Montreal Cops Rain on Idiot Mayor's 375th Party

Nothing made me happier than to see Montreal's idiot mayor Denis Coderre getting his ass handed to him by Montreal cops who noisily crashed his 375th anniversary party on Tuesday, with a massive demonstration meant to embarrass the Mayor in his hour glory.

It's like having an ex show up to your wedding shouting expletives and telling all the guest exactly what a piece of dirt you are. Priceless!

At any rate, our unflappable mayor has decided that the police demonstration won't be allowed ruin his bridge lighting ceremony and so he has ordered a do-over.
Yup, a do-over and damn the expense.
The orgy of spending to celebrate the 375th anniversary of Montreal's founding is perhaps the most obscene display of political indifference since Marie Antoinette, when told that the peasants had no bread, replied that then they should eat brioche.

The police union didn't let up, placing this embarrassing billboard around the city,

"A Mayor that acts contemptibly towards his police for the last three years. that's what he celebrates"

What kind of a retarded notion is it to celebrate a 375th anniversary, anyway?
It's true that there's a lot of goofy commemorative days celebrated, like World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 or International No Diet Day  commemorated each May 6, but these ridiculous events don't cost a fortune to celebrate.
If Montreal can blow $200 million on the 375th, how much will they spend on the 400th in 25 years?

Yesterday a spokesman for the $40 million dollar project that will light up the Jacques Cartier bridge with a programmable multi-colour display explained how the colours will change to match the seasons from dark blue in winter to sizzling red in summer.
This from the design firm that organized the project;

"As the day’s first light appears on the horizon, the bridge comes to life in a dance of lights, gradually revealing that day’s colour.
Every hour at night, short 5- minute animations visually translate Montreal’s mood based on different types of daily data: the weather, traffic, news, major events, and more.
The bridge is then taken over by luminous movement, coloured
according to the hottest topic of the day in Montreal media:
Society -red, Environment -green, Technology -light blue, Business- grey, Sports- blue, Institutions- pink, Culture purple)"

Agggghhhh!!!!!!!!!       Honestly, have you ever heard of anything more moronic.

Now without going back and re-reading the text, can you tell me what the colour light-blue signifies?
The lights on the bridge will forever remind us what cretins we have running the city and if our idiot mayor thinks that citizens will devote time to deciphering the meaning of each colour presentation, he is even stupider than wood. 
The police did us a favour by ruining the day for the mayor, reminding us that the city is in a precipitous decline and like Nero who played his fiddle while Rome burned, Denis Coderre is ignoring the reality that Montreal has become.
I'm not usually a big fan of Richard Martineau of Le Journal de Montreal, but he followed up a television rant on the same subject with this piece in the newspaper. If you read French you can find the article HERE (thanks for the link Mamun.)

"Surprised that Toronto won the Infrastructure Bank head office and not Montreal......Really?

A THRILLING CITY
If this news has thrown you for a loop, it's because you haven’t been to Toronto recently.
It is one of the most exciting cities in North America. As exciting as New York.

Before, you say to yourselves: "Yeah, Toronto is the business capital of Canada, it certainly is big on business, but on culture, the city is dead. They're rolling up the sidewalks at 6 pm ... »
In the 1980s, maybe. Not anymore.

Toronto buries Montreal hands down.
In finance, in culture, in gastronomy.
The architecture is daring, the restaurants fantastic, the museums extraordinary.

Not to mention the TIFF, the Toronto Film Centre, which can make even the most demanding and hard-core film buffs drool.
Toronto moves, it percolates, it is driven!

Meanwhile, young entrepreneurs who work hard to open restaurants and businesses in underprivileged neighbourhoods in Montreal are have their storefronts attacked.
We don’t want rich people here! Go away, cursed capitalists!
Leave us with our hot dogs and our 5-10-15 stores!

HELLO PRIORITIES
The day before yesterday, I was discussing with a friend who regularly visits the Queen City for work.
Each time he lands at Billy Bishop Airport, located on a small island off of downtown Toronto, he takes the ferry and poof, finds himself in the heart of the action.
One day, while riding the ferry, he read that the city would soon open a tunnel that will connect the island directly with the downtown. The City posted the plans of the tunnel on the boat explaining its project ...
"Well, when I went back," he told me enthusiastically, "the tunnel was already finished!" Built, finished! There was no procrastination, no running around in circles "

But here ...
Let's face it: Montreal is a decrepit city, in decline.

And what are we doing? We are spending $ 40 million to light up the Jacques-Cartier bridge! As if it were a priority!
If you had cancer, would you consider getting your nose done by a plastic surgeon?
If the roof of your house fell into ruins, would you spend thousands of dollars to install Christmas lights on your gallery?
I do not think so.
Here we spread some super expensive icing on a cake that smells mouldy ...
A BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY

Obviously the Infrastructure Bank headquarters was given in Toronto, of course.
The opposite would be surprising.
We want to attract headquarters? Well, let's get on with it.
Let us create a climate conducive to investment, encourage entrepreneurs, stop putting sticks in the spokes of the wheels on everything that moves!

Audacity, audacity and even more audacity!
Instead of organizing a bogus 375th anniversary to give Quebeckers the impression that something is happening in Montreal, let us work hand in hand with the business community to get (finally) the city out of the hole!"

A pretty good screed, with the exception of the reference to Woolworth's dime stores, which all closed about twenty years ago, replaced with today's Dollar stores.

At any rate, in the meantime our mayor plays Mr. Dressup, living in a fantasy world of cosplay while our beloved city is left to rot from the inside out.

Montreal has become a bit of a joke, where carnivals, festivals and expensive parties are political devices meant to keep the masses at bay.
This isn't a new concept, throughout history leaders have employed this same device to keep a 'lid' on things.
Panem et Circenses. is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "bread and circuses," supposedly coined by Juvenal and describing the cynical formula of the Roman emperors for keeping the masses content with ample food and entertainment.

and that is where we are.....