New Council First Meeting - Thursday November 21st - 7:30pm
The new council, led by newly elected Mayor Denis Martin, will hold their first meeting of its term on Thursday November 21st. The entire council will be fresh faces since none have ever served on council before. Below are the official pictures of the members of the council. The councillors are in order of districts but if you want to believe that I put them in 'ladies first' order, go ahead.  The next meeting will be held on December 12 and all regular council meetings of 2014 will be on the second Thursday of each month.
Update: Last night's first meeting was held to a packed house. Both question periods were fairly civil. The only real exception was someone bringing up the fact that Olympia Arena will need to replace their 'Freon-based' (R-22) refrigerant 'Freon-based' compressors by 2020. I agree that this will be an issue but there are far more important issues to be looked at in the next fours years. Overall the first meeting of the council went well.

Mayor Denis Martin

 
           Manon Robitaille                 Karine Gauthier                   Micheline Groulx-Stabile

Frédéric Berthiaume                   Michel Mendes                          Robert Monplaisir

English Conference For Caregivers on Wednesday December 4th
The 4Korners Family Resource Center is holding a free conference for caregivers. There will actually be two conferences given as well as informational kiosks describing available services. The first session concentrates on communication while the second is titled Yoga for Laughter. The time is from 1:30pm to 4:30pm and it will be held at the Municipal library at 200 Henri-Dunant. There is no charge for this but you must register in advance by calling 450 491-1233 (Ext. 8559) or emailing the following address prochesaidantsdmsm@hotmail.com. For all the information, please click here.

Father Lowe Memorial Hockey Night and Spaghetti Supper
Holy Family Church is once again holding its annual spaghetti supper and hockey night in honour of the late Father Lowe. It all happens on Saturday November 30th Starting at 6:30. The price is $12 per person with children from 6 to 12 at $7. It's free for children under 6 and honoured seniors over 90. The Habs/Leaf game will follow the supper on the big screen. All proceeds will go the Holy Family Church lighting project. There will a raffle with many prizes including Habs tickets against Columbus and against Calgary, 2 paintings by local artists, a basket of cheer (not the soap), a Kuerig coffee maker and more. Wear your team's colours unless blue is prominent. Tickets are available after mass on Saturday from Suzanne Seguin or Sunday from Glen Hogan. You can call 450 473-2163 for more info.

Forever Young Theatre Company Presents A Holiday Favourite
The F.Y.T.C. , fresh off their smash hit Rock the Jukebox, will be performing a radio adaptation of the classic movie 'It's A Wonderful Life'. The script has been modified for the stage by Tony Palermo. There will be two performances of the play. The first will be on Friday December 13th and will be in the dinner theatre format preceded by a cocktail from 6 to 7pm. Following the play will be a dance and munchies with music by DJ Earl J. Flint. The cost will be $20. The second performance is a Saturday matinée targeted a families and seniors. That will include a dessert buffet after the show. The cost of this performance is only $15. The show is not recommended for young children as they might not be visually stimulated by a 'radio' performance.  Both shows will be at the Heritage Social Club. There are limited tickets available for each show. The Jukebox show in October sold and the venue was much larger. To reserve your tickets, you can call Diane at 450 413 0912 or email Sandra at. Click here for the poster of the show. 

Christmas Drive to Be Held On Sunday November 24th
The annual Christmas drive, or Guignolée as it's known in Quebec, will be between 1 and 5pm on Sunday November 24th. This year's honourary president is newly elected mayor Denis Martin. “The City of Deux-Montagnes is known for its strong sense of community,” said Mayor Denis Martin. “To live up to this reputation, we must continue to be generous and to ensure that local families who are going through a difficult time enjoy the holiday season.”
The drive also needs a lot of volunteers to go door to door or to provide transportation for those people. If you would like to help simply go to the Holy Family church hall at 12:30pm on the 24th where you will be assigned a route. Last year, they were short a few volunteers so some routes were not done. To get all the information on the drive, please click here for the entry on the city website.

The Not Oktoberfest at the Heritage
On Friday November 22nd, the Heritage Social Club will be having a NOT Oktoberfest Karaoke evening. The menu will comprise of Sausages, Sauerkraut, Sweets (dessert) and Songs. The cost is $10 and it all starts at 7:00pm. Click here for details. The Sunday (24th), the HSC will also be hosting a Grey Cup party starting at 4:00pm. Click here for the Heritage club website with the details of all the events.

Legion Branch 185 Commemorates Remembrance Day
On Sunday November 10th, the local Legion Branch 185 held its ceremonies to honour our veterans. The Saturday night dinner was attended by more than 140 people. It was the first official event for our new mayor and council. On Sunday, the ceremony at the cemetery was held at 1:00 pm followed by the parade at 2pm that ended with the laying of the wreaths on the epitaph to remember our fallen heroes. Below is a picture of the Legion executives along with Laurin Liu and members of the Cadet Squadron 785.


Denis Martin Wins Two Mountains Mayoral Race
Denis Martin won the race to become our new mayor by taking almost 46% of the vote and beating second place candidate Denis Joannette by 688 votes. Independent candidates Jamshid Ghavami received a respectable 16% of the popular vote while Eddy Johnson took only 4% with only 244 votes. The voter turnout was a disappointing 45.5% in an election year that people should have really cared more about. This percentage is based on the 13,114 eligible voters and the fact that only 5981 votes were counted. It does not include spoiled ballots if there were any.
Denis Martin's team also took 4 of the six councillor positions. Karine Gauthier (Ward#2), Micheline Groulx-Stabile (Ward#3), Michel Mendes (Ward#5) and Robert Monplaisir (Ward#6) all won their respective districts. Meanwhile, Denis Joannette's team took Ward #1 with Manon Robitaille and ward #4 with Frédéric Berthiaume. The only landslide victory was in Ward #2 with Karine Gauthier taking almost 75% of the vote. Click here for the full results and percentages posted on the government site..
The new council will definitely have a new face as all 7 members will be facing their first terms at the helm as the only two incumbents, Guillaume Bouvrette and James McAllister were defeated. If you were keeping in touch with my results as they were coming in, you noticed that there was a very slow start in posting results. The polls closed at 8pm and only one poll had reported by 9:05. It took almost 30 minutes before any other polls started coming in. Finally it was only around 10 pm that the numbers came in a flurry. I would like to thank the people at city hall (Melanie Hutchison, Valérie Sauvé and Jacques Robichaud) who arranged to provide my internet access so I could update the results. Click here for the results by sector as presented at city hall on the big screen.

 Click Here For The Municipal Election Page - With Live Results on Election night (November 3rd)
I will have live results on my site direct from city hall. The provincial government site says that it will NOT provide partial results as in the past. Only final results will be posted and they will be available only after 9pm. I will continue to update my page which should automatically refresh every 30 seconds on most browsers. City hall is open to the public starting at 7:30pm and results should start coming in just after 8:00pm when the polls close. Usually, the advance polls from last Sunday's 'anticipation' vote are the first to come in.

Did You Fall Back?
If you are like me, you may have forgotten to turn your clock back. The time on your computer is probably right though but all the other 'manual' ones have to be reset including the one in your car.

More Planned Shutdowns On Deux-Montagnes Rail Line
More work needs to be done on the AMT Deux-Montagnes rail line. The line will be totally shutdown from 9pm on Saturday November 9th to 5am Monday November 11. It will also be closed on the next weekend from 9pm on November 16th to 5am on Monday November 18th. In reality, this only cancels 8 trains on those weekends. The last 2 Saturday trains as well as all 6 Sunday trains. The previous shutdown on Thanksgiving weekend had cancelled all 28 departures for more than 3 days. The AMT reminds everyone that bus service is available during these periods. Click here for the AMT site.

Ron K's Famous BBQ Steak Dinner At Two Mo Pub
On Friday November 15, Pub Deux-Montagnes is having another steak dinner a la Ron Kesseler. The price is a mere $20 which must be paid in advance in order to reserve a steak. There is a limit of 60 people, so sign up soon. This could be you last BBQ of 2013, so take advantage of the opportunity. To access the pub website, the link is on the left. Click on the logo.

LTMHS's Brittney Sherwood Receives Inaugural Paul Goyetche Visual Art and Multi-Media Bursary
On May 25th, at a night in my 'honour' at the Heritage Social Club, I received a real gift that keeps giving. A scholarship fund was set up in my name to eventually go to an LTM graduate. People attending the evening were very generous and we collected over $730.
On Friday October 18th at the class of 2013 LTM graduation ceremonies, I, along with Kim White, former LTM art teacher, got to present this $500 bursary for the first time to Brittney Sherwood. Brittney has been accepted at Vanier college in the Communications: Art, Media and Theatre program.
I really want to keep this bursary going for many years to come so I am making a plea to my readers, especially, but not exclusively, LTMHS alumni to contribute to this fund. If enough people respond with a small donation, it will make a huge difference in one student's pursuit of higher education in the arts and/or multi-media. The bursary for next year is almost halfway to the $500 target but maybe we could secure funds for years to come. I have set up a page that will tell you where we are in the fundraising effort. You can choose to be acknowledged or remain anonymous. For instructions on how to donate please click here.
Special thanks to Bronwyn Rice and Pam Pierre to have thought about this special gift I received on that evening in May. Also thanks to all who attended and got this fund going in the first place. At first when I saw the donation box that said Paul Goyetche Scholarship I thought they were trying to send me back to school. Finally many thanks to Norma Lariviere who made the evening and bursary possible.

Rating the Online Presence of the Two-Mountains' Hopefuls
Less than 3 weeks remain to the municipal elections. It will be a hard fought battle for mayor and the 6 council seats. I have a set up a election page with links to the websites of the four mayoral candidates. Not all websites are created equal. Take a look at each of them and judge for yourselves.
Since I have had a website over 12 years now (2mopaul.com will be 10 years old next April), here is my take on the websites for our candidates. This is just a review of the websites and not of the campaigners themselves. Websites are just one of the many tools in which to communicate with the citizens.
In alphabetical order: Jamshid Ghavami's website is well designed, informative and is up to date. Today's (Oct 15th) press conference is already posted in both English and French. Denis Joannette's website is one page that wants you to follow the team on Facebook or Twitter. The Facebook part is fine except that not everyone is on Facebook although even non Facebook users have access to all the info. The Twitter part basically points to Facebook entries again open to non Twitter users. Eddy Johnson's website contains all the information on Mr. Johnson's campaign. It lists his commitments in a short and concise manner but it is not an 'active' website. Denis Martin's website look more like a newsfeed website. There certainly is a lot of content unfortunately very little in English.
Here is my rating of the websites. Jamshid Ghavami's website is the definite winner as it is the easiest to navigate and the cleanest design. All his info is also available on Facebook. In second place, even though I am not a big fan of Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Joannette decided to forgo the website route and use Facebook's features to present his team. Most of the information is posted in French followed by English. In third place, in the 'just too much information' category, is the Denis Martin website. Since my website targets the English community, the lack of English on the site is something I cannot ignore. Finally, Eddy Johnson's website is basically just a low key entry on the web. Much like his campaign that states that he will not pollute the streets with posters, this site is certainly not polluting the internet.
Again the important part of this election is to go out and vote. Your vote will count as it promises to be a tight race both for the mayor and the council. 

Fundraiser for l’École des Érables
The group Reso Synergie 2M is a grouping of entrepreneurs located in Deux-Montagnes and its surroundings. With the goal of making a difference in our community, we have decided to endorse the cause of children with disabilities. We are organizing a fundraiser for the benefit of l’Ecole des Erables situated in Deux-Montagnes. Our event takes place in Monday November 18, 2013 at Divolio in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-lac.
We are therefore searching for sponsors in order to allow us to hold a silent auction and draw door prizes. We will also be accepting donations. With this, we will be able to achieve a maximum of funds, and supply the school with - A ceiling mounted hoist (approx. 8 000$ to 10 000$) and some adapted bicycles (approx. 400$ to 500$ each)
All sponsors will be acknowledged visually during the evening at Divolios and the school board will supply a receipt for income tax purposes. We are hoping to welcome 200 or more guests.
Not many people are aware of this school, what better way to sum up the enormity of what the school accomplishes every day. L’ecole des Erables mission is to offer specialized services to 91 students from the ages of four to twenty one with mild to severe intellectual deficiencies with limitations that require a high level of management. Also, it has a regional mandate to serve children afflicted with autism and pathophysiological disorders associated to an intellectual disorder. Its clientele comes from the Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudiere region. To meet the students’ needs the school must go to particular measures with regards to the physical organisation of the environment as well as the pedagogical and complementary services. The educational project aims towards the integration of the students into a natural environment. The pursuit of autonomy is the heart of the pedagogical objectives.
Help us allow these children develop to their full potential. Contact Maxime Plante at 514-207-4211 or Cynthia Simoneau 514-704-7380.

Train Service Interruption on Two-Mountains Line
If you were planning to use the Deux-Montagnes/Montreal AMT train this weekend you will have to make other plans. The entire line will be shut down from 7:30pm Friday October 11 until service returns on Tuesday morning. The reason is construction on the tracks. If you need to get into town by public transit, the CITL bus 93 will take you to the AMT terminal in St-Eustache. Then the CITL bus 8  goes to the Montmorency Metro Station (Orange line) in Laval. Allow yourself at least 90 minutes (if you are lucky) instead of the usual 35 minutes by train.

Forever Young Theatre Company Will Rock the Jukebox
On Friday October 18 and Saturday October 19, the FYTC will be Rocking the Jukebox with hits of the 50's and 60's at Holy Family Church Hall. The shows are almost sold out as they are only $15 AND include a diner style supper. Door open at 5:30 and the show starts at 8:00 on both nights. To order your tickets please call Heather Tremblay at 450 472-8927. Click here for the full info.

Two-Mountains/Ste-Marthe Firefighters Present Lac Megantic With Cheque
During the Lac Megantic rail disaster on July 6th, many of our local firefighters wanted to help but there were enough first responders in the Lac Megantic to take care of the immense fire. The firemen got together and on August 3rd, they put up a roadblock/tollbooth on Boulevard des Promenades to collect donations for Lac Megantic. $11,000 was collected from generous citizens of our region. It was decided that this money should be destined for the Lac-Megantic fire department itself rather than the general fund set up for the town through the Red Cross. In a disaster such as the one that was witnessed almost 3 months ago, the fire department is left with damaged equipment which they have a difficult time replacing.
On Thursday October 3rd, Fire director Ron Hunt, Chief of Operations Michel Thibault and union president David Michaud made their way to Lac Megantic to present the $11,000 cheque to the director of the fire department, Denis Lauzon. I went along for the ride to capture the proceedings and the town in pictures. We took the Quebec city approach as we had to make a stop in St-Georges-de-Beauce at the manufacturer of our Command Centre truck for some minor modification. We took the opportunity to tour the plant that customizes trucks for fire fighting and also does trucks for Hydro crews.
As the Lac Megantic fire station is within the restricted area, we got to drive right through the devastated area. Words cannot describe the eerie feeling that we felt in driving though this town and pictures cannot really capture the breadth of the disaster. Even 3 months later, the smell of fuel still lingers in the air. When we arrived at the fire station, the first firefighter we spoke to was a young man who only had only been hired two weeks prior to the disaster. This was his first call. He spoke of the support the town got from the outside. He said that the town never felt alone and it really helped to know someone cared. There are still many wounds to heal for the town and it will take a while. There were 47 deaths. 5 bodies will be recovered. Director Denis Lauzon gave us a first hand description of what happened when he received the call that fateful day. The initial call was that there was a house on fire. As he left his house only a few blocks from the center, all he saw was a wall of fire that seemed to be engulfing the entire town.
The visit was an experience we will never forget and I want to thank Ron Hunt for having me tag along on to capture some of it. Click here for pictures.