I have often, in our pages, been a defender of Valérie Plante.
· read more: French defence: Legault and Plante cross swords
My defense is basically this: Montreal is taking a sensible direction for the future, despite the difficulties we may experience there and the poor caricature some people make of it.
Since 2017, the plant management has taken bold decisions such as an express bike network, pedestrianization of some streets, a return to a car-centric city, the creation of parks in the west and east of the city, and homelessness management. ..
Basically, a city is built primarily for the people who live there. It's not perfect, but the city has become more civic-minded since Valerie Plante became mayor.
An attack on Montreal?
Every now and then, many readers let me know their differences. Very directly.
Each time, I see how the Montreal-regional divide has strong political efficacy.
It was a process the Legault government used many times, most notably the Third Annex and the Horn Foundry. Easy, we fall into sentiments without arguing the merits.
However, this week, the roles were reversed.
Valérie Plante strongly accused the government of reforming McGill and Concordia tuition fees for students from outside Quebec and foreigners.
This, he declared, “hits Montreal directly.”
Attack on Montreal. Indeed.
By repeating the rhetoric of the Anglo-Quebec lobby, Valérie Plante is disillusioned. Yes, exactly, disappointing.
Faith or Electoral System? What do I know, but in both cases, there is something disappointing about Meyer's approach to the French situation in Montreal.
He failed in his symbolic and essential duty as mayor.
McGill and Concordia
The Legault government didn't even listen to the moon.
This requires an increase in tuition fees for foreign undergraduates and their Frenchization.
It is a logical public policy if anglicization is to be tackled in Montreal.
McGill University is built on an edifice of linguistic, historical, institutional and financial endowment.
A specific example summarizing these benefits: To offset tuition increases, McGill will fund the tuition of each out-of-province student from its own pockets with the help of a $3,000 scholarship.
We wonder which French-speaking university can do this.
no answer.
McGill and Concordia are seeing their enrollment numbers drop because of this policy, they say, despite this compensatory stipend. So, the problem is not the charges but the claims policy.
I would never say that this is perhaps a “direct attack” against French-speaking Montreal.
Politicians play politics
Don't be naive, Minister Roberge and PM Legault were happy to attack Mayor Plant in French.
A good enemy of “chicken-no” government.
This allows them to call themselves French defenders against the PQ. And to respond to the mayor's criticism of public transport, housing and strikes by public sector workers.
But in the end, we don't care about all these political opinions.
Because Valerie Plante should be the best partner to protect the French in Montreal.
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