We dodged a bullet! Une lettre ouverte au Maire Tremblay

The composite picture above illustrates the bullet we dodged. It's a play on Projet Montreal's placards showing a Polaroid snapshot of something fixed over a picture. Of its current state of disrepair. Well, the election of either Bergeron or Harel could have led our city into the reverse. A prospering St-Catherine street boarded up if either  Harel or Bergeron had a chance to institute either of their ideas about closing the street to traffic from  Papineau to Atwater in Harel's case, and from Papineau to Guy in Bergeron's case.

Montrealer's voted to give Mayor Tremblay a third term. They voted their interests. They rejected pie-in-the-sky. Now Mayor Tremblay has to make sure he doesn't let the people down. This legacy term of the Mayor's must be proactive and not reactive.

Nous avons choisi d'illustrer ce message avec l'image ci-dessus. Il y a tellement de contenue dans un journal qui est parfois manqué. McLuhan avait raison, le médium est le message. Nous avons voulu que notre message soit fort, clair et sans équivoque. Les Montréalais devraient se rappeler de cette image. 

Just as our stories on some of Louise Harel’s questionable intimacies as Minister and Richard Bergeron’s more far-fetched conspiracy notions began to filter through other papers and media, so I want our message to stay with all of you now.

The last poll before the election had the Mayor behind 34 percent to 30 percent. He won 37-33. His vote margin of victory was approximately 20,000. We have devoted the front page of this publication to the election in every issue the past several months. We made a difference and so did every one of you who read them.

The Montreal of cosmopolitan community crosses all ethnic and language groups and all parts of this island. East, west and downtown. This cosmopolitanism rejects the politics of language and exclusion. Francophone, Anglophone and allophone, it is committed to make the broad community work. It chooses not to flee down the 401 where some even some 400,000 Quebec Francophones have gone since 1976. This cosmopolitanism see's itself as a fully enfranchised and a fully legitimate part of a city it helped build.

Mr. Mayor, those who played such a large part in getting you re-elected ask not for the crumbs of political pandering, but for politics of purpose that will enrich and empower. They reject the politics of division and discord based on the great lies of the culture wars of the past thirty

years that have been a hallmark of Louise Harel’s public record. They seek to balance the necessity of environmental protection with the urgency of economic growth without the wholesale, slavish eco-theocracy of Richard Bergeron that replaces policy with platitude. And they say enough to control state rule and regulation that make so much of our day-to-day activities subject to prohibition and penalty and is the silent undercurrent of both the Vision and Projet platforms.

M. le maire, vous devez réaliser tout cela. Ce sont des citoyens sophistiqués qui se sont avérés être le succès de votre campagne cette année. Mais, ça ne s’arrête pas là. Ils ont voté pour vous M. le maire non seulement comme une alternative aux politiques séparatistes et aux idées extraterrestres, mais comme une acceptation de vous en tant qu'un homme intelligent, juste et intègre. Cela ne signifie pas qu'ils oublieront la nécessité de réparer les échecs du processus qui proviennent trop souvent de l’hôtel de ville. 

They voted their interests, and their interests reflect the greater good of the city at large. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by communicating in English, the lingua franca, to the outside world. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by an understanding of the need for development and encouraging solid relationships in the North American and international business community.

Montreal¹s greater good will be served by  not making this city a battleground for renewed separatist or cultural debates. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by not reigniting linguistic wars and scaring off businesses from coming here. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by not making war on cars and by not destroying commercial arteries in favour of pedestrian promenades or bike paths. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by an empathetic understanding of the hopes and aspirations of all its citizens including those who may not be Francophone du souche but are nevertheless Quebecois and citizens of equal stature meriting equal respect. Montreal¹s greater good will be served by recognizing that statocratic rule and regulation has gone too far and is criminalizing this city¹s population and threatening its future.

Mr. Mayor, you won an historic third term with the help of people who are loyal to the principle set out above. They are not looking for more bureaucracy and more inquests. They are looking to you for leadership. They are looking to you to show them that you understand that the buck stops with you. That it cannot be passed to a committee or commission. They are looking to you to surround yourself – in the Mayor’s office – with a brain trust that will allow you to take decisive measures to make our public services seamless; to get our unions to co-operate and to generate a renewal of the downtown core.

Nous croyons que vous avez les instincts et les capacités nécessaires de faire ceci. Cette victoire devrait vous donner le courage d’aller de l’avant. C'est votre mandat d’héritage M. le maire. N'oubliez pas pourquoi vous l'avez voulue et n'oubliez pas les gens qui vous ont aidé à l'obtenir. Elles ont de l’influence!