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Victoria Day renaming proposal: How's Walter Leja Day sound?
The 50th anniversary of the beginning of terrorism in Quebec has come and gone. The first signs of FLQ terrorist activity took place with the planting of bottle explosives at three local armories....
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Coderre announcement weeks away
Political vacancies are fast being filled and several crowns will be changing hands within the next few months. Now that Philippe Couillard has become Quebec Liberal leader, it's hardly a stretch to...
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Five cop car chases per day: fun in Montreal in the 60s
You gotta love the old days for all the wrong reasons. One Friday afternoon 50 years ago cops spotted a suspicious-looking car near St. Lawrence and Jarry. The driver declined to pull over, so...
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The secret life of Brian O'Carroll
Brian O'Carroll was famous in Montreal -- and indeed throughout North America -- for a brief spell following his famous altercation with a cop in a small St. Lawrence grocery store in 1985. There...
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Prayers for an observation deck atop St. Joseph's Oratory go unanswered
I seldom visit the St. Josephs Oratory because it hurts my knees. I need practice before kneeing my way up a long flight of stairs. This has led me to a few unfortunate training accidents while...
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Dylan Thomas's night in Montreal
Bill Hartley did one thing that probably no other Montrealer ever did. He got drunk with one of the greatest poets celebrity alcoholics of the 20th century: Dylan Thomas. Hartley, who died about...
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Montreal's attempt to ban dinner by candlelight
In early 1961 Montreal 's public candlelit dinners were permitted only inpool halls and billiard joints Dining by candlelight was the thing to do in Montreal after the war and in 1960 just about every...
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Q-where was this?
This lot in the West End (*think Snowdon*) was vacant in 1946 mainly because the city was short on building supplies after the war, which caused a construction delays throughout town. This spot...
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Elegy to an epic west end fence
Outside the Blue Bonnets racetrack sat an alternate gambling site in the parking lot, where – at least until the mid 1980s -- mob-related characters did business from car trunks jammed with cash....
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The CBC tower, Montreal's most unjustifiable structure
I think we've done a lot of mourning of demolished neighbourhoods here but still, looking at the 1947-vs-nowaday maps can be a perplexing and sometimes upsetting experience. One of the most...
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A few newspaper items from one single day, Jan. 30, 1879, tells much about what it was like to live in Montreal during the time.1-Montrealers were obsessed with ice. Not only is there a lot of mention...
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Montreal and its longstanding midnight dancing curfew
The Bal en blanc would not have been possibleduring the era in Montreal when dancingwas banned after midnight Local customs are a large component of what makes a city different from some other place....
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Dorch finally almost healed
Lord Dorchester can sleep well knowing that the street that was named after him could slowly heal after about six decades of destruction that left it looking like Dresden after the war. In the 80s...
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Marilyn Beliveau and the 375 phone calls
Rony Bardales, left, ended up in prison. Marilyn Beliveau, right, is among us now. "Prepare your fruze for the booze," said Giuseppe Torre. That catchy quote is one of countless phrases transcribed...
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Montreal fireworks production - where was it?
Montreal had a home-grown fireworks industry as demonstrated in these Conrad Poirier photos from March 1939. Can you figure out from these images where it was located? Thx to HaroldRo for the pics.
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Why four of five anglos live within 20 miles of Place Ville Marie
Eighty percent of Quebec's anglophones live within a 20-mile (err. 32.18 km) radius of Place Ville Marie, according to the 1986 census. I do not know if this still holds true but if I could finally...
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Summer bummer: no place to enjoy the view
Massive Montreal irony: developers have been putting up skyscrapers left and right throughout the city, but this summer - perhaps for the first time since the 60s - we won't have a single structure...
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Corner of Montreal Way, Montreal Circle and Montreal Ave.
Weird as this might sound, St. Paul Minnesota not only has a Montreal Ave. but it also have a Montreal Way and a Montreal Circle. And they all meet. All roads literally lead to Montreal. The...
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