On having a real mayor

Living in Montreal, I have lived through the years when the so-called mayor was nothing more than a an invisible man, nowhere to be seen or found while the mafia-owned-and-runned city fell apart.

Am I in love with the new mayor?  Not particularly.  But what I do love is the fact that he a present, engaged, visible mayor that goes about town and gives himself the appearance of getting shit done - whether or not he does in actual fact is open to debate, but at least he's OUT THERE and not hiding behind the closed door of a downtown office.

I don't agree with everything he says and does.  His stance on the sacrosanct home-delivery of mail is, to me, wildly hyperbolic and made to cater to the 60+ crowd - the same belly-achers that will get their doctors to get them disabled parking passes to avoid walking 20 extra feet to get to the doors of the mall, or request wheelchairs to get per-boarding privileges in Fort Lauderdale, but are miraculously cured as the elbow you in the ribs to get off the plane and into the customs line first.  On the mail issue, I must say this: I have lived on the island of Montreal almost my entire adult life, and not at any of the 3 properties I lived in was the mail delivered to my door.  I have not been killed, injured or maimed by walking the 35 feet required to get to my communal mailbox.  If you can walk, you can get your mail.  If you CAN'T walk, then I sympathize and would support specific door-delivery for you.

But here's where I do agree with Mr. Mayor : standing up to the screeching, whining blue collar workers who are outraged - OUTRAGED, I tell you - that they are being sanctioned for deciding to suddenly walk off their jobs and attend union meetings because...  because...  well, BECAUSE.  They have a contract until 2017, they are not negotiating a new one, and there is no valid reason to be striking, other than they appear to be jealous of the attention the other public-sector employees are getting.  They are victims of a smear and hate campaign on the part of the media and the administration who aren't even decent enough to recognize that blue collar workers give out Christmas baskets....  Wait, what?

WTF does Christmas baskets have to do with the fact that you have a valid contract that is still in effect and that your strike is both necessary and illegal?  Paul Arcand's interview with union leader Chatal Racette was an exercise in belligerent, adolescent avoidance of fact and misdirection that essentially came close to shaving a few points off the listeners' IQs.  She was completely unable to explain the fundamental question of *why* they were striking, and spent the interview complaining that the mayor and media were just mean stupidheads.

Though I don't always agree with M. Coderre, when it comes to the blue collar workers, I'm glad we have a man instead of a ghost in office.