The MirrorARCHIVES: May 14 - May 20 2009 Vol. 24 No. 47  

Montrealers

Montrealer Closest
to Sainthood

1. Father Emmett “Pops” Johns
2. Leonard Cohen
3. Current Habs (Saku Koivu, Alexei Kovalev,Bob Gainey)
4. Celine Dion
5. Brother André
6. Guy Carbonneau
7. William Shatner
8. Pierre Elliot Trudeau
9. Justin Trudeau
10. Maurice Richard
Honourable mentions: Jean Béliveau • Guy Laliberté • Guy Lafleur

The founder of Dans la Rue and the legendary singer-songwriter retain their perennial top spots. Current Habs did well, as the BOM voting took place before the team choked, while ex-Hab Guy Carbonneau still has his supporters. Perhaps because an English greatest hits set has rekindled some fandom, or maybe because she hopes to buy the Habs and improve them, Dion moves up to #4 from #10.


MOST DESIRABLE WOMAN
#1, BEST LOCAL BLOG #10: Nadia G

Montrealer Closest to Hell

1. Gérald Tremblay
2. Bob Gainey
3. Celine Dion
4. Ben Mulroney
5. Frank Zampino
6. Brian Mulroney
7. Carey Price
8. Jean Charest
9. Karla Homolka
10. Mosé Persico
Honourable mentions: Mary Hell • Pauline Marois • Vincent Lacroix

For the fourth consecutive year, our mayor is #1! Gainey (#2), having helmed the Habs’ sad centennial season, makes this list for the first time, as does municipal-politician-turned-businessman Frank Zampino (#5), who recently joined the ranks of the unemployed in the wake of a public water meter scandal.

Most Desirable Man

1. Justin Trudeau
2. Leonard Cohen
3. Roy Dupuis
4. Alexei Kovalev
5. Sam Roberts
6. Carey Price
7. Jonas
8. Nathan Cassiani
9. Saku Koivu
10. William Shatner
Honourable mentions: Gabriel Aubry • Mike Komisarek • Jay Baruchel

Trudeau (#1) trades places with last year’s winner Cohen, while Dupuis and Kovalev hold down third and fourth and Roberts moves up a notch. The Shat is back and Koivu makes his first appearance in this category, while Jonas and Price rise up from mere Honourable mentions. Concordia organizer and activist Cassiani moves down three notches, desite his stellar musical taste (his Facebook page is public, FYI).

Most Desirable Woman 1. Elisha Cuthbert
2. Mitsou
3. Nadia G
4. Mutsumi Takahashi
5. Celine Dion
6. Amy Blackmore
7. Karine Vanasse
8. Isabelle Desjardins
9. Caroline Néron
10. Melissa Auf der Maur
Honourable mentions: Annie DeMelt • Jessica Paré • Emmanuelle Chiriqui

The top two reigning queens remain, but Nadia G of Bitchin’ Kitchen fame has arrived to bump everyone’s favourite lady newsreader down to #4. MusiquePlus’s Desjardins debuts at #8, and actress Néron returns to the list after last year’s absence, possibly on the strength of her starring role in 3 Saisons. Multitasking stage star Blackmore is up by three and actress Vanasse makes the top 10 for the first time.

Best-dressed Montrealer

1. Leonard Cohen
2. Rufus Wainwright
3. Guy Carbonneau
4. Justin Trudeau
5. Philippe Dubuc
6. Daniel Phalen from Cafeteria
7. Mado
8. Celine Dion
9. Cary Tauben
10. Keith Dean
Honourable mentions: Todd van der Hayden • Pierre Lapointe • Plastik Patrik

Money, media stature and good taste are clearly not required to win over Montrealers when it comes to style. This list includes singer-songwriters, a hockey coach, a politician, a waiter (#6), drag queens (#7 and arguably #8), a designer (#5), a bizarre self-proclaimed fashion personality and partygoer (#9) and DJs (#10).

Best Sports Personality

1. Alexei Kovalev
2. Saku Koivu
3. P.J. Stock
4. Carey Price


5. Bob Gainey
6. Maxim Lapierre
7. Georges St-Pierre
8. Guy Carbonneau
9. Mitch Melnick
10. Randy Tieman
Honourable mentions: Georges Laraque
• Jacques Demers • Alexandre Despatie

Possibly due to votes cast before the Habs hit the wall, the top two spots remain unchanged from ’08. Gainey (#5) is up one and Lapierre debuts at #6, though Price (#4) and Carbonneau (#8) have dropped one and four, respectively. Also on the descent is TV personality Tieman (#10), while radio guy Stock (#3) continues his peculiar rise to the top. Melnick makes the move from honourable mention, while champion mixed martial artist St-Pierre rises by two.

Tackiest Personality

1. Mosé Persico
2. Ben Mulroney
3. Celine Dion
4. Andrew Carter
5. Mado
6. Cary Tauben
7. P.J. Stock
8. Frank Cavallaro
9. Gérald Tremblay
10. Anne-Marie Losique
Honourable mentions: Michelle Richard • Java Joel • Julie Snyder

The city’s top three of tacky remain the same, while CJAD’s Carter (#4) somehow overtakes Mado (#5). The Team 990’s Stock (#7) makes an impressive debut, while fashionisto Tauben is down one and our mayor moves up a notch—his approval rating could use such a boost.

Best Montreal Weirdo

1. Hollywood the Banana Man
2. Spider-Man
3. Spoonman
4. Maysr
5. Tricycle biker
6. Cary Tauben
7. Nantha Kumar
8. Dane Gerus
9. P.J. Stock
10. René Angélil

Honourable mentions: Bernie from Dollar Cinema • Gérald Tremblay • Ben Mulroney

We Montrealers like our homeless, our buskers and other oddballs-about-town with a side of fruit (#1), spidey sense (#2), a set of spoons (#3), dread and decks (#4), a child’s ride (#5), an ego problem (#6), a restaurant (#7), a blog (#8), a sport radio show (#9) and a billion dollars (#10).


BEST DRESSED MONTREALER #2,
BEST SINGER/SONGWRITER #8:
Rufus Wainwright

Best Politician

1. None
2. Justin Trudeau
3. Amir Khadir
4. Gérald Tremblay
5. Thomas Mulcair
6. Jean Charest
7. Gilles Duceppe
8. Peter McQueen
9. Pierre Trudeau
10. Stéphane Dion
Honourable mentions: Mario Dumont • Boris St-Maurice • Marc Garneau

After last fall’s win in Papineau, now-MP Trudeau (#2) moves up a notch, as does his dad (#9), despite having done nothing for us lately. The Bloc chief (#7) rockets up from honourable mentions and victorious Québec Solidaire co-leader Khadir (#3) shoots up from #8, while our premier (#6) plummets four spots and NDG’s provincial Green candidate McQueen is down one. As for Dion and Dumont, we’re guessing their BOM supporters voted ironically.

Best Political/Social cause

1. Environment
2. Dans la Rue
3. Homelessness
4. Breast cancer
5. Animal rights
6. Health care
7. Education
8. Arts funding
9. AIDS
10. Bloc Pot
Honourable mentions: Anglo rights • global warming • anti-police-brutality

Mother Earth is closest to our readers’ hearts, as is the plight of people living on the streets, just ahead of our furry friends, our aging, diseased bodies (#4, #6, #9), building up our brains (#7), expanding them (#10) and, new to the category thanks to Harper’s Conservatives, keeping our artists afloat (#8).

Loudest Activist

1. Jaggi Singh
2. Amir Khadir
3. Fidel Fuentes
4. Nora Rohman
5. Students
6. Alison Louder
7. Anti-police-brutality protesters
8. Chris Schwartz
9. Father Emmett “Pops” Johns
10. Lucas Solowey
Honourable mentions: Nisha Toomey • Reverend Darryl Gray • Stefan Christoff

Singh’s the king once again, with lefty MNA Khadir close behind and the NDP’s Fuentes rising in the ranks. We welcome queer organizer Rohman to the activist scene, as well as Pops—the man himself is relatively under the radar, but his street-kid organization, Dans la Rue, always keeps the bullhorn handy. Supporters of exiled Tibetans (Schwartz) and Burmese (Toomey) make the cut too, while Louder, though more artist than activist, sticks in Montrealers’ minds due to her work on the Parc Avenue issue in ’07, and that awesome surname.

Left ahead


>>Mercier MNA Amir Khadir of Québec Solidaire
on the race to first (and second) place


LOUD, HARD-WORKING, HUMBLE: Khadir
by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Dr. Amir Khadir learned to be content with second place early on in life. As a teenager, he realized that whatever you do, there will always be someone better or more popular. “The only time that I really wanted to be first was in a mathematics contest in high school,” says the MNA for the Mercier riding. “The guy who won was an artist friend of mine who smoked a lot of joints. He wasn’t even prepared and he came in first, while I came in second, so I learned to accept it with humility.”

A specialist in infectious microbiology, and sole elected member of the left-wing Québec Solidaire party, the Iranian-born Khadir has worked on numerous social justice issues over the years, including saving the public healthcare system. As a volunteer with Médecins du Monde, he’s led medical missions to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

In 2000, Khadir took a stab at federal politics, running for the Bloc Québécois in Outremont and losing to the Liberal incumbent. He ran for the National Assembly in 2003, as a member of the Union des forces progressistes (which later merged with Option citoyenne to form Québec Solidaire), finishing third behind the Parti Québécois’s Daniel Turp in Mercier. He made another unsuccessful bid in Mercier in 2007, this time finishing second to Turp, before finally knocking the PQ incumbent out last December.

In what might be interpreted as a sign that political times are changing, the Mirror’s readership voted Khadir—a member of a sovereignist party—#2 in both the Best Politician and Loudest Activist categories. Khadir himself sees nothing incongruous in this. “Your readers are in tune with me,” he says. “They realize that what I do and say is not the same thing as the PQ. For me, sovereignty is the capacity of people to decide for themselves. It’s more a question of people’s emancipation.”

As for life as an MNA, Khadir says it’s rewarding, if somewhat daunting. “It’s a big job,” he says. “It’s very satisfying to see that you can help people, but sometimes it’s really impossible with the problems that you can’t solve.”

Having worked so many years to affect political change from the outside, Khadir says the transition from activist to politician has been a smooth one, despite the doubts of some of his former colleagues. “A lot of activists have a disregard for political action, but I’ve never been of that school of thought,” he says. “We have to challenge those who control our politics in every manner, including assuming power. If we want to be credible, we have to present an alternative, not just denounce.”

Corrections and stuffers

Thanks to everyone who voted for the Best of Montreal Reader’s Poll. We received thousands of ballots—30 per cent more ballots than last year, in fact—and as always, we made every effort to weed out the stuffers who try to unduly influence the science of our poll.

Ballots that came from the same IP address and had identical answers were eliminated (nice try, Jus Frais!), as were ballots that failed to make the 25-answer quota. Ballots that came from the same IP address but had varying answers were allowed to stand, as they might have been friends doing it from the same computer, or at least showed some creativity (nice job, the Brains!).

While we do our best to make sure the addresses and phone numbers of the winners are accurate, mistakes will sometimes occur. Send your corrections to us by June 4 (to be printed in our June 11 issue) to letters@mtl-mirror.com or through the mail (465 McGill, 3rd floor, Montreal, QC, H2Y 4B4).


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