A commemorative park for Expo 67?
Phew! What a file!
There is obviously no question of rebuilding the historic site of Expo 67. However, it would be possible to give a commemorative place to the citizens who knew and lived through this grandiose adventure, as well as to the youngest who would like to know what been the Montreal World’s Fair and its impacts, as well as to the many tourists who are always on the lookout for important and spectacular historical elements.
Some items like the ones you already mentioned are still extant and repurposed, others like this historic ride could at the very least be displayed on site somewhere other than La Ronde, but in the Expo 67 Memorial Park.
My function as head of audiovisual documentation at Terre des Hommes after Expo 67 until its closure allowed me to realize the extent to which audiovisual documentaries can have an impact on visitors and at a lower cost than reconstructions.
It’s not the ideas and the possibilities that are lacking, but as always, it’s the will and, of course, the money.
You are right, there are passionate people and I would add, very competent people, like Roger La Roche, who asks nothing better than to be called upon to form teams in order to create either a single place or islands interpretation on the enchanting site of Expo 67.
Dear Madam, thank you for putting this issue back on the agenda of our decision-makers.
Gerard Laperriere
Some Suggestions
Old Montreal, La Fontaine Park, Angrignon Park, the Olympic Park esplanade… Montreal has many extraordinary places to host this jewel.
Lucie Parrot
In the care of blue collar workers
When I was a student in the 1970s, I worked on the Galopant for three consecutive summers. At that time, it was carefully maintained by blue-collar workers from the City of Montreal who had the expertise to manufacture and replace defective parts. Like many, I was outraged when I learned that the city had included the carousel in the sale of La Ronde to Six Flags. What a lack of vision! It is high time to correct this mistake and give the Galopant back to Montrealers. Personally, to avoid bad weather and vandalism, I would install it indoors. It would be magnificent in the summer and during the holidays in the great hall of our Town Hall. I implore our elected officials to do everything to repatriate this jewel that knows how to rally all generations.
Charles deFoy
At City Hall?
It’s a great idea to move the Gallopant near the Town Hall. In this way, all Montrealers and visitors would have access to it. Let’s take inspiration from several European cities in which a carousel is installed in the historic district.
Line Maisonneuve
In a “certain silo”
The iconic carousel in Old Montreal: a dream! A museum of Expo memorabilia: a necessity. It seems to me that there is a certain silo that we don’t know what to do with… The managers of the McCord and Pointe-à-Callière museums could help establish a place of living memory.
Louise M Hebert
At Parc Jean-Drapeau
Parc Jean-Drapeau is administered in such a way as to restore certain physical sites set up in 1967, but which were subsequently abandoned for lack of finding a new use for them. The Place des Nations is one of those places which, it seems, is in the process of being restored. I believe that it should be up to the administration of Parc Jean-Drapeau to highlight this heritage. But taking a carousel out of its natural place of expression – an amusement fair – to put it in a museum is not the solution. The carousel must be protected on the La Ronde site itself. Quebec winters are harsh and are the cause of significant maintenance costs for rides. A fortiori for a merry-go-round from the end of the 19e century. Protecting it by placing it inside a building that would highlight it while allowing it to continue to turn for the happiness of young and old would be the preferred solution.
Guy Couillard, Saint-Lambert
The importance of heritage transmission
My partner and I are 66 and 71 years old. We remember going to La Ronde with our parents and riding on these horses which gave us the illusion of galloping while one of our parents, standing, was standing near us. Later, it was our children who had the joy of boarding this rotating merry-go-round while we were filled with the pleasure of watching them, seeing ourselves again, younger, accompanied by the same music as at that time. . To “save the heritage” or the material representation of what has existed in the course of our history, human beings must transmit to the generation that follows us the fundamental values linked to “respect for others”. This oral transmission weaves the links, helps to recognize what has already existed, of an art, of human know-how or of a monument, like this carousel dating from the 19e century, and to make it “live” in the memory of each of our children in order to engender in them a sensitivity, a recognition towards those who have built before them.
Helene Bouchard Noury
Priorities other than a carousel
Insofar as the safeguarding project is financed by voluntary donations, that does not pose a problem for me. On the other hand, that our taxes and taxes finance this rescue, it is not. There are more important priorities than that.
Alain Brochu, Quebec