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Parc Jean-Drapeau at dusk.

Parc Jean-Drapeau (formerly called Parc des Îles) is situated to the east of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the Saint Lawrence River. It comprises two islands, Saint Helen's Island and the artificial island Île Notre-Dame.

The islands were the site of the Expo 67 World's Fair. Île Notre-Dame was constructed for the exposition. The park was renamed in honour of Jean Drapeau, the late mayor of Montreal and initiator of Expo 67.

Since 1978 Île Notre-Dame hosts the annual Canadian Grand Prix, at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with the exception of 1987 and 2009. The Montreal Casino, the Beach, the Olympic Basin, the Floralies Gardens and the pavillon of Canada are also located on the island. Île Sainte-Hélène hosts "La Ronde" amusement park belonging to Six Flags as well as the Complexe aquatique de l'île Sainte-Hélène (Aquatic Complex), public pools built for the FINA championships in 2005.

It is the site of the studio of Radio-Classique Montréal as well as the site of many outdoor concerts. Bands such as Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden and Nickelback have performed in the park. The Vans Warped Tour and the Osheaga Festival is also located there almost every year. The metal festival Heavy MTL is also held there annually.

A snowboarding park was added in winter 2009.^[1]

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  Parc Jean-Drapeau

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  "Le Phare du Cosmos" (1967) by Yves Trudeau (created for Expo 67) in St. Helen's Island in Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montréal, Quebec

See also[link]

• Hochelaga Archipelago

References[link]

External links[link]

• Parc Jean-Drapeau

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Coordinates: 45°30′34″N 73°31′39″W / 45.509505°N 73.527417°W / 45.509505; -73.527417

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Mayor Jean Drapeau CC GOQ
37th Mayor of Montreal
In office 1954–1957
Preceded by	Camillien Houde
Succeeded by	Sarto Fournier
In office 1960.–1986.
Preceded by	Sarto Fournier
Succeeded by	Jean Doré
Personal details
Born	18 February 1916. Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	August 12, 1999(1999-08-12) (aged 83) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Civic Party of Montreal
Spouse(s)	Marie-Claire Boucher
Alma mater	Université de Montréal
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature

Drapeau statue at Place Jacques-Cartier

Jean Drapeau, CC GOQ (18 February 1916 – 12 August 1999) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as mayor of Montreal from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986. During his tenure as mayor he was responsible for the construction of the Montreal Metro system and the Place des Arts concert hall, for conceiving Expo 67, for securing the 1976 Summer Olympics, and for helping to bring Major League Baseball to Montreal with the creation of the Montreal Expos.

Although he is remembered as a visionary, Drapeau's mishandling of the construction of the Olympic Games facilities resulted in massive cost overruns and left the city with a debt of over $1 billion that has taken its citizens over thirty years to fully pay off. Under his tenure as Mayor, Drapeau oversaw the dramatic face change to the Golden Square Mile district of Montreal, most notably the destruction of the Van Horne Mansion, which he declared was impossible to preserve for cultural reasons because it was not part of Quebec's culture.

Early life and career[link]

The son of Joseph-Napoléon Drapeau and Alberta (Berthe) Martineau, Jean Drapeau was born in Montreal in 1916. His father, an insurance broker, city councillor and election worker for the Union nationale, introduced him to politics. Jean Drapeau studied law at the Université de Montréal.

Drapeau was a protégé of nationalist priest Lionel Groulx in the 1930s and 1940s,^[1] and was a member of André Laurendeau's anti-conscription Ligue pour la défense du Canada. In 1942, he ran as a candidate of the nationalist Bloc Populaire, which opposed Canadian conscription during World War II, in a federal by-election (see Second Conscription Crisis). Drapeau lost the election. He was also a Bloc populaire candidate in the 1944 provincial election but was badly defeated in his Montreal constituency.^[1]

He began his practice as a criminal lawyer in Montreal in 1944. During the Asbestos Strike of 1949, he took on the legal defence of some of the strikers.^[1]

In 1945, he married Marie-Claire Boucher. They had three sons.

Mayor of Montreal[link]

Jean Drapeau's profile grew as the result of his role in a public inquiry led by Pacifique Plante into police corruption in the early 1950s. When Camillien Houde retired as mayor of Montreal, Drapeau was well poised to succeed him.^[1]

Drapeau was elected mayor of Montreal in 1954 at the age of 37, as the candidate of the Civic Action League, on a platform of cleaning up the administration. In 1957, he lost to Sarto Fournier who was backed by the powerful Premier of Quebec Maurice Duplessis,^[1] but Drapeau was elected again in the election of 1960, and from then he was re-elected without interruption until he retired from political life in 1986. His long tenure would eventually turn the Parti Civique into his personal fief, with no clear heir.

During Jean Drapeau's tenure as mayor, he initiated the initial construction of the Montreal Metro subway system, Place des Arts, and Expo 67, the Universal Exposition of 1967.^[1] To support the expenditures, Drapeau created the first public lottery in Canada in 1968, which he called simply a "voluntary tax", an idea that would later gain favor and become enlarged by the provincial government by creating Loto-Québec society in 1970.

In the municipal elections of October 1970, Drapeau used the proclamation of the War Measures Act and the October Crisis to discredit and neutralize the candidates of the opposition party by accusing them of being terrorist sympathisers and supporters of the Front de libération du Québec. Some opposition candidates, including his main opponent, were imprisoned only to be released after the end of the election in which Drapeau's party won all 52 seats.^[1]

The 1970s saw the preparation of the 1976 Summer Olympics. Cost overruns and scandals forced the Quebec government to take over the project. The Summer Games were also marked by Drapeau's controversial decision to dismantle the Corridart public art display just before the Games. [1]

Public criticism of Drapeau's municipal administration grew and lead to the creation of a new opposition party in 1974, which gradually grew in popularity over the next decade. Drapeau did not seek re-election in the election of 1986, which was won by the opposition. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Drapeau to the position of Canadian ambassador to UNESCO in Paris.^[1]

Despite the nationalism of his youth, Drapeau remained neutral during the 1980 Quebec referendum.^[1]

In 1967, Drapeau was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal.^[2] He was named a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 1987.

After his death in 1999 (at age 83), Drapeau was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal.

One of the biggest parks in Montreal, Parc Jean-Drapeau, composed of Île Notre-Dame and Ile Sainte-Hélène in the middle of the Saint Lawrence river, site of the universal exposition of 1967, was renamed in his honour, as was the Metro station serving the park.

Quotations[link]

Drapeau said "The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby."^[3] after announcing the budget for the Montreal Olympic games. Following the Olympics, the city was left with a debt of $1 billion. Aislin published a famous political cartoon depicting a pregnant Drapeau on the phone, saying "'Ello, Morgentaler?", referring to a prominent Montreal physician who performed abortions.

As rival Toronto grew in size and prestige, Drapeau declared: "Let Toronto become Milan. Montreal will always be Rome."

One opponent called him "a combination of Walt Disney and Al Capone."

His critics described most of his projects as circuses. Drapeau replied: "What the masses want are monuments."

References[link]

External links[link]

• Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Jean Drapeau
• CBC Archives Drapeau's vision of bringing the Eiffel Tower to Montreal for Expo 67.

v t e Mayors of Montreal Viger McGill Bourret Ferrier Mills Bourret (2nd) Fabre Wilson Nelson Starnes Rodier Beaudry Starnes (2nd) Workman Coursol Cassidy Bernard Hingston Beaudry (2nd) Rivard Beaudry (3rd) Beaugrand Abbott Grenier McShane Desjardins Villeneuve Wilson-Smith Préfontaine Cochrane Laporte Ekers Payette Guerin Lavallée Martin Duquette Martin (2nd) Houde Rinfret Houde (2nd) Raynault Houde (3rd) Raynault (2nd) Houde (4th) Drapeau Fournier Drapeau (2nd) Doré Bourque Tremblay