Futuristic pavilions, top
international stars, dignitaries from around the world — Expo 67 was a glamour event for Montreal.

And if the outpouring of sunny nostalgia in the city’s media around the 40th anniversary of Expo is any indication, the world’s fair still retains a powerful hold on the imagination of Quebec’s baby boom generation.

Expo drew more than 50 million visitors from across Canada and around the world to see attractions such as Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome and architect Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 housing complex. The site itself was a wonder built on two islands in the St. Lawrence River, one entirely manmade.

The summer-long fair crowned a decade of feverish urban expansion in Montreal that saw achievements such as construction of the Métro, and building landmark skyscrapers and expressways to criss-cross the city.

At the time, Quebec’s francophone society was flowering after throwing off the domination of the Roman Catholic Church. A young generation of French-Canadians had taken the reins at powerful institutions such as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Hydro-Québec and at a crop of aggressive homegrown companies.

It’s not surprising that Expo seemed like a coming-of-age party for Montreal. But the promise of a bright future was a mirage.

After the Parti Québécois came to power in 1976, Montreal suffered through a long decline as high taxes, a bloated public sector and constitutional brinkmanship sapped the city of its economic vitality and sent hundreds of thousands of people streaming out of the province.

In the 20 years from 1981 to 2001, Quebec’s contribution to Canada’s GDP fell to 21% from 24% while Ontario’s rose to 42% from 39%. Quebec was stuck with one of the lowest rates of per-capita income in North America and one of the fastest-aging populations in the industrialized world.

Over the past year, there’s been much hand-wringing about the poisoned legacy of this economic malaise. Lucien Bouchard led a group of notable Quebecers in an examination of the problems facing Quebec and Montreal, from the baby bust to lamentable productivity to crushing public debt.

Those problems persist, but lately there have been some encouraging signs that things are looking up.

First, the recent provincial election dealt a devastating blow to the PQ. The party was relegated to third place in its worst showing since 1973, support for separation has also been on the wane and PQ leader André Boisclair resigned last month.

The Action démocratique du Québec, on the other hand, soared to official Opposition status behind its charismatic leader Mario Dumont on a platform that supports smaller government and debt reduction.

On the economic front, the Conference Board of Canada said in an April report that it sees signs of Montreal’s recovery. The board expects the manufacturing sector to grow this year for the first time since 2000. It sees the city’s GDP rising to 2.6% this year and 3% in 2008 from an anemic 1.6% last year. Montreal is expected to move to No. 9 position in GDP growth out of 20 major Canadian cities, from No. 17 last year.

Meanwhile, the real estate market has been robust in recent years, in contrast to its deep funk in the post-referendum days of the late 1990s. As well, the city has a series of development projects on the go including an ambitious plan for a derelict swath of land just south of downtown.

Perhaps most surprising, Quebecers are having more children. There was a 7.9% jump in the number of babies born in 2006, with more births than in any year of the past nine.

Montreal isn’t out of the woods yet. But the promise of Expo 67 may be fulfilled, albeit decades late. IE