Time to Vote!

Published by Karim | Filed under Uncategorized

Well, it’s just about that time…this Sunday October 25th is the advanced poll. To fulfill a promise I made a while back, today’s blog post is a personal and very brief overview of the 3 main municipal political parties’ platforms.

Although I am running as an independent candidate for city councillor in the upcoming election, I am not against anyone; in fact I prefer to consider myself as being well placed to work with everyone. However, I believe that people should take the time to find out about their candidates in order to make an informed choice.

Shameless plug: If you would like to review my priorities for my district, they can be found on my website (to see my priorities click here).

Union Montreal:

This is the incumbent Mayor Tremblay’s party that has been in place for the past 8 years. They have offered a platform based on 4 main objectives: Improving the quality of life, Economic and cultural development, Public transportation, and the environment.

The highlight of the Union Montreal platform is their view on economic development. They are bang-on when they recommend investing in culture and the knowledge economy, enticing foreign (non-local) investors to bring modern businesses, while at the same time promoting Montreal as an artistic and cultural destination. Although I feel that the Quartier des Spectacles could have been planned a little better, it is a bold new artistic center that drives the Montreal artisan steam and attracts a new wave of creative entrepreneurs that will help to define Montreal’s rightful place, not only as the Canadian destination for the arts, but as a city that is revered around the world for its artistic character.

The general idea for Union Montreal seems to be ‘steady as she goes’, a continuation of pragmatic actions that are defined generally by a few million here, a few hundred million there and at the end of the day we’ll have spent our way into becoming a prosperous city.

The problem seems to remain that although they have plenty of steak, they haven’t got the sizzle. It’s true that Montreal requires investments to improve the quality of life, to improve public transportation and environmental issues, but where’s the inspirational factor? Where’s the thing that unites Montrealers and makes us feel optimistic about the future?

Union Montreal should take that economic development spirit and incorporate it into their entire platform. Having a realistic plan is nice, but the Renaissance we need must be built on the dream of what could be done.

Projet Montreal

I have to admit that Projet Montreal did offer an ambitious, 70-page platform dealing with wide ranging issues such as restructuring governance, ethics, municipal services and a heavy emphasis on public transportation and environmental issues.

I think it’s a great idea to aim high and tackle all the issues that weigh down our city. I like their stance on citizen involvement and transparent government, creating urban communities and making Montreal the North American capital of sustainable transportation.

However I feel there are a few problems with their wide-ranging list of promises.

Unlike the overly-pragmatic Union Montreal, Projet Montreal seems to be a little disconnected from most people’s reality. Promises like reintegrating the homeless into society is a wonderful idea, but I suspect that many social workers will tell you that the problem with reintegration is that many homeless people aren’t looking to rejoin society.

And I can’t disagree with the virtuous statement of prohibiting fast-food chains near schools, but just how legal is it to disallow an entrepreneur from making a living. If we can’t get rid of sex outlets and strip joints from plain view, how successful will we be at chasing out those evil fast-food outlets? And what is the definition of fast food? Is pizza considered fast-food? How about submarine sandwiches or hamburgers? What about shawarma or Chinese food that is served faster than you can order it?

My main issue with Projet Montreal is that they seem to want to expand the role and responsibility of municipal government at a time when we don’t seem to provide an adequate level of service nor do we seem to have the financial resources to do much better.

If I had one bit of advice to give Projet Montreal, it would be to focus more on key issues and not attack every wrong they feel needs to be righted. I’m okay with the fact that they like bike paths, public transportation, sustainability and public involvement, but I’d feel better if they had a more focused, prioritized plan. Like I said, it’s good to dream big, but not so much wishful thinking.

Vision Montreal

Vision Montreal has an exhaustive list of general issues they want to tackle. They put a lot of emphasis on “re-starting” Montreal – clearly a jab at the Tremblay administration’s “stalling” of our City.

Many people feel that the City has been steadily declining over the past decade. Whether in terms of global appeal, services to citizens, infrastructure or transportation, we have definitely seen better days. Vision Montreal puts a lot of focus on bringing back ethics and good governance to city hall (hmm), restructuring the role of boroughs (as does Projet Montreal), increasing our appeal on the international stage and their dedication to social development is admirable.

Although I find Vision has a lot of positive ideas in their platform, they seem to skimp on the HOW. Their platform reads like a long-term wish list. They want to accomplish a lot, and in all fairness it would probably take a volume of encyclopaedias to clearly outline all the measures needed to realize their goals, but it would be nice to have a little more concrete information. For example in transportation they want to provide students from the Université de Montreal with cheaper public transportation included in their school fees…ok, there are 3 other major universities and even more technical colleges and schools that would love the same offer; why only them? Or the reserved bus lanes; great idea, but where would you put them and why? In terms of social development they propose tackling the drop-out rate and creating learning regions. Firstly, I don’t know what a learning region is (although it sounds nice) or how it would help improve the quality of education and inspire students to take schooling more seriously.

The Vision Montreal platform is a series of legitimate problems that they claim they can fix. Like all the political parties they focus a lot on the things they feel are important to fix, but don’t take the time to explain why they are important, how and when they will accomplish them, and how much all this will cost Montrealers.

Conclusion

The most interesting thing about the 3 parties is not how different they are, but how similar they are. Throughout this election campaign, they have vilified each other and have told us all that is wrong with the other parties. Interestingly, I think that if they were able to work together, they would make the most formidable team.

If we took Vision Montreal’s social development, cultural diversity, and housing plan along with Projet Montreal’s public transportation, sustainability and civic inclusion plan and add Union Montreal’s detailed investment information and economic development strategy, it would be a powerful cocktail. But as we’ve seen, they would prefer to fight, argue and criticize each other rather than compromise and unite for the common goal they all share…the revitalization of our great metropolis and our undying culture as Montrealers.

I want to improve this city and I look forward to working with all of the councillors who will be elected; I just hope that they look forward to working with each other too.

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