All three advance polling stations in Verdun were packed last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The heavier than usual crowds were in part due to the time it took for each voter to fill out five different ballets\u2014for the mayors of Montreal and Verdun, for a city councillor and for two borough councillors. All five ballots were put in the same ballot box to be later divided by colour for the official count.<\/p>\n
I have to vote five times,\u201d exclaimed one voter. \u201cHow am I supposed to figure out who to vote for?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She did attend last week\u2019s debate between the candidates for mayor of Verdun, which was also packed, although many of the audience members included people running for other positions in the election. The master of ceremonies had to specifically request these candidates to refrain from asking questions to leave the floor open for citizens who were trying to decide how to vote.<\/p>\n
Prior to the question period, each candidate had an opportunity to comment briefly about five different themes\u2014cultural communities, the status of women, housing and living environment, poverty and democratic life.<\/p>\n
Each of these themes is important to the community groups who organized the event: the Centre des femmes de Verdun, the Table de concertation en relations interculturelles de Verdun, the Comit\u00e9 d\u2019action des citoyennes et citoyens de Verdun, Project PAL and the immigrant family aid centre known as Casa C.A.F.I.<\/p>\n
The crowd was polite for most of the presentations, even when candidates made comments that didn\u2019t seem to fit the themes. Applause was loudest for candidates whose remarks did not use up their entire allotted times, which happened three times.<\/p>\n
Other than that, only two moments defined the mood of the crowd. The first occurred when a candidate mentioned her concern over the loss of Verdun\u2019s rooming houses and got lots of applause. The second moment was a hail of oohs and aahs that greeted a candidate who introduced his baby grandson and claimed he would be brought up as a feminist.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s debate was the second and last of the campaign.<\/p>\n
All eight teams in the borough have pledged to continue door-to-door campaigning daily until the election next Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All three advance polling stations in Verdun were packed last Sunday. The heavier than usual crowds were in part due to the time it took for each voter to fill out five different ballets\u2014for the mayors of Montreal and Verdun, for a city councillor and for two borough councillors. All five ballots were put in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-Nn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3078,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-council-split\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":0},"title":"Verdun Council Split between \u00c9quipe Coderre & Projet Montreal","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Voters in Verdun split their choices between all the candidates who represented change. \u201cEveryone in Verdun wants change and our position is not so far from that of Projet Montreal or even M\u00e9lanie Joly,\u201d says Jean-Fan\u00e7ois Parenteau, who is now mayor-elect of the borough. \u201cAs long as there\u2019s change we\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parenteau","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Parenteau.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15979,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/english-commissioners-verdun-lasalle\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":1},"title":"English commissioners in Verdun and LaSalle","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Voters in Verdun and LaSalle have to choose between two and four school-board commissioner candidates, depending on where they live. People living in Lester B. Pearson\u2019s ward 1, which includes Nun\u2019s Island and mainland Verdun plus the Bronx in LaSalle, will choose from among Sergio Borja, Jim Bytheway, Mary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/38FRANK-di-BELLO.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2370,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/alain-tasse\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":2},"title":"Verdun Candidate for Mayor: Alain Tass\u00e9","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Association: Coalition Montr\u00e9al Marcel C\u00f4t\u00e9, https:\/\/www.coalitionmtl.com\/ As Marcel C\u00f4t\u00e9\u2019s pick for mayor of the borough of Verdun, Alain Tass\u00e9\u2019s experience serves as both his biggest strength and a potential weakness. As a current member of Montreal\u2019s executive committee, the 56-year-old takes care of urban planning, economic development and water, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tass\u00e9 headshot","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tassehead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":979,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-riding\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":3},"title":"Verdun Riding Narrowly Held by Liberals","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"September 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 In the end, Henri-Fran\u00e7ois Gautrin won by 524 votes. The final poll didn\u2019t come in until 12:25:41 on Wednesday morning. Gautrin, the Liberal incumbent who has held the Verdun riding since 1994, beat Thierry St Cyr, with the Parti Qu\u00e9becois, who was projected to win the riding all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics That Matter"","block_context":{"text":"Politics That Matter","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/politics-that-matter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Verdun.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Verdun.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Verdun.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2989,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/andree-champoux\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":4},"title":"Verdun Candidate for Mayor: Andr\u00e9e Champoux","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Association: Team Andr\u00e9e Champoux for Verdun, http:\/\/pourverdun.com\/ Business woman and Nun\u2019s Island resident Andr\u00e9e Champoux has become enamored of municipal politics since joining Claude Trudel\u2019s team four years ago. \u201cI\u2019m a people person. I was brought up in Verdun. I bought my first house on Woodland. The only place I\u2019ve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Andr\u008ee Champoux","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Andr%C3%A9e-Champoux-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1362,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/ginette-marotte-mayor-of-verdun\/","url_meta":{"origin":3061,"position":5},"title":"Ginette Marotte New Mayor of Verdun","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Verdun councillors chose Ginette Marotte as the mayor of the borough at an election held on Tuesday, December 11. 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