The History of Montreal

by Paul-Andre Linteau

  Montreal’s traditional role as Canada’s transportation hub also took a beating. Vancouver emerged as the country’s biggest port, thanks to closer trade ties between Canada and Pacific-rim countries, although container ships reinvented Montreal’s port as an important stop on the North Atlantic axis. New handling facilities went up in the city’s east end, but there were far fewer longshoremen than before and the Old Port was abandoned before becoming a tourist destination. The decline of rail transportation in favour of trucks and buses reduced activity in a sector that had once been a mainstay of Montreal’s economy. As for air transportation, Montreal had taken less than a decade to tumble from its dominant position in the early sixties as Toronto rose to become the country’s main hub for national and international air traffic. The opening of an international airport in Mirabel (1975)—which ended up a real white elephant—made things worse still, since dividing activities between two airports robbed Montreal of its role as a transit and connecting point.

  The decline of traditional industries was not unique to Montreal and affected many cities along the eastern seaboard of the United States at the same time. In many sectors, businesses managed to survive by moving to more modern facilities, but many moved to Ontario, a province closer to the heart of the Canadian market. When they did decide to remain in Montreal, many opted to move to the suburbs, near the highways. The result was the rapid and massive deindustrialization of the city’s manufacturing areas, particularly along the Lachine Canal and in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district.

  But it was not all gloom and doom. Montreal and the surrounding area enjoyed major investments in cutting-edge industries like aeronautics, pharmaceuticals, and information technologies; companies hired skilled workers who commanded higher salaries than in traditional sectors; and many small- and medium-sized businesses sprang up, specializing in exports. In all, Montreal emerged from the process with considerably more modern, and more efficient, manufacturing facilities. They employed only a small percentage of the working population, however, and industrial reorganization left thousands of workers without jobs, workers who had a tough time learning new trades.

  One major aspect of the transformation of the Montreal economy was the space taken up by the services sector. This sector included retail stores, firms specializing in consulting engineering, accounting and law, major advertising and travel agencies, financial services firms, psychologists, restaurants, public and para-public utilities, people in the performing arts, broadcasters, and more. This diverse collection of services employed the bulk of Montreal’s workforce.

  Many head offices moving to Toronto also led to the loss of a considerable number of administrative employees, compensated—but only in part—by the emergence of big French-language businesses like Provigo, Bombardier, and Quebecor, and of government-owned companies like Hydro-Québec and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Head­quartered in Montreal, these companies added to the city’s financial health. The mergers and acquisitions movement concentrated economic power in Montreal, making it more than ever Quebec’s economic and financial driver, the place where the big decisions were made. The decision by a number of big Canadian companies—the likes of Alcan, BCE, and Power Corporation—to keep their headquarters in Montreal also helped ensure Montreal remained one of Canada’s leading cities and boosted its standing abroad.

  Urban sprawl

  Needless to say, the disruptions to Montreal’s economy were reflected in slower population growth. Throughout this period (1976–94), the population of the city itself hovered around one million people. Population figures for the Montreal census metropolitan area rose from 2.8 million in 1976 to 3.3 million in 1996, but the area had also grown. An increase of 500,000 people in 20 years is remarkably little, especially when compared to Toronto, where the gain was three times higher.

  A number of factors were responsible for Montreal’s population stagnation. First, there was the drop-off in the birth rate, particularly after 1965, which contrasted with the baby boom of the previous period. Then, the centuries-old tradition of moving from the countryside to the city slowed. Farmers were now few and far between in Quebec, and the people who lived in villages and small towns found the bright city lights less appealing. To add to its woes, Montreal lost a good number of its residents to other cities in Canada, Toronto especially.

  International immigration partly made up for these departures, although a smaller proportion of people immigrating to Canada were now settling in Montreal. People born abroad still made up some 15 percent of those living in the Montreal area, and that percentage would be greater still if it included their children born in Canada.

  Aside from a slowdown in growth, the most striking phenomenon is how the population was spread across the Montreal area. Montreal’s share declined as the city lost out to its suburbs: in 1996, the city had only 30 percent of the total. The suburbs experienced a huge rise, building on their previous numbers. In the sixties, it was the extreme east and west of the island, along with Île Jésus (which became the city of Laval in 1965) that reaped the rewards, but over the following two decades, most newcomers settled on the north and south shores. By the early nineties, Montreal and the surrounding area boasted some 130 municipalities.

  Mainly young French-speaking families moved to the suburbs in search of reasonably priced housing and somewhere quieter to bring up their children, following in the footsteps of English families. For the time being, however, few people from recent immigrant families made the move.

  The suburbs were far from uniform and, as in other parts of Montreal, there were considerable differences between the upper-class and poorer neighbourhoods. A dependency on getting around by car was one common feature, heightened by an increase in local shopping malls, with a gradual shift away from bedroom suburbs where residents commuted to and from the downtown area morning and evening. Companies set up shop in these new towns, creating a host of service jobs and reducing dependency on the city centre. In the long term, this urban sprawl raised tricky questions about how to coordinate and plan the metropolitan area, since all these municipalities were competing with each other to attract new investment. By the late 1980s, the need for greater regional dialogue was a frequent bone of contention.

  A French-speaking, multi-ethnic city

  The reconquest of Montreal reached its peak at the very start of this period (1976–1994). Quebec’s National Assembly adopted the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) in 1977, putting an end to a decade of language disputes, with Montreal being at the heart of them. Montreal’s streets were transformed by the introduction of French-only commercial signs and advertisements. There was also a sea change in education, where the children of immigrants had to attend French-language schools, thus overturning long-standing trends. The movement also affected the workplace, where French became more widespread. Meanwhile, big Canadian and foreign businesses began to appoint French-speaking executives to head Quebec operations as a matter of course.

  Montrealers of French origin continued to make up a little less than two thirds of the population living in the city and surrounding area. The decision by some to move to the suburbs reduced their share on the island of Montreal, where only 55 percent of residents claimed to have French as their mother tongue in 1996.

  Meanwhile, Montrealers of British stock, whose relative share had been fading for more than a century, also saw their absolute numbers drop off from the 1970s onwards, the result of so many leaving for Toronto, fewer immigrants arriving from the United Kingdom, and a drop in birthrate. English-speaking Montrealers now included people from different backgrounds, following language shifts that affected groups who had been in the city for quite a while, notably many Ashkenazi Jews, Italians, and Greeks.

  But the biggest phenomenon of all was the surge in the population whose mother tongue was neither French nor English, the result of radical changes in migration patterns. Until the sixties, most immigrants came to Montreal from Europe, but then c
hanges to Canada’s immigration policy welcomed people from anywhere in the world. From the seventies, most of these new immigrants to Montreal came from Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and North Africa. Ethnic diversity arrived in Montreal in a very big way. By 1996, one third of people living in and around the city had neither French nor British ancestry, making Montreal the only place of its kind in Quebec.

  And so, just as French regained its place of honour in the city, Montreal was also becoming more multicultural. Up until 1960, the old compartmental strategy in the city had meant that each ethnic group had developed away from the others, but barriers began to come down in the seventies, with Montreal’s ethnic diversity acknowledged and even celebrated. Saint-Laurent boulevard, traditionally at the heart of the city’s corridor for immigration, came to symbolize, more than anywhere else, Montreal in all its diversity. Crowds thronged there, looking for a taste of the exotic or eager to strengthen ties with their culture of origin.

  Taking back the city

  The adventure of the Olympic Games in 1976 put an end to an age of grand projects and Montreal’s reckless pursuit of modernization at any cost. Resistance put up by citizens’ committees and the general public showed that the city could no longer do away with islands of greenery and throw hundreds of tenants out on the street with impunity.

  Groups were also mustering, especially as of 1973, to defend the city’s built heritage. At first concerned at the fate awaiting the houses built in the heyday of the Anglo-Protestant elite, these groups came to adopt a broader attitude to heritage, including industrial sites, neighbourhoods, and the urban environment. They managed to make Montrealers aware of the need to preserve the heritage around them. Demolitions were a thing of the past: preserving, restoring, and renovating was now very much in vogue. The city offered financial assistance to owners who wanted to repair their homes, hopeful that public-housing projects would fit into the existing urban fabric, rather than try to replace it.

  The city also tried to revitalize older neighbourhoods, by reviving shopping streets, opening new cultural centres, and replacing lamp posts, fire hydrants, and the like. A big part of Montreal’s revitalization came by breathing life back into its neighbourhoods.

  Cultural venues for the city and surrounding area also proliferated, and were visited by more and more Montrealers. The biggest museums expanded, while others opened. New theatre and dance companies were set up in renovated old buildings. The Olympic Vélodrome became the Biodôme. Tourist attractions like Old Montreal and the Old Port were given fresh appeal, drawing millions of visitors every year and featuring a broad range of cultural activities.

  All this was possible because Montreal had become a hotbed of cultural creativity, Quebec’s main showcase for fresh, French-language culture that was uniquely Made in Québec. Now backed more than ever by all layers of government, this culture was also able to make its voice heard through Montreal-based newspapers, electronic media, publishing houses, and more.

  Montrealers taking back their own city could also be seen in increasingly creative—and popular—festivals, some of which took to the city’s streets. The Montreal International Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs, Les Francofolies, the World Film Festival, and more put on a show for all the world to see, despite a lingering feeling of economic gloom. Pride in the city hit a high note in 1992, during the festivities marking Montreal’s 350th anniversary. The celebrations included the opening of Pointe-à-Callière, a museum devoted to Montreal’s history and archaeology.

  These facilities and cultural events did not just have Montrealers in mind: the city was dipping its toes into international waters. Montreal showed off its worldwide credentials not with one-hit wonders, but with a string of annual events that had personalities and groups from all around the world flocking to the city. It also became one of the premier destinations in North America for international conferences, an aspect of its international side that was helped by the growth of its four universities. All this while developing ties with French-speaking countries saw Montreal cement its status as one of the premier cities in the French-speaking world, a truly international stage not only for artists and creative types, but also for internationally renowned researchers and academics.

  A changing of the guard

  In 1976, Mayor Jean Drapeau, head of the Parti civique, had already held the highest office in Montreal for 16 years, with 10 more to come. Although Drapeau was clearly less popular than before, a divided opposition kept him in power. As is often the case with municipal politics, parties came and went. Founded in 1974, the Rassemblement des citoyens et citoyennes de Montréal (RCM)—the Montreal Citizens’ Movement—was of the longer-lasting variety, forming the official opposition after the 1974 and 1982 elections.

  After the Olympic Games weakened the city’s finances, the Parti civique could not govern as it had in the past. In 1978, the arrival of Yvon Lamarre as executive committee president marked a shift in party politics. Turning its back on big, expensive projects, the administration now focused on economic recovery, neighbourhood revitalization, and residential investment in an effort to slow the rate at which people were moving to the suburbs. In spite of this, the wearing effect of being in power ensured that in 1986, after holding office for 26 years at the head of the Parti civique, Drapeau retired from politics and elections swept the RCM and a new mayor, Jean Doré, to power.

  Drapeau and the Parti civique were representative of the new French-speaking middle class—small storekeepers, managers, insurance agents, etc.—that had developed starting in the 1920s. Doré and the RCM represented the new elites spawned by the Quiet Revolution, made up of executives, technocrats, union leaders, and community organizers. The 1986 elections had brought a new generation to power.

  For years, the RCM had said that citizens should play a bigger role in municipal politics, and, once in power, the RCM administration set up borough advisory committees and Accès-Montréal offices. It tried to get Montrealers working together, but, despite these overtures, it made the administration more technocratic, although it did continue to support a better quality of life at the local level. Mayor Doré’s team was re-elected in 1990 and spent a total of eight years in power.

  Throughout this period, the Communauté urbaine de Montréal was the only body to coordinate the various municipalities’ efforts. Although it managed certain metropolitan services like the police and public transit, the CUM only brought together municipalities on the island of Montreal, and the city and its suburbs had grown considerably since 1970, meaning that the CUM represented a declining portion of the Montreal census metropolitan area (71% in 1971 versus 53% in 1996). The need for a broader mechanism bringing together the region’s municipalities was again a talking point.

  Montreal underwent a long and painful period of restructuring between 1976 and 1994. Despite a vibrant cultural scene, factory closures, high unemployment, and slow growth fed a general feeling of malaise. Gradually, Montreal hauled itself out of years of crisis by banking on the knowledge economy and the quality of living in its revitalized neighbourhoods.

  CHAPTER 14

  Montreal’s Revival

  1994…

  Montreal came alive again at the turn of the twenty-first century. The doom and gloom of past decades lifted. The economy picked up and growth returned, while political reforms transformed the relationship between the city and its suburbs.

  A new economic boom

  In 1994, Montreal’s economy was still reeling from the severe recession that had struck it at the beginning of the decade. Unemployment and poverty were rife; food banks were in demand. Signs that the city was about to right the ship were, however, perceptible and would get stronger.

  The long and painful process of restructuring Montreal’s industry was now at an end. The city emerged with state-of-the-art businesses in cutting-edge sectors like aeronautics, biopharmaceuticals, information technologies, and telecommunications. Across the board, even in the most traditional sector
s, companies were becoming more specialized and more competitive as they turned to exports.

  Businesses were reaping the rewards of the free trade agreement signed with the United States in 1989, which became NAFTA in 1994. In the second half of the nineties, these businesses exported massively south of the border, making the most of strong American growth and a weak Canadian dollar. This golden age of Canadian exports did not last long, however, and came under threat from the rise of China in the following decade. China was able to put less-expensive products onto the market to compete with Canadian ones on the American market, while its demand for raw materials sent prices up—along with the Canadian dollar whose rise was also fuelled by skyrocketing oil prices. From the mid-2000s, Montreal industry therefore again came under pressure, but the damage would not be as widespread as in the seventies and eighties.

  Montreal’s economy was thus exposed to globalization, not only in international trade, but also in the world of investment. New waves of mergers and acquisitions swept away Quebec companies headquartered in Montreal, while others extended their networks abroad.

  The revival of Montreal brought with it a new age of prosperity, and lower taxes increased disposable incomes. Early-retirement programs in the civil service and the broader public sector freed up jobs for young people, and, within a few years, unemployment had shrunk, both in the city and across the Montreal area.