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http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-working-group-formed-to-improve-citys-business-outlook Montreal has considerable assets when we think of our quality of life, of our spot as the second largest pool of higher-education students in North America and certainly when we think of how safe it is…” Hubert said. There should be a working group that looks at how to retain students. It's all about retention. Students come here from abroad, live for cheap, party hard and then leave. Aside from high taxes, this should be highest priority.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/an-australian-famous-for-documenting-toilets-has-come-to-montreal An Australian famous for documenting toilets has come to Montreal ROBERTO ROCHA, MONTREAL GAZETTE More from Roberto Rocha, Montreal Gazette Published on: February 20, 2015Last Updated: February 20, 2015 5:23 PM EST Mozza restaurant washroom is known for its party ambiance, with disco lights, music and a TV screen. Australian blogger Dan Schaumann searches for the world's best toilets, and this one was suggested to him by the Montreal community on Reddit. Mozza restaurant washroom is known for its party ambiance, with disco lights, music and a TV screen. Australian blogger Dan Schaumann searches for the world's best toilets, and this one was suggested to him by the Montreal community on Reddit. Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette A mantra of making it big on the Internet is to find a niche and run with it. Dan Schaumann, an Australian transplant to Montreal, has found his niche in snapping eccentric toilets. When he’s not making music or working in a supply chain for a multinational, Schaumann scours the cities he visits for its oddest loos, often crowdsourcing tips on Reddit.com. A recent discussion in the Montreal section of the website turned up no fewer than 100 comments. The washroom at L’Avenue restaurant on Mont-Royal Ave., with black light, fluorescent paint, and a TV embedded in the floor was a big favourite. The chaotic graffiti that adorns the urinals at Les Foufounes Électriques on Ste-Catherine St. E. was also a top suggestion, as was Mozza restaurant in the Gay Village, described as “a dance party, complete with disco ball, lights and blaring music.” Montrealers, it seems, are as proud of their washrooms as Schaumann is passionate about them. So far he has documented 10 toilets in the city. “I’m going to make a point of visiting one or two of the suggestions per week until I get through them all,” Schaumann told the Montreal Gazette. He has already documented hundreds of toilets in 30 cities. His efforts have won him close to 1,000 followers on Instagram and extensive news coverage in Boston and Chicago. His passion for flushers started three years ago, as a joke. “I noticed that people could take a photo of just about anything — a leaf on the ground, for example — and they would almost always receive ‘likes’ no matter how common the subject matter was. I wondered if anyone would ever like a photo of a toilet, and indeed, it didn’t take long for someone to show their appreciation,” he wrote. As to why his requests for toilet tips are often fruitful wherever he goes, he has a theory. “The toilet is a day-to-day necessity that doesn’t have a reputation as being particularly captivating, so I think when you encounter a washroom that strikes you as being out-of-the-ordinary, it becomes quite a memorable occasion,” Schaumann said. As a lavatory connoisseur, Schaumann has distilled the common traits of memorable commodes. “Graffiti is the one I love the most, whether it’s a simple witty remark someone has scrawled upon the wall or a punk-style plastering of graffiti across the whole bathroom. I love it when there is an interesting tiling pattern, artwork or decor in the room,” he said. “The whole experience has left me with a new-found respect for the restroom. I can pretty much find something unique in every bathroom I enter now, such as an interesting colour scheme, feature, or sign on the wall.” Map: Dan Schaumann’s top 10 toilets Navigate via the map or click on List to see the full list. If using a computer, swipe to the next item by dragging the mouse across the grey area above the photos. If on mobile, swipe with your finger. For a full-screen map, click here. rrocha@montrealgazette.com twitter.com/robroc sent via Tapatalk

SYNOPSIS At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. A FILM UNFINISHED presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film. A FILM UNFINISHED is a film of enormous import, documenting some of the worst horrors of our time and exposing the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light. [video=youtube;Khut0kKn-c8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khut0kKn-c8

Hmmm interesting

(Courtesy of CBC News)

(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette) How about the government learns how to manage the money they get from tax payers and not go over budget on every FUCKING PROJECT you dumb morons! No form of government works. Not even total monarchy. :stirthepot: I wonder what Paul Desmarais Sr and Guy Laliberté would say about this or I bet they would be spared from QS antics. -end rant

Montréal, deuxième ville de party au monde Agence QMI Jean-Marc Gilbert 14/11/2009 17h10 À en croire le palmarès fait par l’organisation touristique Lonely Planet, qui a récemment publié son nouveau guide de voyage 1000 Ultimate Experiences, Montréal est la deuxième meilleure ville de party au monde. Se classant tout juste derrière la ville de Belgrade en Serbie, les auteurs de ce classement qualifient Montréal de «destination de plus en plus populaire chez les voyageurs étrangers». Selon eux, on y retrouve «des boîtes de nuit pleines à craquer», «une atmosphère vieux-quartier», et «de la bonne bière locale»... De quoi bien s’amuser toute la nuit! On fait également référence au populaire festival Juste Pour Rire qui se tient chaque été. Tremblay s’en réjouit Le maire de Montréal Gérald Tremblay a été mis au courant de cette nomination et l’a commenté par voie de communiqué, la semaine dernière. «Ces deux prix (Montréal s’est aussi mérité un prix pour les BIXI) nous démontrent qu'en misant sur ses créateurs et sur l'innovation, Montréal a fait le bon choix et réussit ainsi à se démarquer.» Ce dernier pense aussi que ce genre d’honneur permet à la métropole d’être «reconnue tant au national qu'à l'international [...] et j'en suis particulièrement fier.» Les autres villes figurant à ce classement des 10 plus grandes villes de party dans le monde sont dans l’ordre: Buenos Aires en Argentine, Dubaï aux Émirats arabes unies, Thessaloniki en Grèce, La Paz en Bolivie, Cape Town en Afrique du Sud, Bakou en Azerbaïdjan, Auckland en Nouvelle-Zélande et Tel Aviv en Israël.

New Year's Eve party à la Times Square in Montreal Thu, 2009-09-10 17:37. Shuyee Lee Montreal is getting its own Times Square-style Rockin' New Year's Eve. Media company Astral Media is organizing a big New Year's Eve party this year on McGill College Avenue downtown. It'll be an annual affair complete with live music and comedy, activities, as well as sound and light performances. The Big Astral Countdown for Mira event will help raise money for the Mira Foundation, which provides over 180 guide dogs and assistance to people with mental, visual, hearing and motor disabilities. Astral Media owns CJAD 800 which will broadcast the event live, along with its sister stations CHOM 97.7 and Virgin Radio 96. http://www.cjad.com/node/990235

(Courtesy of CNW Telbec)

On pensait enfin en tenir une. Une bonne nouvelle en ces temps où tout va mal. Les dernières données sur le PIB montrent une forte croissance de l'économie du Québec. Mais les économistes sont rapidement venus gâcher le party. Pour en lire plus...

Salmond : No safe seat for Labour in Scotland The Scotsman samedi 26 juillet 2008 ALEX Salmond yesterday claimed there was no safe Labour seat left in Scotland as the full impact of the SNP’s sensational victory in Glasgow East emerged. The First Minister issued what amounted to a battle cry, suggesting the SNP would be unstoppable after ousting Labour from its third-safest seat. If the 22 per cent by-election swing was replicated across Scotland in a general election, it would leave just one of Labour’s 39 MPs in place – Tom Clarke in Coatbridge – with casualties including Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and Chancellor Alistair Darling. The scale of the defeat piled further pressure on Mr Brown, who faced demands from Paul Kenny, the leader of the GMB union, and the Labour back-bench critic Graham Stringer, to consider his position. David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, said the defeat showed the country was desperate for change and challenged Mr Brown to call a general election after the summer. But Mr Brown refused to budge, saying he was "getting on with the job" while again trying to empathise with voters about the soaring cost of bread and eggs. Simple arithmetic shows that the SNP would have 49 MPs, the Liberal Democrats seven, the Tories one and Labour one if Labour’s vote collapsed in a similar manner at a general election. The calculation excludes the Glasgow seat currently held by the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin. As for what the result would mean if replicated in a Holyrood election, a source close to Mr Salmond said : "We are still doing our calculations, but there is no doubt that the swing last night would wipe out all Labour’s constituency MSPs. "They would receive some list MSPs in compensation for the proportion of their vote … but there is no doubt that we would be by far the largest party, although not necessarily in a majority." By-elections are unreliable indicators of future governments and success can often be short-lived. Of the four SNP by-election victories prior to the success of John Mason in Glasgow East, all but one failed to hold the seat at the subsequent general election. However, Mr Salmond yesterday maintained that Glasgow East’s voters had been in a "unique" situation. Rather than having a choice between a government and opposition, for the first time they were able to weigh the merits of two parties in power – Labour at Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood. There was also the belief among many Labour loyalists that their party had become "arrogant" and needed to be given a sharp kick, he told The Scotsman. "We have now demonstrated that there are no safe seats for the Labour party anywhere in Scotland," he said. "They used to say that it was the Tories who could only get one MP in Scotland." Several other factors also give the Nationalists hope that they are on the cusp of smashing Labour’s historic dominance in Scotland – and in particular in Glasgow. They point to the fact that the Glasgow East result was the first recent victory against a Labour government. In 1995 in Perth and Kinross, the Tories were in power at Westminster, as they were during the Govan victories of 1973 and 1988. It was only with the SNP’s first by-election victory in 1967 that it defeated a candidate representing a UK Labour government. Then there is Thursday’s turnout. At 42 per cent, it was only six percentage points short of the 48 per cent at the 2005 general election. This gives credence to the argument that electors would vote the same way in the next general election, due by June 2010. Labour could face an earlier test as Jack McConnell, an MSP and former first minister, will be forced to stand down from his Motherwell and Wishaw seat if his posting as High Commissioner of Malawi is activated next year as expected. Then there is the promised referendum vote in 2010, a year before the next elections to the Scottish Parliament. Roseanna Cunningham, who achieved the last SNP by- election victory when she took Perth and Kinross in 1995, said the benefits to the party this time were likely to be greater. This would be seen most obviously by an increase in younger supporters and a boost in membership. Asked what the victory would mean for the SNP’s hopes of ending decades of Labour dominance and driving forward its aim of independence, Ms Cunningham said : "What we can take from (the by-election] at an absolute minimum is that scaremongering about independence simply doesn’t work. That is the difference from between five or ten years ago. That is another sign you can’t simply frighten people away from voting SNP." Labour’s search for a new leader in the Scottish Parliament starts on Monday, following the resignation of Wendy Alexander, and many believe the amateurish attempts to canvass support in a supposedly rock-solid constituency – with imported teenage activists getting lost on a daily basis – showed the absence of a grass-roots organisation. However, Des Browne, Labour’s Scottish Secretary, said it was nonsense to suggest that a by-election result could be used as a guide to future voting intentions across the country. He said voters had wanted to register a protest against high prices caused by world economic conditions, and said Labour was already working to re-establish support in Glasgow. However, he did concede that it was a "significantly bad result". But he compared Glasgow East to the 1999 Hamilton South by-election, which Labour held by just 556 votes from an SNP charge with a virtually identical swing to Thursday. "I remember the SNP issued a press release, which my local paper carried, saying they were about to sweep me away on the basis of that," he said. "It wasn’t replicated at the general election and I have defended that seat twice since then."

Quebec Tories swapped ad expenses, Elections Canada alleges TIM NAUMETZ The Canadian Press July 22, 2008 at 9:26 AM EDT OTTAWA — The Conservative Party shifted thousands of dollars in advertising expenses from two of its top Quebec candidates to other Quebec candidates who had more spending room in their 2006 federal election campaigns, the lawyer for Elections Canada has suggested. A former financial officer for the party confirmed last month in a court examination that expenses incurred by Public Works Minister Christian Paradis and former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier were assigned to other candidates. But former chief financial officer Ann O'Grady said the expenses were “prorated” to the other candidates because the firm that placed the television and radio ads billed Mr. Paradis and Mr. Bernier for higher amounts than their campaign agents originally committed. Elections Canada lawyer Barbara McIsaac probed Ms. O'Grady over records involving an eventual claim for $20,000 in radio and TV advertising by Mr. Paradis and $5,000 in advertising claimed by Mr. Bernier. The financial statements and invoices – filed in a Federal Court case concerning $1.3-million in questionable Conservative ad expenses – also showed that Mr. Bernier and Mr. Paradis paid a fraction of the ad production costs compared with other Tory candidates. Mr. Bernier and Mr. Paradis are among 67 Conservative candidates whose advertising expenditures are under investigation by the federal elections commissioner. Agents for some of the candidates took Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand to Federal Court after he refused last year to reimburse the expenditures on grounds that they did not qualify as local candidate expenses. The Commons ethics committee is also conducting an inquiry into the bookkeeping, which Elections Canada alleges allowed the Conservative party to exceed its national campaign spending limit by more than $1-million. The Canada Elections Act prohibits candidates from absorbing or sharing the election expenses of other candidates. NDP MP Pat Martin, a member of the ethics committee, said if the party did shift expenses from Mr. Bernier and Mr. Paradis to other candidates it would add an entirely new dimension to the controversy. “I can't get (fellow NDP MP) Judy Wasylycia-Leis to put $5,000 of my expenses into her expenses,” Mr. Martin said. “That's absolutely not allowed.” In a sworn cross-examination last month, the transcript of which was subsequently entered in the Federal Court file, Ms. McIsaac pressed Ms. O'Grady about advertising and ad production costs that were transferred from Mr. Bernier and Mr. Paradis to other candidates. Ms. McIsaac challenged Ms. O'Grady's explanations that the expenditures were reassigned because the candidates had been mistakenly invoiced for more than the amounts their official agents originally committed for the campaign. “I'm going to suggest to you that Mr. Bernier was less than $2,590 from his spending limit and that he couldn't afford to put the additional amount into his return,” Ms. McIsaac said to Ms. O'Grady. “That would be total supposition,” Ms. O'Grady responded. “Who knows what else would have been going on at the time? I can't comment on how Mr. Bernier ran his campaign.” In the case of Mr. Paradis, Ms. O'Grady conceded that the candidate had originally committed his campaign to a media buy totalling $30,000, was eventually invoiced $29,766 and subsequently received a “credit note” of $10,000 that was reallocated to another candidate, Marc Nadeau. “Now, again, the reason for this was that Mr. Paradis had reached his limit with respect to spending as well, is that correct?” Ms. McIsaac asked. “He had to allocate some of his money to Mr. Nadeau, did he not, because he was close to his limit?” “I would not know that,” replied Ms. O'Grady, who replaced former Tory chief financial agent Susan Kehoe several months after the election. Ms. McIsaac also questioned Ms. O'Grady over the fact that Mr. Bernier paid no production costs for his share of the advertising. Mr. Paradis paid only $233.93 for his share, even though Ms. McIsaac said other candidates paid $4,500 each for production costs.

It's Obama's party Illinois senator finally secures the Democratic nomination, and becomes the first black man to lead his party JOHN IBBITSON June 4, 2008 at 3:03 AM EDT WASHINGTON — This is history. Barack Obama is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president, the first African-American to lead the party of Jefferson and Roosevelt. The Illinois senator secured the nomination last night after a spate of superdelegates – senior party politicians and officials – announced they would be supporting him at the Democratic National Convention in August. That, plus the pledged delegates he obtained after Tuesday's final two primaries in Montana and South Dakota, put Mr. Obama past the 2,118 delegates needed to win the convention. He secured the nomination even though he lost to New York Senator Hillary Clinton in South Dakota. The proportional method of allocating delegations ensured that Mr. Obama would cross the threshold despite losing the state. In compensation, Mr. Obama won Montana, though both states are among the smallest in the union in terms of delegate count. “Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another, a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Mr. Obama declared last night in a speech in St. Paul, Minn. “Tonight, I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.” Obama makes history Illinois senator Barack Obama has laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination, making him the first black man to lead his party Hillary Clinton Clinton's next move Hillary Clinton will acknowledge that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said Related Articles Acknowledging the rifts of race and gender and class that had opened in the party during the 17-month race, Mr. Obama urged Democrats to “unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.” And he lavished praise on his rival, lauding Ms. Clinton's “unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be. “And you can rest assured,” he added, “that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory.” For her part, Ms. Clinton offered a speech to supporters in New York that was largely elegiac in nature. “I will carry your stories and your dreams with me every day for the rest of my life,” she promised her supporters. But Ms. Clinton was not prepared to make any public declarations or concessions. “This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decision tonight,” she told supporters at her rally in New York. “In the coming days, I'll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and our country guiding my way,” she said. Ms. Clinton did, however, indicate in a conference call to members of her party's New York congressional delegation, that she would be open to serving as Mr. Obama's vice-president, if asked, though a campaign spokesman said this was no more than a repetition of her pledge to do whatever she could to ensure victory for the Democrats in November.The next few days could foment intense speculation on where and when Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton will meet, what she will be asking for, and what he is prepared to offer, as she arranges her formal departure from the campaign. Although the Democratic Party has been energized by this contest, with record turnouts in state after state, the fight has also divided the party along racial and gender lines. Many female Democrats bitterly complain that sexist attitudes, particularly in the media, contributed to Ms. Clinton's loss, while Mr. Obama's supporters say they had to overcome racist attitudes among some voters. Exit polls in South Dakota revealed that 55 per cent of Democrats want Mr. Obama to pick Ms. Clinton as his running mate, though 41 per cent do not. But when only Obama supporters were sampled, 56 per cent wanted her kept off the ticket, a sign of how raw emotions have been rubbed. For 17 months, Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have fought each other for the nomination, in one of the epic political contests of modern times. For much of that contest, Ms. Clinton seemed the inevitable winner. But she and others had not reckoned on Mr. Obama's extraordinary ability to galvanize younger voters, to raise more than $200-million, mostly through small donations, to rally both less affluent African-Americans and upscale liberals to his cause, marrying a message of hope and reform to the most powerful oratory seen in America since the days of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They fought to a draw until February, when Mr. Obama racked up an impressive and unanswered string of victories, mostly in smaller states. Ms. Clinton came back with wins in the Midwest and Appalachia, forging her own coalition of lower-income white voters plus women. But it was the party elders, the superdelegates, who had the final say in this race. And although Ms. Clinton had a grip on them at the start, by the end it was obvious they had collectively decided to give the nomination to Mr. Obama. About 200 of the superdelegates stayed uncommitted until the problem of seating the Michigan and Florida delegations — the two states had violated party rules by holding their primaries in January — was resolved over the weekend. Then Tuesday, in what appears to have been a move orchestrated by the Obama campaign, the superdelegate endorsements began pouring in, until by the time the polls closed in Montana and South Dakota the tally there was almost irrelevant. The most prominent among them was former president Jimmy Carter, who told The Associated Press Tuesday afternoon that “the fact is the Obama people already know they have my vote when the polls close tonight.” So the national presidential election race is fully under way, five months before the actual vote, with John McCain standing for the Republicans and Barack Obama for the Democrats. Mr. McCain acknowledged as much himself, in a speech last night in New Orleans. “Pundits and party elders have declared that Senator Obama will be my opponent,” he told supporters “He will be a formidable one. But I welcome the challenge.” The war in Iraq will figure prominently in this contest, since Mr. McCain wants to stay the course and Mr. Obama wants to bring the troops home. There will be contrasting policies as well on tax cuts and health care and trade, though both candidates are committed to fighting global warming. But as with all elections, the real choices will be intangible: youth versus experience, social justice versus individual freedom, leadership you can trust versus a new voice for America. The presidential race promises to be no less epic than that for the Democratic nomination. This election will be one for the books. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080604.wprimarymain04/BNStory/usElection2008/home

The upscale new face of Old Montreal More laid-back scene smacks of sophistication Maxine MendelssohnFor Canwest News Service Sunday, March 09, 2008 First came boutique hotels and condos, then yoga studios and shops. Now it's bars, supper clubs and a vibrant nightlife: Old Montreal has become a party destination in its own right. And its more laid-back scene is attracting some of the club kids who once clambered to get into the city's hot spots. While these places still pack in the crowds, a bit of fete fatigue has set in on Montreal's two traditional party streets -- Crescent St. and St. Laurent Blvd. The lineups that don't move, some as long as 100 people, the hefty price tag on drinks; it can be a bit much. Now, chic partiers co-exist nicely with tourists in horse-drawn caleches winding their way through the cobblestone streets. New resto-bars like Santos, Wilson and Cherry are becoming popular destinations, offering their own brand of chic decor, fancy drinks and a party atmosphere. On the weekends, smaller bars in Old Montreal are often filled to capacity, but the larger ones have plenty of breathing room. "In the Old Port, if they don't let you in it's not because you're not having bottle service, it's because there's no room." Some party places on St. Laurent Blvd. have become so in demand that they only let in customers who order bottle service, which can cost upwards of $300. The 20- and 30-somethings who flock to Old Montreal want intimate dinners and drinks, not teens flaunting cash and downing rows of vodka shooters. There are occasional, small lineups and only one club has a cover charge in Old Montreal. It's definitely easier to get your foot in the door. "They make it easy and appealing to party here," said 27-year-old Maria Toumanova. "Everything is getting a facelift and people are coming down to check it out. It's a great alternative to the common party places downtown." Dimitri Antonopoulos has been betting heavily on Old Montreal for the last eight years. His company, the Antonopoulos Group, owns a number of Old Montreal hot spots including Suite 701, Mechant Boeuf and the Place d'Armes Hotel, which opened in 2000. "The W Hotel (which opened four years later) also helped bring people down here, then restaurants and nice shops started opening up, too. All these businesses attracted a savvier customer and hipper tourists," said Antonopoulos, VP of marketing. Mechant Boeuf is Antonopoulos's newest venture. There is always a place to sit, and conversations don't require yelling, something that's standard at the downtown clubs. "These are discerning partiers," Antonopoulos said. "They know the ins and outs of clubbing, but they're growing up and maybe they want something different. It's a new market in Montreal." © The Vancouver Province 2008 http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=2750276e-1761-495b-b845-d1a0490f8856

'The city is mine' The home secretary Jacqui Smith says she feels unsafe walking London's streets after dark, and, undoubtedly, she's not alone. What a shame, says confirmed nightwalker Kate Pullinger - how could anyone not love a great city at night? Tuesday January 22, 2008 The Guardian I've always loved the city at night, even before I knew what it was like. I come from a rural suburb of a small town on the west coast of Canada and I spent my adolescence dreaming of cities in the dark. To go anywhere when I was a kid you had to drive; there was no public transport. And when you got there, wherever There was, there wasn't anything to do, except drink. I knew that when I finally made it to the city the night would sparkle and shine and pulse and that when I walked down the street, night music - Roxy Music, the Velvet Underground, Curtis Mayfield, Ultravox even - would accompany me. My first ever city was Montreal, where I spent a dissolute 18 months struggling with the concept of university. Montreal at night was always romantic but bipolar: a continuous street party during the summer - hot sweaty nights in cafes and bars that spilled on to the streets; phenomenally cold, encased in ice, in the winter. I would bundle up in multiple layers before heading out. In January and February I would wear both my coats. Montreal at night involved a lot of trudging, carrying your party shoes in a bag, stamping the snow off your boots. Falling snow at night in the city is irresistible; it squeaks and crunches beneath your boots on the pavement and comes to rest on your eyelashes and cheeks like glitter, only even more precious, more fleeting. Walking by myself through Montreal at night was to feel a kind of freedom that was completely new to me - the people are sleeping, the city is mine, all mine. Through the frozen air I could hear and see myself breathing - walking at night always makes me feel more aware of my own physicality somehow; it's the unexpected silence, the unsolicited peace - and my joy at escaping the suburbs was complete: I'm alive, I'm my own person, and I'm at home in the city. After Montreal I came to London, where a lot of women are afraid to walk alone at night. When Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, said at the weekend that she wouldn't walk at night in Hackney, or Kensington and Chelsea, she was just being honest, despite her aides' subsequent attempts at spin. In a world where we are afraid to let our children cross the street by themselves, this is hardly surprising. Our levels of fear bear little relation to the statistics - Smith was right that crime rates have fallen, too - but we are told to be afraid, so many of us are, both despite of and because of our experience. But not me. For me, growing up was all about becoming free, becoming who I wanted to be, not who other people expected me to be, and London was a part of that. It was the 1980s and London had an urgency to it, made all the more vivid by the fight to the death between that era's David and Goliath - Ken Livingstone and Margaret Thatcher. I was young and broke and needed to save my money for pints, books and movies: walking was the cheapest way to get around and most nights out ended with a long walk home. The city was huge, and foreign to me, and I needed to map it out in my mind by stalking the twisty streets with their ever changing names: Eversholt Street becomes Upper Woburn Place becomes Tavistock Square becomes Woburn Place becomes Southampton Row becomes Kingsway all inside 15 minutes. It was only through walking that this would ever make sense, and it was only when walking at night that I witnessed the secret lonely heart of the city; for a time it seemed as though every other doorway in the centre of town was temporary shelter to at least two homeless people. Alone at night I could repeat the street names and practise the English-as-in-England words that were new to me: "wanker", "loo", "pants", "tuppence", "sacked", "fanciable", "shag". I had a bicycle some of the time and there is nothing to match riding a bike by yourself through the streets of London late on a summer's night when the air is so soft it feels like velvet and your wheels spin and your hair gets messed up under your helmet but you don't care and you have to peel off the layers to stop yourself sweating. I was living in Vauxhall and working in Covent Garden at a catering job that required an early start before the tube was running, and crossing Lambeth Bridge on foot at 5am provoked in me a kind of epiphany, an ecstatic communion with the city and its only-just-buried layers of history. At night it's as though the city's history comes alive, bubbling up from where it lies dormant beneath the tarmac: when the crowds are gone, modernity slips away, and the city feels ancient and unruly. How could anyone not love London late at night, or early in the morning? How could the wide black Thames with the city reflected upon it not remind you of everything that is most desirable and glamorous in life? But sinister, too, of course, and this is part of what makes the city at night such a grown-up, adult, provocative space. There are parts of town that always have been, and always will be, creepy. In London: the backend of Whitechapel. Stockwell on a rainy night. Acton when you're a bit lost. And Hampstead, because everyone there seems to go to bed very early. In attempting to recant her comment about not walking alone at night in Hackney, Smith named the parts of the city where she does feel comfortable (for her, Peckham), and this is something that most women would recognise: we make our routes, we do what we feel comfortable doing, and it's not possible to ask anything else of us, home secretaries included. I've lived in Shepherd's Bush, west London, for 11 years now and I always feel safe on the Uxbridge Road. It's one of those wide, long streets that is full of life, full of commerce and connection, full of people I sometimes know and often recognise. The walk home from the tube feels safer than the shorter walk home from White City, with its looming football ground and empty pavements, cars zipping past too quickly. Just before Christmas I walked home by myself from a party; several people asked if I would be OK before I left. When I got outside the night was foggy and the street lamps glowed through the freezing mist; a black taxi passed with its yellow light blazing, the low purring sound of its diesel engine reassuring. I wandered along, a bit drunk, bundled up, and the residential streets were completely empty. When I got into bed I put my cold hands on my husband's warm back and woke him up, happy. I wear sensible flats and carry my party shoes in a bag still, not because of the snow, obviously, and not because I want to be able to run away if I can, but because I like to do my walking in comfort. I don't walk at night as much as I used to, but that's because of children and work and the fact that the days and nights aren't as long as they used to be. It is true that I would not take out my mobile phone on a dark street for fear that someone might think it worth snatching. It's also true that I do not listen to music through headphones when I walk by myself, but that's because I've never liked listening to music through headphones: it has always made me worry that someone is about to sneak up behind me, even when - or especially when - I'm lying on the couch in an empty house. Plenty of people don't love London, I realise that, and plenty of people probably love it even less at night; I'm well aware that it might take only one incident for me to change my mind about walking alone at night. I have been mugged in London, but that was in broad daylight in Finsbury Park on the way to the tube station; I lost volume one of a two-volume Complete Plays by Shakespeare that my mother had given me. The young man who pushed me against a brick wall to wrestle my bag away from my shoulder had a look of desperate determination; the police later found the bag and the wallet, but not the Shakespeare. I've walked these streets for 25 years now. I'm not a young woman any more - aren't the young more likely to be victimised? - and I'm fairly tall - aren't little women more preyed upon? - and on dark winter nights I walk quickly with a hat jammed down over my head. But when I look up from the pavement and see the sparkling lights, I hear the night music; could it be that I am who I always wanted to be, and the city at night belongs to me? By the light of the moon ... Nightwalking across Britain's cities Birmingham As a proud Brummie and shamelessly debauched hedonist, I, and the city I truly love, properly come alive at night. Birmingham has more canals than Venice and those moon-washed nightwalks along the most famous ones at Brindley Place and Gas Street Basin are just as magical as the Italian city's finest. By day, Birmingham's Victoria Square and Centenary Square are thick with office workers, tourists, shoppers, teens and trolls. But after dark you can peacefully appreciate the floodlit beauty of the historical council house, the Floozy in Jacuzzi fountain (well, that's what we locals call her, anyway) and Iron Man sculpture, the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Victorian listed buildings on Colmore Row - before popping into the late-night bars One Ten or the once-famous cigar lounge at the Hotel du Vin. St Paul's Cathedral and Square are intoxicating before dawn - not simply because of the drinking opportunities, but because of the path they lead towards the charm bracelet streets of the Jewellery Quarter. I've often done a wee-small-hours West Midland's Audrey Hepburn impersonation by peering into the hundreds of jewellery shops there. There are plenty of midnight munching opportunities - get a night owl down to Ladypool Road, the heart of the city's Balti Belt and where neon restaurant signs blaze above hordes of my fellow, friendly nocturnal buddies. Wersha Bharadwa Manchester Go to eat in Chinatown, and leave around midnight. Stroll back under the gloriously garish Imperial Arch. The unmistakeable smell of oil on hot wok will linger but slowly the grid of streets will wind down and sleep. Emerge into St Peter's Square and hear the hoot of the last tram passing in front of the Pantheon-like circular central library (which has been known to offer small-hours tours of its basement stacks). Move on into Albert Square and wait for the midnight bongs from the clock of the floodlit town hall, Manchester's glorious statement of civic one-upmanship. Then on to Cross Street (where the former home of the Manchester Guardian was long ago replaced by Boots) and turn left into King Street, where the fashion shops doze and dream of bigger profits. Cut through towards St Ann's church and the square after which it is named. If the circular Royal Exchange theatre had a curtain, it would have come down long ago, but memories of entrances and exits long ago live on. Then, past brash Harvey Nicks and Selfridges, to the silent route between the cathedral and the old corn exchange to Cathedral Gardens. Take a seat and gaze at Urbis, the glass ski slope that has become an icon. Behind you, at Chetham's school of music, a sleepless student may entertain you with a Bach partita. David Ward Leeds The best thing to be in late-night Leeds is a bird. Floodlighting is pretty inspired in the city centre generally, but specially good at rooftop level. Get the lift or stairs up any high building - the uni campus has a good selection - and drink it all in. At ground level, the ginnels off Briggate and Vicar Lane are a wonderful maze by moonlight; unchanged since Atkinson Grimshaw did those great Victorian paintings, except nowadays there are lots more bars and places to eat. Try the riverside, too, spooky if it gets too late but lively enough till at least midnight. Cross the canal from Water Lane and thread back through the Dark Arches where the river Aire crashes about beneath the train station. Best for quiet strolling is Kirkstall, with its subtly lit Cistercian abbey, just off the always-busy A65. You can swim at Kirkstall baths till 10pm, get a tapas at Amigos, a Leeds end-terrace that is forever Spain, and then potter across the road and spend as much of the dark as you want to in the 12th century. Headingley is great for strolling, with more shortcuts and alleys through the student-colonised redbricks round St Michael's and the Skyrack and Original Oak pubs. Martin Wainwright Bristol By day, Bristol's harbour area can feel like a place of local authority and corporate regeneration. Fair enough, that's what it is. But by night the magic of the docks returns with the youngsters and bohemians who arrive to party. Walk along the cobbles on Welsh Back alongside the Floating Harbour. Turn into Queen Square with its the wonderful Georgian architecture - much more subtly lit than their counterparts in touristy Bath, and more glorious for it. Look out for the bohos-made-good and London refugees dining in the hip dockside eateries. Cross Pero's Bridge to the Watershed media centre. The laptop brigade who make use of the wi-fi access will have gone, replaced by the art crowd with their red wine and movie talk. The Falafel King van on the Centre is a great, much cheaper alternative to the riverside restaurants. Or get away from the city centre and head to Montpelier. Again, it's a people-watching place - this is eco-trendy territory. Supper at the One Stop Thali cafe, where the locals take their own tiffins to be filled with steaming curry. Walk up to the Cadbury House pub, multiple award winner. And don't forget Clifton. Sorry to be obvious. By day, the Avon gorge can be a little grubby, especially in the winter. After dark, the suspension bridge gleams and the chasm below yawns. Steven Morris Edinburgh Edinburgh's more intimate scale makes it a great city to explore on foot, as long as you don't mind the odd uphill jaunt, and there's no denying the city's beauty at night. There are obvious highlights: a walk along Princes Street gives a great view towards Edinburgh Castle, which is illuminated at night, as are most of the noteworthy monuments, while the Mound has the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building at its foot - with their regal columns, these buildings look pretty spectacular when floodlit - and the impressive headquarters of HBOS, which includes the Museum on the Mound, at its top. Once you're up there, there are guided walks through the Old Town - the night-time ghost tour routes focus around the Royal Mile - while there are less obvious highlights if you head north into the New Town, which is mainly residential and has some of the finest classical Georgian architecture in the country. There are beautiful terraces to explore, such as Royal Circus or Moray Place, and you can admire the architecture while catching glimpses inside where people haven't closed over their tall Georgian shutters - a bit nosy, but who can resist? Wrap it up with a warming drink in Kay's Bar, a cosy pub in an early 19th-century building on Jamaica Street West, tucked in the New Town's heart. Fiona Reid http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2244671,00.html

Cash-strapped Quebec Liberal wing warns of closing CAMPBELL CLARK From Thursday's Globe and Mail September 27, 2007 at 5:07 AM EDT OTTAWA — The Liberal Party's Quebec wing has warned Leader Stéphane Dion that it needs a quarter-million-dollar cash injection by Friday or it will have to close its Montreal office and lay off staff. The threat is not a sign of a financial crunch but part of an internecine battle between the party's national headquarters, run by officials close to Mr. Dion, and its Quebec machine over the transfer of funds, according to party officials. The Montreal office will remain open, Liberal officials said, but the dire warning has piled onto a run of troubles for Mr. Dion. It all seems to be centred in Quebec, where grumbling about his leadership has been loudest since last week's poor showing in three by-elections, including the loss of the party's traditional safe seat of Outremont. Mr. Dion yesterday lost potential star candidate Marc Garneau, the former astronaut, who said he was frustrated by the leader's delay in appointing him to run in the safe Liberal seat of Westmount-Ville Marie. And even an MP who leapt to his defence, Raymonde Folco, of the suburban Montreal riding of Laval-Les Iles, appeared to damn him with faint praise and conceded that Mr. Dion was "not getting through" in Quebec. At his age, Ms. Folco told reporters, the leader is not going to be able to change radically, so strong players in the party might have to travel with him in the province. Former Liberal cabinet minister Jean Lapierre said on CTV-Newsnet that the party's Quebec director-general, Serge Marcil, told Mr. Dion "that if [the Liberals] don't deposit a quarter of a million dollars by Friday, they probably will have to close down the office in Montreal and they can't even honour the payroll." When reached by telephone, the president of the party's Quebec wing, Robert Fragasso, said he would call back, but he did not. A spokesman for the Liberal Party in Ottawa, Elizabeth Whiting, said that the party's Montreal office will not close. She said that a request for funds came from Quebec, but did not discuss the details, although she acknowledged that Ottawa and the Quebec Liberals disagree over money. The public departure of Mr. Garneau was another blow to Mr. Dion yesterday. The former head of the Canadian Space Agency had wanted to carry the party's banner in Westmount Ville-Marie, but decided to give up on running for the party because he doubted Mr. Dion would choose him. The Liberal Leader has said he will name a candidate in the riding, but, having been passed over for an appointment in Outremont, Mr. Garneau said he decided he will no longer try to run.