The tyranny of low expectations.

The City of Montreal swears it will have the streets cleared of snow. By Christmas. Seriously, that’s the official story. Christmas is the 25th, and thus 9 days since last Sunday’s snowstorm, which only dumped 30cm of snow in the city. How pathetic is that? 9 days to clear 30cm (40 if you count the dusting we got yesterday)… What will happen if we get a 60cm storm? Will the city close down? I used to laugh at New Yorkers who couldn’t deal with a bit of snow, and it turns out that Montreal isn’t really doing any better.

Thoughts on winter driving in Montreal.

When I was a kid, when it snowed local authorities would actually deploy equipment to take the snow off the streets. However that seems like an enchanted and mystical time never to be seen again. We had a snowstorm in Montreal on Sunday, and three days later the streets are still lined with snowbanks — some several feet high — and even the highways are covered in the stuff, stretching 20-minute commutes into two and three hours. What exactly are we paying taxes to the useless assclowns at the city and provincial levels for, anyway?