A reddit post notes that this is the coldest November 17 since 1924. A good day to stay in and read.
CBC introduces us to Henri Tranquille, whose bookstore will be memorialized in the name for the new park/rink at Clark and Ste-Catherine. The store is noted as the place where the Refus global was launched, and honoured (now) with the memory of how much the Catholic church condemned it. (Anyone who thinks the Church was nbd should ponder this paragraph: “In a letter to Tranquille in 1949, Monsignor Albert Valois, the director of the Diocesan Committee for Catholic Action, implored the bookstore owner to remove from his shelves the works of French author Émile Zola.”)
The Gazette this week looked at the first time the Parti québécois won an election – November 16, 1976 – and other moments from the archive.
The Centre d’histoire piece has some unrelated items connected with the Berri viaduct at Sherbrooke Street and its environs.
And lots from Radio-Canada this week in audio, video and text: the history of the tramway (as a form of transit generally, not just here), and, as the STM celebrates the centenary of the city bus in Montreal, another piece on how the tram gave way to the bus here.
There’s also a look back to 1969, when a season of protests and rioting as well as FLQ bombs persuaded Jean Drapeau to cancel the Santa Claus parade.
Radio-Canada also notes, sadly, the closure of 100-year-old jewellery shop J. Omer Roy on Mount Royal, which has always had a great neon sign with a clock, which may be acquired by Concordia’s growing sign collection. I hope so.
Tim F 15:27 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
I want to read this but I’ll have to dust off the old laptop to do so: this is essentially useless by phone.
Tim F 19:41 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
On a related note I remember a few years back a documentary on the CBC by Josh Freed (of all people) talking about how other Nordic cities live with winter. “Life Below Zero,” if memory serves. I tried looking for it a couple of weeks ago but it no longer seems to be available online.
Jonathan 11:32 on 2019-11-18 Permalink
This is awesome and have always thought that we need to accept and adapt to winter.
Tim – I think the audience for that pdf (if that’s what you are referring to) is municipal and planning staff… so pdf is definitely the more appropriate format since most would either be reading on their computers or want to print it out.