The Insanity of Montreal: The Turcot Interchange

[August1991]

Gerald Tremblay, a soft-voiced, glad-handing corrupt politician, may appear to be mayor but in fact Richard Bergeron is acting mayor. Louise Harel is apparently senile and goes along with whatever is proposed. Montreal is now governed by such politicians. Why?

Because Montreal politics (and Quebec and Canadian politics) have fallen victim to the paralysis of Quebec independence. [Canadians outside of Montreal will understand this as the BQ.]

Some people in Quebec, a legitimate minority, want a separate country and as a result, all other questions, absolutely every other question, is irrelevant. Every public question is filtered through the lens of independence.

[Americans will understand this as the fear of Communism of the 1950s when every public issue often devolved to a question of whether one was a communist sympathizer.]

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A series of expressway interchanges (Turcot) were built in Montreal in the 1960s. They are now on the verge of collapse and require change. Everyone knows this and there have been various proposals to fix them. About a year or so ago, the Quebec Liberal (Charest, federalist) government proposed new interchanges.

In the past few days, the Montreal city (Tremblay, federalist but motivated by Harel, separatist and Bergeron, lunatic) proposed an expensive scheme involving a huge cement Jetson style circular interchange with public transit tramways and reserved bus lines.

Response in sovereignist Montreal?

Charest (federalist), bad.

Tremblay/Bergeron/Harel (not federalist), good.

The merits of the proposal were irrelevant. The only question is whether the proposal came from their side or our side, federalist or sovereignist.

(Before English-Canadians scoff at this, how often do they dismiss anything American because it is, well, American.)

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Canadian federal politics are never easy but they have reached a new impasse. This impasse (absurdity) in Montreal is more evidence.

When people no longer look at a problem objectively but only see it through the lens of one issue (in Quebec, independence), politicians will exploit the blindness.

Laurier said that Quebecers (French-Canadians) have no political opinions, only feelings. I am more fearful of a block of people who obsess on a single issue - to the exclusion of all others.

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You can see the current Turcot Interchange here

If you care, you can read about the Bergeron/Tremblay/Harel proposal here.

Bergeron cites this Shanghai interchange as a model of what he wants to build. (Bergeron believes that such an interchange could be an icon of modernism.)

Edited April 24, 2010 by August1991

[Shwa]

From the read of your post, if I was a Montrealer, federalist, I would go with the proposal from the other Montrealers. You say that Charest made a proposal, but you haven't said what that proposal is, where you give a little more detail to the TBH proposal, which actually appears to address the problem. Is there more detail to what Charest proposed? otherwise, I don't think it falls into a political trap, just a practical one.