The beginning of the End

A little about Garald T.

Born in Ottawa, Gérald Tremblay grew up in Montreal. He was admitted to the Québec Bar in 1970 after receiving a law degree from the University of Ottawa in 1969, and he later received an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He was in senior management in several financial institutions in Quebec until 1989, when he was elected to the National Assembly and served as Minister of Industry, Commerce, Science and Technology until 1994, in the government of Robert Bourassa.
From 1994 until his election as mayor in 2001, he was a successful entrepreneur, setting up a chain of specialty boutiques called Dans un Jardin which sold mostly perfume, but also jam, and other small delicacies. He was also on the board of directors of several corporations.

Mayorship

Tremblay ran for mayor of Montreal after the controversial merging of the municipalities that made up the MUC (Montreal Urban Community) into one single city spanning the entire island of Montreal, which caused then-mayor Pierre Bourque, who was associated with orchestrating the merger, to call an election. Tremblay's municipal political party was known as the Montreal Island Citizens Union (now known as Union Montréal), and his election campaign was based on re-evaluating the merger and decentralizing the city structure. On November 6 2005, Gérald Tremblay won his second term in office, easily winning against long-time rival Pierre Bourque by 74,646 votes. The voter turn-out estimated at 39.13% was the lowest ever in the history of the Montreal municipal elections. (See Quebec municipal elections, 2005).
In the 2001 election, Tremblay campaigned as the defender of towns and cities being forcibly merged into a new Island-wide city of Montreal, and received a great deal of support from opponents of the merger. However, in the subsequent referendum on the question of demerger, he was accused of betraying his supporters by coming out strongly in favour of the "no" side, supporting the megacity.

Since he took office, Tremblay has streamlined the city's operations but also generated controversy in some quarters. While his administration improved public consultation mechanisms, it is also considered by many to be one of the most secretive administrations in Montreal history, causing some to declare that the democratic deficit has grown during his tenure despite improvements to consultation. His administration also attempted a radical decentralization of the city by giving more power to the boroughs, but at the same time has come under attack by suburban mayors who decry his clear preference for Montreal to receive a much larger share of the island's tax revenues than it would have before the merger. However, many argue that these boroughs are even less responsive to the public than City Hall, since they are not required to offer public consultations on their decisions. Nevertheless, the public can (and sometimes does) force referendums on particular bylaw proposals.

Parc Avenue Controversy

Tremblay received criticism for his proposal to change the name of Avenue du Parc to Avenue Robert-Bourassa, in honour of former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa, without public consultation.

The proposal was approved by City Council in a vote on 29 November 2006. Much of the criticism of the proposal came from residents and businesses who inhabit Avenue du Parc. On 6 February, 2007, Mayor Tremblay backed away from his position on Avenue du Parc after losing the support of Bourassa's family. In a press conference on the issue, the mayor claimed to "have learned that the opinion of citizens is important."

Tremblay generally keeps to himself, and is known for avoiding the media.

Letter to Ahunstic federal deputy

Dear Maria Mourani,

I read your newsletter and I'm mostly impressed by the progress and activities scheduled for my new burrow, Ahunstic. However, there is one item on that discussion letter that particularly draws my attention.

The Office Quebecois de la langue française, (which stubbornly writes its own titles in French, regardless of the context), assumes our preferred language is French. I quote : "being greeted [...] in French is more than just a right. It's a matter of national pride!".

This comment, boldly written as a subtitle, claims I do not love my province if I don't speak French. In addition the text writes: "Out of love for our language and respect for what we are..." I am personally offended when I am told, directly or indirectly, that I do not respect "what we are".

I am an accounting analyst in a very successful ophthalmologist multinational, I pay my taxes, and I drive my car on these pothole-filled streets and uncertain bridges that make up Quebec without complaining. I even order my coffee in French at the local Tim Horton’s and salute people with Bonjour !. I believe I speak for all Anglophones in my province when I say I feel attacked and discriminated against by the French Language Office of Quebec and all activists supporting it in their every step, when emotional and personal affiliation with the province of residence is shown as reflected in the language they speak, the latter being none other than French. Canada is built on two pillars, and Quebec is a Province of this body. We share the same constitutional rights, whether male or female, young or old, Anglophone or Francophone. Our freedoms, whether to reside in a province or another, are fundamentally similar to the choice of our spoken language and should be respected as such.

On this note, I recall a document known as the Constitution Act of 1982. Part I, Section 16.1 reads the following :

Official Languages of Canada

“ (1) English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use […]”

I urge you to act on my behalf, and all those Anglophones on the same side of the Francophone offensive, as chosen representative of the burrow I reside in, to halt the increase in French protectionist movements that threaten our freedoms as Canadians. We love our province and our country, and respect it just the same whether we voice it in English, or in French. Multi-culturism is Canada; this cannot be taken away from any Canadian.

Sincerely and Truthfully,

New Spending by the city of Montreal (Yes, we still have a $155M deficit)

Less than a week after Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced $155 million in budget cuts, the city managed to find $4 million to help fund the expansion of Molson Stadium :

As quoted from Local Newspaper:

""This investment is the proof that our administration and the government of Quebec appreciate and support the development of Montreal's professional sports teams because they are ambassadors of our city," Tremblay said.
"I am excited that the new Percival Molson Stadium will be a benefit to the Alouettes and their fans, but also to the students of McGill University and the entire population of Montreal."
Tremblay said he knows some people are upset about the project, particularly residents near the stadium and groups concerned about preserving Mount Royal.
"I want to assure them that it will be built in total harmony with the community," he said. "We will try to do the nicest job possible."
Tremblay added that amateur sports clubs will be able to use the stadium."

... please withold from profanities even though they are more than due in this situation.

Analysing this move:

5,000 more seats, for $29.3M ?! The absurdity is unwordable in my opinion.

To view this action in parallel with previous efforts to improve the Molson stadium, back in 1930s, Major. D. Stuart Forbes, the director of athletics at the time, brought in a flock of sheep once in an attempt to improve the grass! That probably cost a couple of hundred dollars (today's) and must've improved the stadium considerably better than Tremblay's moronic expansion sponsorship of $4M... (plus bringing a flock of sheep in the middle of downtown must have been quite a tourist attraction!)


These seats will remain unoccupied for 170 of the 200 days the stadium is used! Thanks again for putting them there Gerarld!

Mayor Gerarld Tremblay Overview

Speaking of political uproar : This is our new Montreal Logo to promote our wonderful city on international field.

The great Gerarld Tremblay thought our old logo needed reviving and didn't quite represent Montreal's presence and esteem. He spent two years and $487,000.00 on this project and came up with the image on the right.

Let's go back a while: our old logo, which caused terrible uproar from the community when its price was revealed, cost a wopping $15,000... I started a company a few years back, and when we incorporated, we ran into the same situation as Tremblay, we needed a Logo to promote our innovative ways. It took us 2 days and $9.98 in coffee to come up with it : Note that this logo worked marvels and no animals were injured in its making (not sure about Montreal's new "M" ... at least SOME jelly beans were tortured) But wait! we now have a budget deficit of $155M ! How could this have happened!?

Let's see : The city has a total of 37 lawyers to protect it from lawsuits (say, because of angry taxpayers are suing it for wasting 500K on logo design...), yet the city contracted out $1.4M to private lawyers last year alone, on frivolous spending by Outremont's burrow's officials. It's interesting how these lawyers were all politically well-connected people. Another instance had the city of montreal sell off property in the East end of Montreal valued at $33M to other certain "politically well-connected people" for only 4.4M ! quite a bargain! ...What woud YOU do for a 87% discount on 33 MILLION dollars?? How about when the City lost 8 million dollars on an alleged fraud last year? An independant inquisition found that the City was paying 10 firms for hours they've never worked. EIGHT MILLION ! who doesn't see these bills go through without asking what the hell they are paying for ?? Finally, there's the revolving door syndrome where city officials routinely "resign" to work for other companies. Interestingly enough, 94% of those now work for companies that the City contracts with?

For example, Frank Zampino, Robert Abdallah, and Yves Provost (yes, we are quite multiculturistic , we know!) were all working for the City of Montreal last year, yet this year they are working in different firms, all involved in the city's record-breaking contract of 335 Million dollars to "install and maintain water meters"... Let me underline that this is the biggest contract in our history! So maybe we should have a logo that says "Montreal - the city of the best water meters"Can you believe were are cutting on STM funds, and burrow budgets because of a $155M deficit (the provincial law forces each city to maintain a balanced budget), but we spent 335M on MAINTAINING water meters... (what the hell is a water meter anyway?) To conclude, recent polls found that Gerarld Tremblay is the most likely winner of next city elections by 82% ... This is what our mayor is working on right now:

• créer un aménagement qui met en valeur les verrières de l'artiste Marcelle Ferron aux abords de la station de métro Champ-de-Mars


• requalifier le mur est du Palais de justice


• concevoir un nouvel abribus


• développer une marque distinctive et une identité propre aux taxis montréalais concevoir le mobilier festivalier temporaire du Quartier des spectacles. (Of course, it's in French because he loves and respects his "nation"...)

So in the future, make sure you stop and look at our newly "qualified" wall on the Palais de justice.....

Andrew Banea
Montrealer