Thoughts on Montreal and Quebec – Part One

After the recent rounds of municipal elections, Quebecers as an entity have been asking ourselves how low have we sunk? The province is cribbed with debt, our infrastructures are crumbling, overpasses are falling, we have one of the oldest plumbing system in the country, and on top of that the Mafia has infiltrated the municipal government, and the mayor under which this happened has been re-elected for a third term, despite accusations of corruption.

Although to be fair, he didn’t have much rivals, there was one French unilingual separatists who was also accused of corruption, and an urban planner who had dreams of sinking the city even deeper into dept.

Back in the 1960s, Montreal was at its height, being at the time, Canada’s largest country, an important port, and just out of its “dark days” under Maurice Duplessis who ruled the province for 14 years, under an ultra-conservative government, the “Revolution Tranquille” as they call it was bringing change in a good way to the province, consequently, Montreal hosted the universal exposition in 1967, and the 76 Olympics. 

I think we should start from the Olympics and onward to explain the fall of Montreal, the games sunk the city in dept, the Olympic stadium built by French engineers weren’t suitable for the harsh climate, and on top of that the 76′ Olympics remain the only games where the host country did not win a gold medal.

At the same time, there was a growing movement against federalism in Quebec where the population who were called French Canadian, decided that they didn’t like being associated with the rest of Canada and we started to see the word Quebecois. For those unfamiliar with Quebec history this is a turning point in Quebec history, where a growing movement towards the preservation of the French language and a growing sentiment of belonging to the province rather than the country divided the population.

The Quebec Liberation Front, founded in the early 60s, was such a group that worked for the independence of Quebec, through terrorist measures. They blew up mail boxes, sent threats to parliament members, blew up cars, all culminating to the October Crisis in 1970, when the group kidnapped James Richard Cross, the British Trade Commissioner and the Minister of Labour and Vice-Premier of Quebec, Pierre Laporte. The subsequent weeks divided the population with the pro-seperatists and the federalists. The army was called in. For two weeks, the media broadcast non-stop the demands of the FLQ, and the frantic search of police for the kidnappers.

Part two will be published as soon as possible.