Montreal city council might no longer get in a knot over how its male members are dressed.
If certain members have their way they will be getting rid of an old unwritten rule that requires men to wear a tie during council meetings. The speaker’s committee is going to make the recommendation in response to a motion by some members.
“It’s time for us to move on,” Snowdon city councillor Marvin Rotrand, a co-sponsor of the motion, told Global News.
He said other city councils across the country are less formal and thinks if it works in other places, it could work here, too.
“If in Toronto, city council can just work with an unwritten proviso, ‘business-friendly, just be neat’ and the world doesn’t end,” he explains, “maybe we should be looking at that as well.”
He points out that there still will need to be some kind of decorum and that members wouldn’t be free to wear just anything — sandals and shorts, for instance.
There was once a dress code for women, too, requiring them to wear only dresses or skirts, but he said that was abolished in the ’70s.
There’s another reason he says it’s important to change the rules.
“There are people from cultures who might not have a tie as part of their tradition,” he said, “and it’s only a matter of time before that happens.”
He just wants them to feel welcomed.