{"id":679,"date":"2014-09-24T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/24\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:54","slug":"civic-politics-becoming-more-civi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/09\/24\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\/","title":{"rendered":"Civic politics becoming more civil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By Robert Frank<\/b><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesuburban.com\/\">www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It has been refreshing to see Laval\u2019s municipal leaders start to take some of the harder edges off city politics. During the past few weeks, we were treated to <a href=\"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/03\/city-council-school-board-hold-softba\/\">a softball match between city councillors and the city\u2019s two school boards<\/a>: Sir Wilfred Laurier and <i>Commission scolaire de Laval. <\/i><br \/>Then, a week ago Sunday, city hall opposition members showed at John F. Kennedy Park in Chomedey to support <a href=\"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/17\/chomedey-residents-rally-to-revive-park\/\">a local initiative to revive the park as a community facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The change is welcome and\u2014with the municipal election now more than ten months behind us\u2014somewhat overdue.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not as though there are no more jeremiads against Mayor Marc Demers. Both his political opponents Robert Bordeleau and Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 were on hand following the mayor\u2019s news conference two weeks ago to announce that <a href=\"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/17\/boiler-room-boxes-sparked-city-inques\/\">the city will sue Gilles Vaillancourt et al in civil court<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition councillors play a vital democratic role, by posing important questions. For instance, they recently raised valid concerns about <a href=\"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/10\/laval-announces-support-for-pension\/\">whether the pension plan for city workers is adequately funded<\/a>. They have reminded us that it\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/21\/laval-plans-bold-bid-to-save-mirabe\/\">vital for Laval to continue to lead Quebec in attracting head offices and growing its economy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>But Demers and his <i>Movement lavallois<\/i> party won a clear mandate from Laval citizens at the ballot box back in November. The election campaign is long over. So it is encouraging to see politicians of all political stripes getting out among the people who live here in this city and support their hopes and dreams. <\/p>\n<p>Their efforts to engage constructively with the residents of this city is noticed\u2014and the fledgling civility is a most welcome alternative to the acrimony that has for far too long pervaded city hall.<br \/>\n  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[&#8216;GoogleAnalyticsObject&#8217;]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){<br \/>\n  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),<br \/>\n  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)<br \/>\n  })(window,document,&#8217;script&#8217;,&#8217;\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js&#8217;,&#8217;ga&#8217;);<\/p>\n<p>  ga(&#8216;create&#8217;, &#8216;UA-45892555-1&#8217;, &#8216;auto&#8217;);<br \/>\n  ga(&#8216;send&#8217;, &#8216;pageview&#8217;);<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com It has been refreshing to see Laval\u2019s municipal leaders start to take some of the harder edges off city politics. During the past few weeks, we were treated to a softball match between city councillors and the city\u2019s two school boards: Sir Wilfred Laurier and Commission scolaire de Laval. Then, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Civic politics becoming more civil - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/09\/24\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Civic politics becoming more civil - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com It has been refreshing to see Laval\u2019s municipal leaders start to take some of the harder edges off city politics. 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Then, a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/09\/24\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/robert.frank.90834\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-24T18:09:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-01T19:40:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"editor robert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"editor robert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"editor robert\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fc82a2a747f4a72f7a4833658ab077a3\"},\"headline\":\"Civic politics becoming more civil\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-24T18:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-01T19:40:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":366,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newscoverage.org\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/24\\\/civic-politics-becoming-more-civi\\\/\",\"name\":\"Civic politics becoming more civil - 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