GLIMPSES of how Canada worked: a writer's memoir.

60. Montreal: My town and networks

copyright © 2015 WandaS  All rights reserved

MAGICAL THINGS ALWAYS HAPPENED FOR ME in Montreal, since my first visit for Christmas 1953.I'm a water baby, my soul feels best surrounded by water -- Montreal occupies an island.

In 1984 I needed an apartment. All it took was a few days staying with a former neighbour in the Snowdon district I'd left in 1969, and a couple of walks through the neighbourhood. I found a perfect one-bedroom with a 25-foot living room, more than enough space for both Piano and me.

Some members of my 1960s network had risen to impressive jobs and helped me start freelancing again. One man needed a long French document translated in weekly installments. He was glad I'd come back because the project called for my kind of punctuality and confidentiality. I appreciated the cheques he sent monthly for almost a year.

I also wrote for Bill Bantey, who had kept me busy during EXPO 67. In '84 he had one office in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and another nearby for his own PR company. I re-connected with Pauline Guetta, who had written assignments for me during the '60s. She drew me into the local group of English-language women writers, some of whom I'd met when they visited the Women's Press Club of Toronto.

On Tuesday nights former Torontonians met in a restaurant on trendy Crescent Street. The first time I went I met a man named Colin, we began dating...but that's another story.

A federal election was called for September 4. I've been a campaign junkie since high school, when a classmate's father pointed out that because Poland no longer enjoyed parliamentary democracy I should volunteer for a Liberal candidate he supported and thus learn about Canada's version. I was neither interested in politics nor old enough to vote, but I joined his daughter in the campaign office and became addicted. 

As a reporter and especially after marrying a newsman, I couldn't belong to a party or even express political opinions, but for five decadesI worked on campaigns for different parties at all three levels of government. They were always worthwhile learning experiences.

So in 1984 I went to the nearest campaign office and volunteered -- for Mount Royal Riding's Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate, Sharon Wolfe. Her chances of winning were minimal because the riding had elected Liberals since 1940.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau, had just retired as Mount Royal's Member of Parliament and Canada's Prime Minister. Mrs. Wolfe's Liberal opponent was Mrs. Sheila Finestone.

Quebec was categorically different from the province I'd left in 1969. Rene Levesque's Parti Quebecois had won the 1976 election. It passed laws making French the Province's official working language. According to Statistics Canada about 200,000 anglophones moved away after that taking most of Canada's head offices and financial power with them, to Toronto and Calgary.

In the '60s I'd read every billboard I saw because most showed other languages, even other alphabets. In '84 I found all signage either in French only or in French with a bit of English. The silliest result was a street named for Quebec's first Anglican Bishop, Right Rev. Jacob Mountain, being renamed de la Montagne.

Canada had changed too, reacting to world events and politics at home. The five founders of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) transferred oil revenues from private corporations in the West to a few families in the Middle East. Oil income was also the issue when Trudeau, a federalist who envisioned "a just society", launched the National Energy Program forcing the Province of Alberta to share oil revenues. The NEP only lasted from 1980 to '85, but Albertans still dislike the federal government because of it.