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At the turn of the millennium, the Parti Québécois government was still smarting from its second referendum loss five years earlier. Premier Jacques Parizeau had quickly resigned after the defeat, having no stomach to govern Quebec not towards independence, but as a faithful province within Canada. The job fell into the lap of Lucien Bouchard, who had left Brian Mulroney’s cabinet and abandoned the federal Progressive Conservative Party following the failure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990. So what great thing might Bouchard achieve in his tenure as Prime Minister of Quebec? Two things, as it would turn out, both of which focused on Montreal and, by extension, Pointe-Claire.

The McGill University teaching hospitals had decided it was time to house several of their institutions in one new superhospital now known as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Glen site. Despite the fact that there are no English-language hospitals in Quebec (the MUHC officially operates in French, but the law permits it to provide English services), I clearly remember Bouchard asserting in public that it was unthinkable that there be an English superhospital but no French equivalent – hence begat the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Now Montreal is served by two superhospitals just six kilometres apart…

The other great thing Bouchard needed to achieve was to convert Montreal into a supermetropolis. Of course, Montreal already was a supermetropolis if one looks at geography and population. Montreal was and is an island-wide metropolis of around two million people, a little under then, a little over that now. However, the political arrangements at the time allowed the Montreal mayor to rule over just half that number. Following the “one island, one city” merger in 2002, the Montreal mayor ruled over all of us, and Bouchard had his French metropolis that could rank right up there with Paris – Montreal island has great city status because it has one mayor?  Really? Then, Bouchard resigned as premier in 2001, and his successor, Bernard Landry, lost the provincial election to the Charest Liberals in 2003. The Liberals then fulfilled an election promise and opened the door to demergers, albeit very reluctantly, and the abomination of the agglomeration was born in 2006.

Why an abomination? Because it was deliberately designed to free the reconstituted cities and their almost quarter million residents from the grip of “one island, one mayor” … but not their money! And in the 20 years that have followed, the reconstituted cities have accepted the situation like sheep. Oh yes, we occasionally bleat but no one pays any attention, and, like sheep, we soon quieten down. Year after year, budget after budget, we pay Montreal its tribute of over half our tax revenue and if we don’t like the way Montreal takes care of what that money is supposed to take care of – like public security, nature parks (e.g. Fairview Forest), social housing, or looking after the homeless – we do it ourselves and pay twice for the privilege.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We just have to be intelligent about it. It is woefully insufficient to think that our influence over Montreal is limited to our vanishingly small voting power on the agglo council. It’s not our puny vote that can matter. What can matter is our contribution to the whole process that culminates in the vote. But, as far as I can tell, in 20 years we have never even tried. That is the real abomination.  It is long past due that we smarten up, I should think. Don’t you?

Brent Cowan is currently serving his second term as Pointe-Claire city councillor for District 8 – Oneida.