Jean Drapeau
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Jean Drapeau CC , GOQ (February 18, 1916 – August 12, 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 that has taken its citizens over thirty years to fully pay off.
[edit] Early life and career
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. In 1942, he ran as an independent candidate in a federal by-election, but lost. He then practiced as a criminal lawyer in Montreal. In 1945, he was married to Marie-Claire Boucher. They would have three sons. During the asbestos strike of 1949, he took on the legal defence of some of the strikers. In 1950, he helped Pacifique (Pax) Plante in leading the inquiry into corruption and immorality in Montreal, thus becoming well known in the city.
[edit] Mayor of Montreal
In the municipal election of 1954, Drapeau was elected mayor of Montreal, as the candidate of the Civic Action League, on an electoral platform of cleaning up the municipal administration. In the election of 1957, he lost to Sarto Fournier but he was elected again in the election of 1960 and from then he was reelected without interruption until he retired from political life in 1986.
During Jean Drapeau's tenure as mayor, Montreal saw, in the 1960s, the initial construction of its subway system, Place des Arts and Expo 67, the universal exposition of 1967. To help with the city's finances, Drapeau created in 1968 the first public lottery in Canada, which he named simply the "voluntary tax", an idea that would later be taken over and further developed by the provincial government.
During the municipal elections of October 1970, Drapeau cleverly used the proclamation of the War Measures Act and the October crisis to discredit and neutralize the candidates of the opposition party, some of which were imprisoned only to be released after the election was over.
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 was also marked by Drapeau's controversial decision to dismantle the Corridart public art display just before the Games. [1]
The end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s were marked by growing public criticism of Drapeau's municipal administration and by the creation in 1974 of a new opposition party, which gradually grew in popularity over the next decade. Drapeau did not seek reelection in the election of 1986, which was won by the opposition.
In 1967, Drapeau was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and in 1987 a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
On his passing in 1999, Drapeau was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec.
One of the biggest parks in Montreal, composed of Ile 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.
[edit] Quotation
"The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby." Jean Drapeau after Montreal won the right to host the 1976 Olympics. Following the Olympics the city was left with a debt of $1 billion.
| Preceded by Camillien Houde |
Mayor of Montreal 1954-1957 |
Succeeded by Sarto Fournier |
| Preceded by Sarto Fournier |
Mayor of Montreal 1960-1986 |
Succeeded by Jean Doré |
