Mme Harel fera tout pour réussir la fin d’une carrière gâchée par une fusion mal faite qui s’est terminée par le fiasco des défusions. Et elle est capable de beaucoup. … La souveraineté? De toute façon, le dossier est presque clos. Son anglais boiteux? Elle apprendra. Ses tentations bureaucratiques de péquiste de gauche? La réalité économique de Montréal, qui repose sur l’entreprise privée, la rattrapera vite.”
Richard Bergeron, Projet Montréal
- Henry Aubin, The Gazette: “There are two approaches for reaching that judgment. One approach – the more common one – is to look at each candidate’s personal record and qualities. It’s this approach that has led to widespread despair. … The other approach for assessing candidates is through the issues. … Bergeron, then, clearly comes out ahead on all matters except sovereignty.”
- Pierre Foglia, La Presse (I think): “Je souhaite la très improbable victoire de M. Bergeron, même si on me dit que c’est un tata fini et l’homme d’une idée fixe avec lequel cela risquerait d’aller encore plus mal qu’aujourd’hui à la mairie.”
- Non-media endorsements: John Gomery, Charles Taylor, Québec solidaire, Chris Karidogiannis and Jimmy Zoubris
None of the above
- La Presse (chief editorialist André Pratte): “Aucun parti, aucun chef n’a donné l’impression de pouvoir fournir à Montréal le leadership dont elle a désespérément besoin. … Lors des élections municipales de 2001 et de 2005, La Presse a accordé son appui à Gérald Tremblay. Depuis, le maire s’est dévoué à sa ville. … Louise Harel n’a pas su offrir une vision claire pour l’avenir de la métropole. … L’aptitude de Mme Harel à manier le balai est devenue beaucoup plus incertaine à la suite des révélations faites au sujet du comportement de Benoit Labonté, son bras droit jusqu’à il y a quelques jours. … Est-il nécessaire que le maire de Montréal parle anglais? Non… mais presque. … À nos yeux, Louise Harel ne satisfait pas aux exigences du poste. … Certains volets de la personnalité de M. Bergeron sont trop inquiétants pour qu’on lui confie la mairie.”
For council
The Gazette did not endorse any specific candidates for city council, but did suggest looking at individual candidates instead of party names, and encouraged people to look at independent candidates and “borough parties”
La Presse’s André Pratte listed several names from each party in his editorial, which makes up most of the list below.
Union Montreal
- Alan DeSousa (La Presse)
- Michel Labrecque (La Presse)
- André Lavallée (La Presse)
Vision Montreal
- Élaine Ayotte (La Presse)
- Harry Delva (La Presse)
- Pierre Lampron (La Presse)
- Réal Ménard (La Presse)
- David Hanna (Jeremy Searle, West End Times)
Projet Montréal
- Étienne Coutu (La Presse)
- Carole Dupuis (La Presse)
- Josée Duplessis (La Presse)
- Alex Norris (Mike Boone, The Gazette)
Independent
- Jeremy Searle (Jeremy Searle, West End Times)
Alex Norris (a former journalist) also got the endorsement of Thomas Mulcair.
Did I miss any? Be sure to let me know before tomorrow.
Fagstein’s endorsement
Of course, you’re all wondering who I’m endorsing in this election. As if the answer isn’t obvious already, I’ll give the official word in this video:
Don’t forget to vote.
We can’t let Harel win. She’s caused so much damage already to Montréal.
Fagstein readers, we NEED to vote for Bergeron, even if only to block Harel.
You have me in a quandary here… As much as I love the fact that Harel would mightily piss-off the rhodesians who further ghettoized Montréal by undoing the forced mega-mergers along ethnic lines, she is of the old-school of politicians that has no incentive to really change things as they have to be, like Bergeron would change them…
The Rhodesians! Wow! Double Wow! You do know we have socialized healthcare. If you need to see a specialist…I don’t think they’ll turn you away.
Oh haha you bastard. I kept wondering why the video controls weren’t working.
What do you know. The three indomitable bastions of rhodesian intolerant speak-whiters will go, as usual, for the liberal, no matter how rotten he is (or his entourage is), never mind that the much-dreaded “separation” of Québec is neither decided at the federal, provincial nor municipal level, but by each single individual separate unique different voter in a referendum.
Ethnic voting par excellence!!!
How can, honestly, the english can pretend to be worthy of any respect after that???
I believe “the English” are more than just the editorial board of the Gazette, the editor of the Suburban and the executive producer of CFCF. In fact, one “English” endorses Bergeron, and another “English” endorses a Projet Montréal candidate. Heck, two “English” are running for Vision Montreal.
But don’t let the facts interfere with your generalization.
Touché. Yes, it’s true that I tend to generalize. After all, 5% of the english DON’T vote liberal…
For some reason my Firefox browser (on a Mac) won’t load the video. I don’t ever have problems with YouTube, so this surprises me. Anyone else having problems?
Your browser is working properly.
Here’s the youtube link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
Loved the video.
Bravo!
Shawn, right click on it and look a the address, especially the extension. And look at how long the video is.
As for me, am back to square one, turns out, I’m not in the district that my neighbour is running in. Had Mme Harel gone for Projet Mtl instead of Vision, I would be voting for her party all the way. Still, for my burrough I’ll think I’ll stick with the status quo, it has run pretty smoothly so far. But for city hall, it’s looking like I’ll be going for the lesser evil though I’m not convinced we have one in this race…
I right-clicked and saw http://blog.fagstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/youtube.gif
So I think I’ll take a page from Homer Simpson and just say: oh, I get it. Yeah.
the fact that the video is exactly 6.66 minutes long should make it obvious…
I’m going with Bergeron as he’s slightly nutty but qualified
I think everyone in Quebec has an embarassing uncle like him: sure he has weird ideas but at least he’s clean
besides I see nothing wrong with turing ste-Catherine into a walkway: it’s not exactly a reliable route anyway (insane trafic on that street) and (as he argued) it’s good for business
Tremblay is either incompetent or a crook…
Harel not speaking English is a mild problem at best (how much contact does the mayor have with the public anyway? except for campaigning I never see him in the news except to explain how he’s not aware of something)
My only major worry is negotiation with the Unions, I hope Bergeron is not a pushover without being completely obtuse (2 years of negotiation ? seriously)
Soranar, I voted PM – think a “war on cars” would be cool though alas that is not in the offing and the Suburban’s contemptuous, imperial “lingua franca” comment would almost get me to prefer Harel. But actually I don’t think making Ste-Catherine fully pedestrian all year long from one end to the other is the most modern approach to traffic calming, promoting public and active transport and local business. It doesn’t work everywhere, one egregious failure is Ottawa’s Sparks Street Mall. Even in the summer it doesn’t attract the “badauds” one might expect. The nearby market area is much livelier. I’d prefer a tram and a bicycle lane along Ste-Catherine (this would be much safer than the bidirectional de Maisonneuve path) along with limited car access.
I would very much like the tram-centred pedestrianisation of Mont-Royal to go through, but once again I don’t think banning cars outright is the best approach. This observation is from my experience in cities that are far more public transport and bicycle-friendly, such as Amsterdam and Strasbourg (and no doubt Copenhagen, though I only made a very short trip there in the murky days of December, and was working all the time).
And I do hope some progress can be made regarding a tramline along avenue du Parc, now that the infamous “échangeur” has been demolished. Not only is the 80 route saturated, but this would take some of the pressure off the overburdened orange line, caused by the Laval métro extension. Welcome though that is, it means that by Jean-Talon I scarcely ever get a seat…
Since we have three votes to cast, I would suggest people vote strategically. We can vote for Tremblay, and then vote another party for Borough Mayor, and even another party for City Councillor. This of course applies the same way if you vote Harel, or Bergeron. It’s clear that the three main options are not good. But, somebody is going to have to be mayor. But, if we vote the above mentioned way, then we can insure that none of these three will have full power to do whatever they want. And hopefully, somebody worth voting for will emerge four years from now.
I would also suggest people consider voting for indepandents and even the Montreal Ville-Marie party. Louise O’Sullivan will not win for mayor. But, some of those candidates from the Ville Marie Party should be considered. Also, I read somewhere that there is also a ethnic party running candidates in 3 places. If you live in any of those three areas, please do consider them.
If we can’t trust any of these three candidates, then let’s make sure we tie their hands instead of them tying our hands for the next four years.
But, please do get out and vote.
Not if you live in Ville-Marie. Thanks to new legislation, the mayor of Montreal doubles as the Ville-Marie borough mayor, so people in that borough have only two votes: Montreal mayor and city councillor.
Depending on the borough you live in, you have up to five votes to cast.
I can’t believe there is people still willing to vote for Tremblay. The guy is either a corrupted hypocrite who pretends to be an idiot, or plainly an idiot.