On Revamping Mount Royal Ave.

I don't blame Fotopulos for not giving in to a petition. In itself it doesn't carry weight. Anybody else can put together a petition and go then to city hall to have the city make ammendments to current transport infrastructure on the plateau. I am for change in the neighbourhood; there's too much traffic congestion down the Mount Royal strip from Berri to Papineau especially, but how valid is the survey behind the petition? How well informed are merchants of the changes that could take place near their premises even if they are affirmative on creating a new tram route?
Chances are the poll was slanted in that it did not reach Montrealers who do commerce and shopping at a regular basis and comute to the location. I think there is a silent bunch of motorists and pedestrians out their whose opinions have not been tapped. Their views are yet more important than the 30 merchants there because they are bringing in the revenue. The question should be on the practicality of remodeling the walks and closing off direct traffic to store locations which depend on the traffic flow. I would like to know what results there are of plateau residents that have been questioned a few years back on the proposed revamping of this strip. Is the majority in favour of such a move?That would have more impact than a petition of 18, 500 signatures when there are 250,000 living in the area.

On Tickets for Jay Walkers

Is the city in dire need of funds again? What is it with this place where there was some initiative taken a few years ago where jay walkers were given tickets and there is another initiative today? To me it means there is a dire lack of following through on the first effort. And what about the police car that decided to cut me off which crossing a driveway. He placed himself halfway along the sidewalk of the path and didn't even bother to pull back so that this pedestrian then passed on the road. Is that included in the new ruling?Then there used to be the white striped crosswalks that motorists aim for and woe to the pedestrian if he tries to manage that first. Come on urban controllers, you are no more interested in setting an example about proper crossings than you are about clearing up the potholes or stopping hydrant spills that issue for weeks so that we can complain of water shortages later. Check your notes that the Montrealers are still your taxpayers and that it is their business to look left and right when crossing without your official edicts on how that should be managed. If they want to get hit by a driver who calls the asphalt his own property as opposing to standing on the curb edge with no motorist on the horizon, it is up to them. Driver tests should be made more stringent about what crosswalks should really be and lessons can be taken from motorists that come to a halt when reaching crosswalk intersections in London. I would re-educate the lazy motorist, put him back into a practical roadtest setting and see if he passes it or not. Then I would enforce street crossing rules.

How Long Will Reserves Last:

I wonder if we are on our way to living like survivors did in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes."
I wonder how the peak and then decline of oil resources will coincide with political power games. The fact that the Bushes and Nixons couldn't see beyond the tips of their noses but loved heating up their economies with fossil fuel really got us to consider what our limits would be. They didn't give a rats ass as to how people will have to think otherwise for alternative resources because it wasn't part of their strategy to strike the imaginary enemy of today and worry about resources tomorrow. About the further progression of solar and wind sources?It will have to continue along with other forms of fuel for the next generation of gas free cars. And lets hope we don't go back to primiive times either by nuking each other out in quest of alternative energy sources! Cavemen did survive without all the modern technological trappings that coincided with oil furnaces. But their lifespans were short, weren't they?So let's hope the quality of our lives, to be able to live relatively free of catastrophes will not occur with a decline in the black gold beneath our feet

Daycare in Earnest:

Mom stayed at home and raised kids until she had to go back to work to do that as the only breadwinner. Then family allowance was a fraction of what it is today and even then covered only a fraction of the costs of essential services to take care of children if the parents are working. No doubt about whether I'd like it or not, daycare is a must especially under circumstance when the single parent has to go back on the job market and their is no older grandparent to lend a favour. The opportunity to make a difference in the way a child learns takes shape here. The liberals didn't manage well supplementing the increased costs of daycare and I doubt that a change in heirarchy is going to matter much. But if the government wants to make sure that kids get an early start to learning so that the quotient of illiterates doesn't rise and the quality of an educated job force further deteriorates, we're going to have to do something in earnest here.

English vs French

I think if an English person has difficulty in speaking French and the French person continues the conversation in English, we can't assume that he is feeling sorry for us. If he is, that would be a particular case but I would give the Frenchman the benefit of the doubt and say if he wanted to relate in English, why bother feeling sorry. Everybody has their own limits as far as language abilities is concerned and the average bilingual French Quebecer doesn't have to feel sorry for anyone if he is capable of operating in both languages. That said, it is often difficult for the new immigrant or resident anglophone not to feel challenged by someone speaking the extra language when he doesn't. That challenge may be wrongly taken as a threat to their ability to communicate and immediately the anglo will more easily cop out or put up barriers to hinder communication. I have had friends from English Canada who started reacting that way but then when they realized they had a chance to meet people from a different culture, they became more understanding of a need to drop their barriers and attempt to speak the major language in this province. The city is multicultural and there is no way an anglophone is going to want to stay on unless he/she makes some effort to bridge the language barrier. The francophone has the advantage of saying we are all in a French province where the major language is French, so technically he doesn't have to feel that French is secondary to English. I was happy reading Ramsey's book on the French Canadian question years ago where I became aware of the intricacies of how language, law and culture are intertwined in Quebec. Having read that and witnessing the quiet revolution, the FLQ crisis, the Levesque era and current politics, I don't need to read this read this book. Why read something I already know. I could write my own book on the subject. The bigger issue is to see that French makes it to the rest of Canada for real bilingualism to occur.

Rallying for Causes:

Rallying aroung good causes is a decent reminder of how lucky the rest of us are. We live in a diverse society and now with same sex marriage there is no reason why gays should be afraid to stick up for their rights if they have to, including the workplace. But there shouldn't even be issues that would escalate to not accepting employees because of their orientation.
I don't see the connetion between gays and moms with breast cancer, could this be the reason behind the humouristic slant of the author's title?Does there have to be a relationship between the two? If it is a wuestion of timing, the calendar just has so many days and places like Montreal are big enough to hold more than one rally at the same time. I am not for soliciting employees to contribute for the cancer fund at the workplace in exchange for denims. I think that if the employer wanted to go easy on the dress code than he should for just any valid cause that needs donations and breast cancer is but one. There is a limit to how much employees should be solicited too especially if the return on their contributions is low and working conditions at some locations pitiful. Employers should match employee donations often enough they don't.