{"id":5055,"date":"2009-12-06T17:23:28","date_gmt":"2009-12-06T22:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=5055"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:48:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:48:26","slug":"and-theyre-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/","title":{"rendered":"And they&#8217;re off!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5096\" title=\"hotel-de-ville\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/hotel-de-ville2-300x228.jpg\" alt=\"hotel-de-ville\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week Montreal City Council met for the first time since the November 1st election. Notable decisions made include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8211; unanimous motion <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cyberpresse.ca\/dossiers\/collusion-dans-la-construction\/200912\/01\/01-926829-montreal-demande-officiellement-une-enquete-publique.php\">asking for a provincial public enquiry<\/a> on allegations of corruption in municipal government and the construction industry<\/li>\n<li>&#8211; unanimous opposition to federal private member&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.parl.gc.ca\/HousePublications\/Publication.aspx?Docid=3906547&amp;file=4\">bill C-391<\/a>, which would repeal the requirement to register non-restricted firearms<\/li>\n<li>&#8211; unanimous support for the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.radio-canada.ca\/regions\/Montreal\/2009\/12\/02\/002-resiliation-compteurs-Mtl.shtml\">cancellation of the water meter contract<\/a> with G\u00e9nieau<\/li>\n<li>&#8211; approval of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/politique\/montreal\/277545\/louis-roquet-revient-a-l-hotel-de-ville\">nomination of Louis Roquet<\/a>\u00a0as new general manager of the city<\/li>\n<li>&#8211; renaming of De La Gaucheti\u00e8re between Peel and de la Montagne &#8220;avenue des Canadiens-de-Montr\u00e9al&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During question period both Vision Montr\u00e9al and Projet Montr\u00e9al councillors \u00a0harshly criticised the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/news\/Tremblay+reign+supreme+Ville+Marie+borough\/2195371\/story.html\">new borough council structure of Ville-Marie<\/a>, where the mayor of Montreal is ex-officio the borough mayor and also has the right to name two extra councillors. As a result, Ville-Marie will be controlled by Union Montr\u00e9al despite having voted overwhelmingly for the opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>New dynamic\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More interesting than any particular topic on the agenda of the meeting is the new dynamic that is developing on City Council. Before the elections mayor Tremblay controlled the overwhelming majority of seats with Vision Montr\u00e9al headless and moribund for much of the session, and Projet Montr\u00e9al with only a single seat. Now Tremblay returns with his credibility and Council majority severely weakened and up against two strong opposition parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Another new feature is the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cyberpresse.ca\/actualites\/regional\/montreal\/200911\/19\/01-923023-le-comite-executif-est-confirme.php\"> presence of opposition members <\/a>on the all-powerful Executive Committee, in particular Richard Bergeron the leader of Projet Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0A casual viewer of the Council meeting may have confused Richard Bergeron for the mayor given the number of questions addressed to him. During question period Vision Montr\u00e9al addressed two of their three allotted questions to Bergeron, trying as hard as possible to catch him up on controversial issues that his party and the mayor&#8217;s have different stances on. On no less than three different occasions during question period mayor Tremblay passed hot potato issues over to him, including questions regarding <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/news\/montreal\/Future+Marianopolis+site+debate\/1522272\/story.html\">Marianopolis<\/a>\u00a0and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radio-canada.ca\/regions\/Montreal\/2009\/09\/03\/004-gare-triage-projet.shtml\">Outremont Rail Yard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s meeting highlights the possible difficulties with this arrangement. While many hailed the\u00a0appointment\u00a0of opposition members to the Executive Committee as a step toward a more collegial City Hall, it is a move that is also full of possible pitfalls. Some have seen it as a possible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/politique\/montreal\/278011\/libre-opinion-richard-bergeron-mettra-t-il-projet-montreal-en-peril\">strategy to neutralize and co-opt\u00a0the opposition<\/a> and make them complicit in the decisions of the Tremblay administration. Moreover, while opposition members now have a certain amount of influence in Executive Committee decision making, at the end of the day the final say still remains with Tremblay. No explosive issues have come up yet, but given the dynamic at the first meeting of Council it will be fraught with conflict. It remains to be seen if this will really be a workable model.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how this all plays out, the new council is surely an improvement over its predecessor. Multiple articulate opposition voices are present to keep Tremblay on his toes. He will not have free reign on the many important dossiers that will shape the City of Montreal and the quality of life of its residents. There is also a nascent possibility of greater collaboration between parties, but only time will tell if this is to be durable. It will be an interesting four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rising stars on council<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are plenty of new faces on council with <a href=\"http:\/\/election-montreal.qc.ca\/userfiles\/file\/fr\/Communiques\/Manchette%20-%20R\u00e9\u00e9lus%20vs%20nouveaux%20\u00e9lus.pdf\">25 first time councillors<\/a>. Among the new crop there are a few who are already starting to distinguish themselves. Two promising councillors to keep an eye on are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alex Norris<\/strong> (Mile-End, Projet Montr\u00e9al)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5076\" title=\"norris\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/norris.jpg\" alt=\"norris\" width=\"142\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A former journalist with the Gazette, Norris started making waves even before he was elected. He received personal endorsements from NDP MP\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/news\/story.html?id=2116315\">Thomas Mulcair <\/a>as well as a number of editorialists <a href=\"http:\/\/theseniortimes.com\/article\/2009\/10\/tremblay-record-more-to-celebrate-than.html\">with<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montrealgazette.com\/news\/Vote+Norris+because+vacationed+yacht\/2160880\/story.html\">various<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/blogues.cyberpresse.ca\/lortie\/?p=1966\">newspapers<\/a>. Since his election he has been named the Projet Montr\u00e9al critic for \u00a0the hot-button issue of Ethics and Governance, and is fast become the main Anglophone spokesperson for the party. He represents the latest standard bearer in the long tradition of strong, progressive Anglo representatives on Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Elsie Lefebvre<\/strong> (Villeray, Vision Montr\u00e9al)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5077\" title=\"lefebvre2\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/lefebvre2.jpg\" alt=\"lefebvre2\" width=\"150\" height=\"206\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lefebvre was the youngest woman ever elected to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.assnat.qc.ca\/FRA\/Membres\/notices\/j-l\/lefe2.shtml\">National Assembly <\/a>when she won the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.electionsquebec.qc.ca\/francais\/provincial\/carte-electorale\/renseignements-sur-les-circonscriptions-provinciales.php?bsq=426#\"> Laurier-Dorion<\/a> (approximately Villeray and Parc-Ex) riding for the PQ in a 2004 by-election. She lost in the subsequent general election, but she&#8217;s back as a city councillor and promises to be outspoken. She has also been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leprogresvilleray.com\/article-407421-Elsie-Lefebvre-nommee-vicepresidente-du-Conseil-de-la-Ville-de-Montreal.html\">appointed deputy speaker of City Council<\/a>, the first woman to hold the position. She made a strong debut during this week \u00a0and seemed very much at home in the Council Chambers despite it being her first meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week Montreal City Council met for the first time since the November 1st election. Notable decisions made include: &#8211; unanimous motion asking for a provincial public enquiry on allegations of corruption in municipal government and the construction industry &#8211; unanimous opposition to federal private member&#8217;s bill C-391, which would repeal the requirement to<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;And they&#8217;re off!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7840,102],"tags":[4674,723,2297,400,8,4667,4669,4673,2330,4666,4676,887,1789,4671,4672,346,125,4626,3806,4675,4665,4668,992,28,4670,761,554,3190],"class_list":["post-5055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-spacing","tag-alex-norris","tag-borough-mayor","tag-city-councillor","tag-city-hall-2","tag-city-hall","tag-deputy-speaker","tag-elections-mayor","tag-elsie-lefebvre","tag-executive-committee","tag-general-manager-of-the-city","tag-genieau","tag-journalist","tag-leader","tag-leader-of-projet-montreal","tag-louis-roquet","tag-mayor","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-city-council","tag-national-assembly","tag-ndp-mp","tag-projet-montreal-critic","tag-question-period-mayor","tag-richard-bergeron","tag-spacing-montreal","tag-spokesperson-for-the-party","tag-thomas-mulcair","tag-tremblay","tag-tremblay-administration"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>And they&#039;re off! - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And they&#039;re off! - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this week Montreal City Council met for the first time since the November 1st election. Notable decisions made include: &#8211; unanimous motion asking for a provincial public enquiry on allegations of corruption in municipal government and the construction industry &#8211; unanimous opposition to federal private member&#8217;s bill C-391, which would repeal the requirement toContinue reading &quot;And they&#8217;re off!&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-06T22:23:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T16:48:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/hotel-de-ville2-300x228.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devin Alfaro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devin Alfaro\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\",\"name\":\"And they're off! - Spacing Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/hotel-de-ville2-300x228.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-06T22:23:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T16:48:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d7ab922adbbede551e40b20364ee0484\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/hotel-de-ville2-300x228.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2009\/12\/hotel-de-ville2-300x228.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"And they&#8217;re off!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Montreal\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d7ab922adbbede551e40b20364ee0484\",\"name\":\"Devin Alfaro\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36d51de11aa21366f05b7410597ab82?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36d51de11aa21366f05b7410597ab82?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Devin Alfaro\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/devin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"And they're off! - Spacing Montreal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/12\/06\/and-theyre-off\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"And they're off! - Spacing Montreal","og_description":"Earlier this week Montreal City Council met for the first time since the November 1st election. 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