Montreal - Not chess related

[Larry Bevand]

I love my city.

I am second generation here and I would not live anywhere else...I love to travel and if you offered me an apartment in Paris...Rome or New York (and many other cities LOL) as an exchange for 3 months, I would accept it in a heart beat ...but I would always come home after an exceptional visit:)

I grew up in the days of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau...a mayor who was proud of his city and dreamed the dream (Expo 67! ...1976 World Olympics ?!)...many had lots to say against this man...but not I...a mayor who goes to work (at hours I can relate to LOL) and sees a traffic light burned out...makes a report with the department concerned...and it is fixed the same day...is someone who cares and is in charge!

I am very sad today. Our city has lost its "raison d'etre". Honestly Toronto had this "raison d'etre" of late until this Rob Ford crap. Western Canada has become the true dreamers and realizers of late.

I am following the developments in my city on a daily basis...Denis Coderre is the prime candidate for Mayor of Montreal....I will do some research on him...and I think I will become politically active in my city for the first time ever.

Larry

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

I feel your pain. When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s it was generally recognized that Montreal was Canada's queen city. I was involved with Expo 67 as the assistant to the federal minister responsible. I met your hero Jean Drapeau at that time late one night at City Hall before heading off to La Ronde for a tour of that magical place a few days before the opening. One of the most memorable evenings of my life.
Then things started to get crazy, starting with Drapeau and his delusions of grandeur with the Big O and construction costs run amok, rife with corporate and union corruption. Along came the FLQ, a band of thugs and cretins with their bombs and kidnappings and murder leading to the lockdown of the City with the War Measures Act. Then the PQ who worked to clean things up after Bourassa but also produced the exodus of the anglophones/jews (or as Parizeau would say, the ethnics) followed by the return of Bourassa and corruption on a scale that makes today's pecadillos pale by comparison.
I still love Montreal and spent much of my business career working in that city. But the Queen City off our youth has, I'm afraid, become a raddled old lady of ill repute.

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

P.S. All I will say is you will not find yor salvTion with Coderre.

[Larry Bevand]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

P.S. All I will say is you will not find yor salvTion with Coderre.

Thank you Gordon! I am not interested in going into this game simply to win...I want to make a difference! Based on what I have read so far...I agree with you about Coderre. I also don't want a major role in the system...simply one where I can say...at the end of the day...I have made Montreal better! I remember lunching with a good friend...Claude Filion...he was a PQ member of Parliament, instrumental in getting money for the 1989 Spraggettt-Yusupov Match and chairmain of the Quebec Human Rights Commission. He was a very special person who was a lawyer ( a terrible profession!) who transformed that to good, I remember him saying to me...we passed that legislation in the Quebec Assembly...I am happy to see the fruits of that legislation for Chess'n Math!

There are many great people in Canadian politics! People who make real sacrifices and care about making things better...and then there are the others..

We have a great country...let's make it the best folks who care...as did Drapeau and many others! In the U.S. Bloomberg comes to mind...I was a big fan of Obama...tough positionn...jury is out :)

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

Larry and Gordon, thanks for these posts. I was a kid in Montreal during those heady times. Yes, there were the soldiers from the war measures act, but there were also the grand visions that made Montreal an enormously proud city back then. I remember my father working as an engineer on the "Metro", the growing Montreal subway system. Along with his colleagues, they were very proud of how they were contributing to the development of a classic city!

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

I also grew up in Montreal, in the 60's. Truly a magical time: almost overnight (certainly by today's standards) the city went from pretty much what it was in the 30's to a vibrant modern metropolis- new skyline, subways, Expo, Major League baseball, the Olympics. In the early 70's I (along with many anglo/ethnics) moved to Toronto, also in the throes of a "golden age". To be sure, there are things that are better today (mainly related to social attitudes) but those were the good old days, if only because OPTIMISM was still prevalent, a belief that things were getting better (maybe I'm reading too many of those apocalyptic headlines in McLean's magazine :) )

[Larry Bevand]

Re: Montreal - Not chess related

The Montreal Municipal elections are around the corner. I took the easy route and did not do anything :(. If I am true to my beliefs I will get involved in Montreal municipal affairs in 2014.

It looks like Coderre will win this (I agree with Gordon Ritchie on him...BTW...heard you on CBC radio Cross Canada Checkup last Sun...you are good :).

I am going with Cote myself...despite the fact that he ranks last in the polls...

I live in The Plateau...and for me...Fernandez is a please leave NOW guy (polls show he has a good chance of being re-elected...URGH)! So now I have to figure out if my strategic vote is for the Coderre candidate in my riding or the Cote candidate...we vote for the mayor and the local rep.

So advance polls are this weekend and the polls are on Nov 3.

Larry

I will be voting on Sunday and I encourage all Montrealers to vote...polls show that less than 40% of the population will be voting ...incredible!