Celine Dion's rise to megastardom exposed Quebecers' thirst for validation, and the masses fused identities with this traditional rural farm girl from a huge family and vicariously hit the Vegas strip with her. There was no escape from her image at every grocery lines as you purchased bottles of Blue Dry and Mini Bon Bel. Sea-Lion Dyin's wedding became the giant orgasm of sentimentality and vedette-worship. Other cringe-era pop idols worth considering: Veronique Beliveau, Mitsou, Les Bebes, Marjo, Martine St. Clair, Laurence Jalbert and others massively overexposured in the 28 channel 90s universe.
Commercial sex gimmicksLow-budget entrepreneurs aimed to make a buck on other people's lack of clothing. Sexy serveuse restaurants sprouted up like weeds and Montrealers could suddenly get a sexy car wash, sexy voyeur shows, and of course strip clubs with the new and wonderful lap dancing, thanks to court decisions that made them legal. Don't forget the streetwalkers that proliferated around the city, a phenomenon that has largely disappeared after centuries in Montreal. There was even a sexy depanneur in Laval.
Mom Boucher and the biker wars (1994-2002) A coked-out megalomaniac ordered slavish biker brahs to kill kill kill rivals trying to sell drugs in their bars. Barbarism reigned. In one biker bunker bombing bungle the assailant blew himself up and the intended victims went out and picked up part of his spine and kept it in a jar as a keepsake. Yeah it was dumb.
Low budget TV Feds forced cable companies to generate loads of cheapie TV before internet largely let 'em off the hook. So people like Lynda Tremblay got shows that proved a showcase to ineptitude and mediocrity. Heck even the genius leader at Coolopolis had a show.
National unity debates Placard-waving protesters dressed like blueberries, and one guy earned headlines by camping out on the cross on Mount Royal. Incredible bores like Elijah Harper, Guy Bertrand, Lac Meech. Daniel Turp, Daniel Johnson and Lucien Bouchard were suddenly on TV all the time. You could be trying to get lucky in a bar and somebody would wreck things by suddenly talking about Lac Meech. (Didn't that happen to you at Bar St. Laurent when you were cruising good ol' Isabelle from Esplanade?- Chimples). Buzzkill city baby.
Rael and other oddballs Montreal had no jobs in the 1990s so people got weird. Some were so bored that they joined up an alien sex cult run by a bald little Frenchman. Other oddballs abounded, such as a guy in Verdun who dressed like the Pope, astrologer Jojo Savard and the guy slept with an alligator. We had time to kill back before the internet.