Martin C. Barry

The Conservatives won the 2006 federal election with 40 per cent of the seats and 36 per cent of votes, followed by the 2008 election when they won 46 per cent of seats with 38 per cent of national support.

The Conservatives scored another win in 2011 when they finished with 54 per cent of the seats and 39.6 per cent popular support, while the Liberals won the 2015 election with 50 per cent of the seats but just 35.5 per cent of the national vote.

A flawed system?

These kinds of lob-sided election results – in which the seat count doesn’t jive with the popular result – are leading some observers to view Canada’s current electoral system as fundamentally flawed, according to Saint-Louis Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, president of the Liberal government’s special electoral reform committee.

Scarpaleggia was at the Centre de Sablon in Chomedey on Sept. 13 to lead a public consultation meeting attended by 20 or so people, with three of Laval’s four MPs (Angelo Iacono [Alfred-Pellan], Yves Robillard [Marc-Aurèle-Fortin] and Fayçal El-Khoury [Laval-Les Îles]) also present.

Canada’s current electoral system, known as “first-past-the-post” or plurality voting, has voters indicating on the ballot the candidate of their choice, with the one receiving more votes than any other winning the election. The government’s actions date from a resolution passed at a Liberal Party of Canada convention in Montreal in 2014, a year before they formed the current government.

Some voting alternatives

Alternative types of voting system that were presented during the meeting included: Preferential or Ranked Voting, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, with the winner requiring at least 50 per cent support; Proportional Representation, which increases the impact of the popular vote while weakening the link between voters and local representatives; Single Transferable Voting, in which electors vote for their most preferred candidate, and as the count proceeds and candidates are elected or eliminated, the vote is transferred to second-choice candidates; and Mixed Proportional Representation, which combines first-past-the-post and Proportional Representation. An added complication to some of these is that they involve electing more than one representative per riding.

While the NDP and the Green Party agree that Canada is overdue for an electoral reform and are participating fully, the official opposition Conservatives have been much less enthusiastic. The Conservatives have also been conducting an aggressive campaign on Twitter and other social media, demanding the Liberal government hold a referendum if any changes are made to the country’s electoral system.

Response by constituents

During a question and answer period following a PowerPoint presentation, several residents said what they thought of the proposed alternatives. Alain Ouimet of Alfred-Pellan said he tended to favour Mixed Proportional Representation, while adding, “I am mostly in favour of changing the actual model.”

One of the criticisms expressed during the meeting about Mixed Proportional Representation is that since it is a two-tier system, involving the election of representatives from local ridings as well political party representatives, the cost of sustaining such a system could easily be higher.

Viken Afarian of Laval-Les Îles said the present electoral system is “is one of the worst among the potential choices. I also am in favour of Proportional Representation, but at the same time as saying that we don’t have to increase the number of elected representatives because we could change the number of ridings to make sure that, I don’t know, say 75 per cent of representatives are elected by the ridings, 25 per cent nationally through party lists.

“For me this is not a worry but it’s not where I am going,” he added. “Preferential voting would be much better than what we have got. On the other hand, we will lose the vote expressed in first and second rounds by people who have become lost. We would be in the process of forcing the channelling of votes that perhaps the citizens don’t want.”

Against radical reform

George Guzmas, editor of the Laval News and a Laval-Les Îles resident, waded into the debate. He said that in Italy there have been 62 governments since World War II, largely because Italy has held elections with the Mixed Proportional Representation system. He also pointed out that in Greece, where a form of Proportional Representation is used, a neo-Nazi party gained the opportunity to run for the Greek parliament largely because of the nature of the electoral system.

“This is why I am against a radical reform of the electoral system,” he said, “because I think democracy in Canada and the electoral system are working very well. I know, too, that at the present time Italy is looking at the Canadian electoral system to change theirs.” Guzmas said he plans to present a written memorandum, including his opposition to a reform, to the electoral reform committee.

Mixed Proportional Representation

Michel Charuest of Alfred-Pellan suggested that Mixed Proportional Representation could help build bridges between political parties by encouraging them to work more closely, while reducing the tendency of parties to be partisan. He pointed to the example of Germany as a European country where Mixed Proportional Representation is used and the government is stable.

“That’s why I believe that Mixed Proportional Representation is one of the best systems,” said Charuest, while adding that Canada’s current electoral system favours regional parties, such as the Bloc Québécois, who have used it to their advantage.

The Liberal government’s attempt at electoral reform comes two years after the former Conservative government passed the Fair Elections Act, which was attacked by opponents (including the Liberals) as an attempt by the Conservatives to change the country’s electoral system to the Conservatives’ advantage. Iacono and El-Khoury maintained adamantly that there is nothing partisan in the Liberals’ current efforts.

‘Not partisan,’ say Liberals

“Absolutely not,” said El-Khoury. “All the decisions will be based on facts, on evidence, on research, on consultation. You know, for this particular reform our minister is travelling and we are doing consultation from coast to coast to coast. We are collecting data, evidence and we will provide our report to the Chamber, but all the citizens of Canada are being consulted.”

Iacono noted that the Liberals “invited all the other parties to be part of this process, so we’re not really doing it on our own. We’re inviting everybody to be part of it.” As for the indifferent response from some opposition MPs, he acknowledged, “They are not much collaborating, but we have continuously invited them to be part of this change to help us to come up with something that will represent all Canadians.”

Scarpalegggia, for his part, pointed out that the Liberal government’s good intentions should be evident given the fact they agreed to put together the electoral reform committee with a minority of Liberals as members. “The rules of the House of Commons make it such that committees reflect the distribution of seats in the House, but this is an exception,” he said, adding “I think this is a gesture of good faith.”

(TLN)

Laval mayor Marc Demers has repeated his position to a federal panel of commissioners regarding the necessity to maintain door-to-door mail delivery in the city’s older neighbourhoods.

“A number of our residents have no problem with the community postal delivery boxes in neighbourhoods where recent changes took place,” Demers said in a statement.

Older neighbourhoods

“The way things are done has become clear for some. But this is not the case in our older neighbourhoods which are more densely populated and largely inhabited by older people or persons with reduced mobility who are losing an essential service without anything to replace it.”

Therefore the mayor is asking Canada Post to withdraw all community mail boxes from Laval’s older neighbourhoods. “In the most recent neighbourhoods, we want Canada Post to systematically review each of its community postal box installations in conjunction with our staff in order to assure us that they fully respond to the criteria of security and fluidity of traffic. In cases where the situation might be problematic, these boxes must be reinstalled elsewhere.”

Seeks cooperative approach

Demers said that in all new neighbourhoods of Laval, the installation of community mailboxes will have to be validated through a consultation process in conjunction with municipal services so that the boxes respect Laval’s municipal regulations. “It is our wish that Canada Post takes care of these community mailboxes as a good corporate citizen, concerned about the environment, while integrating recycling bins for paper in these installations.”

Demers also took a moment to criticize the past behaviour of Canada Post. “We were confronted by a unilateral decision by Canada Post to abandon home delivery,” he told the commissioners. “From the moment the decision was implemented, the City of Laval was up against an absence of listening and cooperation. But in October 2014, a resolution by the municipal council attested to our desire to cooperate with Canada Post.”

Canada Post criticized

According to the mayor, a negotiated solution would have allowed planning for better installations that would have answered to the corporate goals of Canada Post as well as of the citizens. Apart from that, he said it would also have avoided security problems while reducing the anxiety of handicapped or older residents living in some of Laval’s older neighbourhoods.

“The decision by Canada Post gave way to chaotic implementation of the community mail boxes,” added Demers. “We would have wished to deal with an intervener that was more conciliatory, more humane in its way of meeting objectives.” He said he respected Canada Post’s goal of efficiency and viability in the context that it took into account “respect for our most vulnerable citizens.”

Martin C. Barry

After 25 years in the taxi business, George Boussios says he has never seen a provincial government do so many about-faces as the Liberals have in their handling of Uber.

“In one Liberal mandate, their first transport minister, Robert Poëti, was against Uber a hundred percent, saying it’s illegal,” the president of Champlain Taxi, Montreal’s second-largest taxi service, said in an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia.

Three ministers and counting

“A few months later Mr. Poëti was gone and then they put in Mr. Daoust,” he added, referring to Liberal MNA Jacques Daoust who was then appointed transport minister. “But I guess Mr. Couillard wasn’t too happy with the second transport minister going against him, and then the Rona problem arose and he [Daoust] resigned. So now we have a third transport minister in one mandate, which right there to me doesn’t seem right.”

The latest appointee in the transport minister’s post is Laurent Lessard. He remains largely unmoved by the pleas of the province’s established taxi industry to deal more decisively with Uber, which is gradually undermining conventional taxi service. The government’s overall view is that Uber – which uses independent car owners without taxi permits – is operating legally, although the government believes some tweaking is necessary to iron out inconsistencies between Uber and regular taxi service.

A question of fairness

“All we are asking for is fairness,” said Boussios, who took over Champlain from his father who operated it before for decades. According to Boussios, the value of taxi permits, which have been mandatory for cab owners up to now, has diminished by more than $100,000 since Uber became involved in the past few years.

“Five, six years ago they were worth $210,000 – $220,000. I saw a permit two weeks ago that was put up for sale for $120,000. The owner died and the family put it up for sale. That really says it all. If you can drive for Uber without a permit, why would you invest even $1,000 if you can do it without a permit? It looks to me almost like someone is trying to devalue permits on purpose.”

While maintaining that San Francisco-headquartered Uber hasn’t been obeying new legislation, including a clause that says the company’s drivers can’t bill for more than 1.5 per cent in surge charges, Boussios said the company routinely behaves as though it is beyond the reach of the law.

“We all know that Uber does not follow any laws or respect any laws, whether it’s here or all over the world, and that’s why they’re in court all over the world now because they don’t care about the law. It’s a disgrace that we – especially the Liberal Party – make a law and Uber just laughs in their face and does basically whatever they want.”

Champlain’s fleet shrinking

While Champlain Taxi’s operations peaked at 500 cars, the fleet now stands at around 390 vehicles. “Permit owners can’t find drivers to work their cars,” said Boussios. “The people who are suffering the most in this are the permit owners. When a driver, who hasn’t invested anything, hears from Uber that he can work with no rules or regulations, why is he going to work for me?”

For Champlain Taxi, the immediate impact has been a reduction in revenue which comes from monthly dues. “If they’re paying $400 per month per car per owner and 10 cars leave, I’ve lost $4,000 right there – that’s what we’re losing.” At the rate Uber is advancing, he predicts that within five years the taxi industry as it is now will no longer exist.

“Look at Diamond,” he said, referring to Montreal’s longtime cab industry leader which was bought up recently by transportation entrepreneur Alexandre Taillefer. “Diamond was the biggest one in Montreal and they sold out. If Diamond with 1,000 cars and that’s been a family-run business for 60 – 70 years can do that, what’s next? If Uber stays, it doesn’t look good for any company. There’ll be no point of driving a taxi when you drive for Uber in your own car.”

Impact on immigrants

Boussios sees individual taxi permit owners as being the biggest losers in the chaos that is sweeping Quebec’s taxi industry. “I’m talking about the person who’s invested $200,000, remortgaged his house to basically buy a job.” He said immigrants are most affected, including Haitians, Algerians, North Africans, Lebanese and some Greeks left over from an earlier generation of cab owners.

Boussios sees the inaction of Premier Philippe Couillard’s government as symptomatic of decay he thinks lies within the Liberal Party. “All my life I’ve been a Liberal and my parents were Liberals,” he said. “We are told to vote Liberal because of fear of separation and referendums and language laws. But at the end of the day, you know what, it is a party of corruption. In the end, they’re not for the middle-class and hardworking people. They’re for people like Uber and for people like Taillefer who are part of the top one per cent.”

Martin C. Barry

On Monday Sept. 19, grade five students from École Boisjoili in eastern Laval got a guided tour of one of Île Jésus’ best kept secrets – the Bois Papineau. Although the densely-wooded forest behind the Pavillon du Bois Papineau on Saint-Martin Blvd. East has been a protected area for decades, a surprising number of people are not yet aware of its charms.

Very old trees

Among other things, the Papineau woods are said to resemble very closely what the forests of New France looked like shortly after the arrival of the first colonists. This is because many of the trees are more than 200 hundred years old. In 2016, the City of Laval is marking the 30^th year since an association was formed to lobby successfully for the woods to be declared a conservation site.

By 1986, long after vast agricultural and wooded areas of the City of Laval had started to be settled for suburban development, the Association du Bois Papineau was formed to safeguard what was increasingly seen as a threatened natural heritage. Today the territory is well protected over an area of several acres from development and construction.

For the children

Following the tour, the students and their teachers were joined in the Pavillon du Bois Papineau by Mayor Marc Demers, Mille-Îles Liberal MNA Francine Charbonneau, Laval city councillor for Val-des-Arbres Christiane Yoakim and CSDL president Louise Lortie. Demers spoke of the importance of preserving Laval’s forested areas such as the Papineau woods for future generations of children. He also maintained that since coming to power at Laval city hall three years ago, his administration has taken important steps to protect Laval’s woodlands.

Lungs of the city

“At the same time our woodlands are the lungs of a big city,” added Demers. “We know that air quality is a constant challenge. So we must do everything and make every effort to preserve the quality of the air. I have said before that we are what we breathe and we have a responsibility to assure the best quality possible. Health costs linked to the quality of the air are going through the roof in Canada these past few years according to the latest studies that I have been privileged to see and it is enormous. It is a sign that we need to be careful with our woodlands.”

New book launched

Charbonneau followed up on the children’s theme brought up by Demers. “It is through you that we come to understand that the woods don’t belong to adults – they are lent out to the children,” she said, alluding to the fact that the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said something along the same lines.

At the same time, the gathering was also was the occasion for the launch of a new book completed for the 30^th anniversary of the Papineau woodlands: L’Arbre millénaire, ou l’histoire du Bois Papineau. Publication of the book received an important amount of financial support from Me. Pierre Renaud who was also present for its launch.

(TLN)

Provincial MNAs from the Laval region are raising their voices against a proposal by Quebec’s Director General of Elections that would see part of the riding of Chomedey annexed to the riding of Fabre.

According to a statement issued by the MNAs, the 2,538 voters in the current configuration of Chomedey, which is bounded by Saint-Martin Blvd. West, 100^th Ave. to the intersection of Dutrisac St., the bike path in Le Boutillier Park, Souvenir Rd., Clarendon Ave. Notre-Dame Blvd. and the Hydro Quebec high-tension power line, stand to become part of the riding of Fabre “with which they have no sociological, cultural, historical or geographic affinity,” the MNAs said.

Chomedey Liberal MNA Guy Ouellette, president of the Laval Liberal caucus, said the proposed modification “creates more than an inconvenience. It reaches to the heart of the Hellenic community, a community which has been in Laval since the city’s beginning.” Ouellette also pointed out the importance of taking fully into account the projected growth of the population of the riding, and beyond that the growth of the region of Laval.

Many factors to consider

The MNAs pointed out that Article 15 of the elections act stipulates that any restructuring of electoral boundaries must take into account the surrounding natural communities as being a representation of the electors. The density of the population, the relative growth of the population, accessibility, the surface area, the natural boundaries and the presence of specific groups of people, be they religious, linguistic or cultural, are among the factors to be considred, said the MNAs.

“With the proposed enlargement of the territory of Fabre and the addition of Souvenir Rd., this would cause the outflow of the Hellenic orthodox church of Chomedey,” said Fabre Liberal MNA Monique Sauvé. “It is more than a building: this church is a place of community, a gathering spot, a pillar of the Greek community in Chomedey.”

Sainte-Rose Liberal MNA Jean Habel suggested that another way should be found before proceeding with any changes. “The addition of a section of Chomedey North, bounded by Autoroute 440, le Carrefour Blvd., Route 117 and the A-15, while annexing it to the riding of Sainte-Rose,” he said. “This proposal comes from the fact that there exist natual links with this sector north of Chomedey.”

‘Agape Classic’ golfers raise $6,500 for a great cause

Martin C. Barry

As if things couldn’t be any sunnier after a decade, there wasn’t so much as a cloud in the sky on Tuesday Sept. 13 as supporters descended on the Victorien golf course in Mirabel to take part in the 10^th anniversary Agape Classic fundraising golf tournament.

With that, the tournament’s organizers can say they’ve had a 10-year-long unbroken streak of fine weather for their annual event to benefit Agape, Laval’s leading English-language charitable services provider.

The tournament drew at least 64 golfers eager to enjoy their favourite game while contributing to one of the most worthy causes in Laval. “I guess September has always been a good month for us to hold this,” said Kevin McLeod, Agape’s executive-director. In all, this year’s Agape Classic raised $6,500.

Among the items up during a silent auction segment this year were hockey jerseys from Alexander Ovechkin and P.K. Subban, as well as a large framed image of Habs goaltender Carey Price. There were also tickets to Canadiens games, gift certificates for restaurants and wine baskets. Before setting off onto the fairways with a shotgun start, the early birds got to indulge themselves in a big traditional breakfast.

Caisse’s long sponsorship

In addition to the 10-year milestone, the Caisse Desjardins de Chomedey also marked a decade of being the Agape Classic’s principal sponsor. “As has been the tradition for the past 10 years, this year we helped Agape once again with the organization of the tournament,” said Daniel Rousseau, president of the Chomedey Caisse. According to Rousseau, it was the Caisse that planted the seed for the golf tournament when board members suggested to Kevin McLeod that an event such as the Agape Classic would be a great fundraiser.

It’s hard to keep Fr. Michael Leclerc, Agape’s unofficial chaplain, away from the Agape Classic considering he’s an avid golfer to begin with. In all, he’s missed just a single tournament: the first one. “When I see the value in what they do, the help they bring to the community and the resources they provide, for me it becomes a no-brainer to come and support Agape in recognition of this,” said Leclerc who is also vice-president of the board.