Hamad hits the wall

He made it just over a year. Now, like his predecessor Julie Boulet, Charest scapegoats him for the dead-end transport policy in Quebec which is creating chaos on the roads.  The problem is not just Sam Hamad, its that our elected representatives insist on trying to sustain a transportation system which is unsustainable, in the short and the long term.  Instead of spending billions to rebuild roads that will just become congested again, we should be investing heavily in public transportation and creating infrastructure that discourages individual motorized transport.  Wonder how long the new minister, Pierre Moreau will last...

In honor of Hamad's departure, here is my welcome letter to him, intitled "Welcome to the nightmare, Mr. Hamad", published August 15th, 2010:

I returned from my vacation and found out you were the lucky one who got saddled with the Transport Ministry gig. I don't know if you consider the move a promotion from your old position as "Social Solidarity" minister, but your beaming face in the paper indicates a certain satisfaction with the transfer.

No one round here is going to miss your predecessor Julie Boulet much.  I'm reading into your happy face the fact that you may have come to same conclusion as I:  Madame Boulet mucked things up so much at Transports that a well-trained poodle would probably be perceived as a more efficient Transport minister in her wake.

It's not too late to straighten things out, but to do so you're going to have to show that you are something more than Prime Minister Charest's lap dog.

Madame Boulet got booted from Transports because she epitomized everything Quebeckers have come to despise in the Charest governement:  arrogance, corruption, and total lack of vision.  With the Turcot issue, from the very beginning, she refused to listen to the local population's concerns, and, once the community got organized, ignored all the clear signs that the opposition movement is well implanted and well representative.  She piloted an ill-conceived strategy of ostrich politics, eventually provoking the outrage of the usually docile Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay.  Maybe she was too busy soliciting contributions to Liberal party coffers from engineering and construction firms (provoking an investigation from Quebec's General Election Director) to come out and visit the neighbourhood that her Transport Ministry proposed to amputate and choke in a cloud of toxic gas and dust, but, politically speaking, it might have been helpful to at least pretend to take into account local resident's quality of life. Citizens were obligated to occupy the Transport Ministry's downtown Montreal offices to obtain a meeting with their absent and aloof minister.  And then the meeting, held in Quebec city (rather than Saint-Henri), proved highly unsatisfying for the residents directly affected by the billion dollar project.  After a few lukwarm professions of "concern", Mme Boulet reiterated her gouvernment's determination to go ahead with the destructive version of the project.

Maybe she was just doing her job, maybe the Transport Minister doesn't really have much of a say in anything.  But here's my advice to you, Mr. Hamad:  if you continue in the same vein as Madam Boulet, you'll hit the same wall.

Here, no one is backing down.

I say welcome to the nightmare, because you now find yourself in the highly uncomfortable position of defending the interests of a government - controlling costs, facilitating the rapid transport of merchandise, and saving face - that are opposed to those of the population (a healthy environment, reduce greenhouse gasses, decent housing).  I can't say I have a whole lot of confidence that you will somehow find a way out of the dilemma - as "Social Solidarity" minister you didn't do much more than parrot the party line and throw a few crumbs to the low-income families that make up the heart of this neighbourhood.  A few crumbs, while your government increased the costs of essentiel services and introduced new regressive taxes.  If you didn't do anything for the vulnerable members of the population then, why would you do so now?

Though it's never too late, for a change of heart.  I don't expect you to do it by conviction - consider it more like a pre-requisite for your political survival.

It's time to listen to the population, and to work in their interests.

From here, that means it's time for a new Turcot project.

*This was the mot de bienvenu offered to newly-elected Mexican president Vicente Fox, back in the 90's, by Zapatista subcommandante Marcos.