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WESTMOUNT'S VERY DIFFERENT TWIN Aug 15
Back in the palmy days of Expo 67, Mayor Tucker of Westmount was probably sitting around with a bunch of aldermen (as councillors were known in those days), debating ways our city could do its bit to perpetuate the Canadian dream that we all dreamt back in 1967.
It seems they hit upon the idea of twinning Westmount with another city. But not just any city. They rejected an offer from Moncton and a later suggestion of Sudbury. Tucker's Council held out for a francophone city - which meant a city in Quebec. Because of inter-city hockey, or through our respective MLAs (as MNAs were known in those days), or for whatever other reason now possibly lost to history, the city of Rimouski was chosen as Westmount's twin. 
So it came to pass on March 23, 1968, there was a joint Council meeting in Westmount City Hall for the formal twinning ceremony. Said Mayor Tucker, "all families have problems and Canada en famille is no exception. Some of the problems are constitutional". Sound familiar?
Well, 27 years later, during a speech I gave to the Westmount Municipal Association, I suggested we revive our twinning with Rimouski as a positive post-referendum gesture. Our last contact was in 1984. Bernard Hogue, at January's Council meeting, suggested we take advantage of Rimouski's 300th anniversary celebrations. So we did. Last weekend.
It was well-timed. We all read the headlines on Saturday: unemployment in Quebec up to 12.4%. Yet instead of trying to find solutions to our economic mess, we Quebecers worry about the number, size, placement, and language of commercial signs. Each side wants their "reality" reflected in a bunch of letters on cardboard that tell us what to buy...or where to go. Some French people want to deny the bilingual tradition (and clear competitive advantage) of Montreal, and some English insist on prodding and picking at the most sensitive part of your typical francophone's id.
Now people ask "what's your sign?" when picking up a little something in a shop as well as in a singles bar.
Well, your Council feels we Westmounters can do more positve things. Our economic miasma is a direct result of political uncertainty and our political uncertainty is a direct result of lack of understanding on both sides of the Great Linguistic Divide. So it was in this spirit of bridge-building that some intrepid members of Council (Councillors Bercovitz, Bridgman, and Lulham, and myself, along with City Clerk and organizer Marie-France Paquet) left the cacophony of the sign-language debate behind, and hauled ourselves to Rimouski, venturing into pure laine territory.
Watch this space for more about our visit.
Meanwhile, following the suggestion of a number of Westmounters, Councillors Marks and Lulham are organizing various ways we can help the victims of the floods in the Saguenay, especially with new clothing.
How long is the St Lawrence River? "600 or 725 miles", says Encyclopaedia Britannica. "800 miles" says the (American) World Almanac. "1900 miles" boasts the Canadian World Almanac. It's 1950 miles long according to Whitaker's Almanack. "2100 miles" says Pear's Cyclopaedia, generously including the source of its headstream, the St Louis River.
The tale of the geographer's tape can be long or short. Does the St Lawrence begin at the Great Lakes (prosaically called its "drainage area") or begin at Kingston? Does it end at Cap Chat, or at Anticosti Island?
Our twin city Rimouski unwittingly weakens Canada's case in any fluvial one-upmanship by poetically claiming their city is sited "where the river becomes the sea". That chops 100 miles off even the meanest estimate.
Whatever its length, the St Lawrence defines Quebec - historically, geographically, economically, and, certainly, emotionally. Rimouski's sweeping beauty comes from this majestic river-cum-sea.
No one can accuse Rimouski of over-much town planning. But its natural setting makes that comment seem like so much cavilling. Like Westmount, Rimouski has a wealth of heritage buildings going back three centuries.
The cultural energy and sophistication of places like Rimouski put a lot of small-town Ontario to shame. For their 300th anniversary, Rimouski staged a rock opera that would not be out of place on Broadway. We Anglos often write off much of the Quebec hinterlands as being Quebec's answer to L'l Abner. A lot of the ebullience of Montreal's francophone cultural stew comes from talent coming in from the regions of Quebec.
It must be said, though, that the 32,000 Rimouskois benefit from largesse from Quebec. As a percent of tax revenue, they get three times what we get from government buildings. The Quebec obsession with its regions is no more evident than in the case of Rimouski. So the permeability between levels of government is a fact of political life. Unlike Westmount, a number of mayors went on to, or came from, careers in provincial government. Mayors are proud of how much dough they managed to shake loose from Quebec. They know which side of their bread is buttered.
Our host city pulled out all the stops for our first visit in 12 years. Even Maurice Tessier, the mayor who was party to the original twinning with Westmount in 1968 was on hand. M. Tessier, a quintessential notable, is descended from the last seigneur of Rimouski. He was both a mayor and MNA at one point, later becoming a cabinet minister and then a judge.
We spent most of the visit casting out stereotypes (they were quite surprised how good our French was), and got along famously. One PQ supporter even said he felt like revising his position on sovereignty after a particularly warm and friendly debate with us. Or was it just the wine?
I would like to invite a Rimouski delegation down to Westmount. Dare I hope that eventually we could put up some families here and vice versa?
Last week found me dressed in my army combat uniform, boarding a Hercules transport plane. I and two dozen other honorary colonels were on our way to the Valcartier military base near Quebec City. We probably looked like a rather raggle-taggle collection of over-the-hill officers trying to relive their glory days. The turboprop Hercules, another relic from the 50s, provided, ah, basic flying services.
We sat on canvas benches stretching the length of the plane, thoughtfully supplemented with orange nylon webbing to support our backs. Parachute paraphernalia and crash survival gear festooned the interior, which is two storeys high, dimly-lit, and so noisy that all passengers are issued serious ear-plugs. Toilet facilities consist of a small metal urinal affixed to the bulkhead. This is how we send our troops to Bosnia - a 16-hour trip.
After these labours of Hercules and a briefing, we took a bus and then helicopters to get to our respective units. I think the idea of honorary colonels visiting their troops in the field during war exercises is supposed to be a morale-booster. I dunno. After these guys had dug foxholes, slept fitfully in tents on hard ground, eaten dry rations and launched night attacks in pelting rain, I'm not sure having me ask inane questions of them upped their morale all that much, especially since they knew I was going back to a hotel to eat and sleep. But they certainly won my esteem.
Morale is a big problem in the armed forces these days. Soldiers are faced with the spectacle of the Chief of Defence Staff ducking and weaving before a commission. In trying to decide between General Boyle's performance or the indignity of having our highest-ranking officer grilled this way, I don't know which makes me sadder. And all the great things our armed forces did in Cyprus, Oka, Bosnia, and the Saguenay fades from memory and is supplanted by reports of this daily interrogation. The lack of leadership, the bureaucratization, the abysmal behaviour of a few diminishes our otherwise dedicated military in the public's eye.
Another morale-killer is budget cuts. Not the normal budget cuts that we all expect our military to take in view of changes in the geo-political scene and the need to cut our deficit. We're talking cuts that will savage the very existence of certain militia regiments. And the militia only costs us 5% of military spending, which in turn is only 6% of all federal spending.
Why should you worry about the decimation of our military? Aside from guaranteeing Canada's prestige and security, it is a particularly Canadian institution that helps bind this factious country together. There are no linguistic tensions in the forces; francophone regiments and headquarters in Quebec operate in French, yet with an evident pride in Canada.
I'm proud to be the honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Montreal Regiment whose associations and even beginnings are so closely tied with the City of Westmount. And pride is in short supply these days.
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Sep page© 1997 by David T. Nicholson
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