Mayor of Quebec,
Maybe it was your outgoing attitude or, who knows, your neon orange sneakers, but I believed it. I thought that you, you would listen to the various sounds of bells given by your fellow citizens of Quebec and the surrounding area. That, at least, you would lend an attentive ear to the arguments of your
fellow citizens who are against the Québec tramway. And there are more and more of them!
Unfortunately, your pleasant air from the electoral campaign has darkened, no doubt on contact with reality. You are no longer talking about listening to your fellow citizens who are against the tramway, but about convincing them. Convince them at all costs! The shambles in which your administration is bogged down and stubborn about the tramway is disturbing. The more you feel that the project arouses a structured opposition, the more the insecurity grows in the population in front of the pharaonic debt left to the future generations, the more you repeat ecological generalities which can be refuted. Indeed, why not improve public transport, make it fully electric, attractive and functional?
We feel that the threads of this project are unraveling, that so many relevant questions from citizens have remained unanswered, when they have not been rebuffed, and your growing impatience does not reassure us at all, prompting you to shoot round corners.
If you really want to listen to us, as you promised in the fall, then, Mr. Mayor, there is only one solution. Hold a referendum! This would be the most democratic way to choose whether or not to follow up on a controversial project that would make your fellow citizens live for years on a destructuring site for their daily lives. A tram that derails, it’s not a pretty sight.