MC Gilles | The city for work, the countryside to live differently

A pied-à-terre in town for work, an anchor point in the countryside to live differently. MC Gilles divides his time and large parts of his life between the Rosemont district and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, a stone’s throw from the St. Lawrence River. Interview-course.

“If I had the opportunity, I would always be in the countryside, launches the radio and TV host from the outset. But because of my job, and because the media are concentrated in Montreal, I spend the week in town and as much time as possible in Mauricie. »

He says he is very attached to his corner of the country and to his red brick house. The old lady of rue Sainte-Anne reached the venerable age of 140 in 2020.

“When I acquired her, a little over 20 years ago, I can testify that she really needed love. After all these years, I continue to restore it, I want to put it back as it was before. »

But he does not hide the fact that it is a lifelong project which risks occupying him full time when he retires. He turned 49 on May 11.

For three weeks, he paid three full-time employees to bend sheet metal, plus a week to erect the scaffolding.

“It was craftsmanship, cutting,” he says. We forget that the ancients did things forever. In the end, it cost me more than the purchase price of the house! »

A wealthy banker

The property, which he paid for “under 50,000 piastres”, has already had a glorious past. This was before the depression of 1929, before the Bank of Canada, at a time when banks printed money.

“My house was once a private bank and its first owner was called JA Rousseau, Liberal MP under Wilfrid Laurier,” recalls the history buff.

More than a century later, we guess that there is nothing left of this old bank, except for a few banknotes arranged in a modest setting, at the entrance to the property.

Today, it is the country refuge of MC Gilles, with the Sainte-Anne River in the backyard, where the tomcod spawns. The oldest of the village nevertheless continue to call it “the house of Ti-Bi Lanouette”.

“It’s funny, laughs the owner of the place, it was a picker, just like me ! “.

A picker who recovered two pews and a large solid wood table which occupy a prominent place in one of the many rooms of the property, where the wooden plank floors are original.

“They come from the Saint-Roch church. It was quite a job to transport! he said with a satisfied smile.

On the first floor there is also a confessional door. On the second floor, a kneeler.

“I love jerky! “, he assumes with a touch of well-felt humor, while showing us around the owner.

He also likes what has lived. Like the chrome kitchen from the 1950s. And this tube radio that belonged to one of her aunts.

We haven’t talked about his passion for old records. “I’ve already had 40,000,” he calculates. There, I have 10,000.

Near the front door, a box of these vinyls, some of which are over 40 years old and still in their original packaging.

A local guy

No doubt, the “guy from Quebec” who earns his living in Montreal has several fields of interest. He is interested in heritage, in old buildings. He remains sensitive to the Montreal reality. He has his vision of things, of urbanity, of orderly development.

He also passes a critical judgment on speculators who are destroying neighborhood life by buying everything in their path, to the detriment of young families.

He’s been living and sleeping in Montreal for a good twenty years, for work. We see it at Infoman with Jean-René Dufort, we hear him at 98.5 with Patrick Lagacé, and recently, his performances have been noticed at Everybody talks about it with Guy A. Lepage.

“I spent a long time in an apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, I felt good there,” he says. It reminded me a bit of the countryside, with ordinary people. »

In Rosemont, he bought an old business that he transformed into a condo, barely two years ago, in a speculative market where prices were at their highest due to overbidding.

He does not dwell on this transaction, so he closes the parenthesis immediately. You can hear it, it is in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade that he is in his element. It is there, halfway between Montreal and Quebec, that he lets time take its time.

“Montreal, for me, is a lot of work,” he says. As soon as I have a break, I fly ! There, sowing has begun. I only think about my garden, it occupies my brain! When St. John’s Day hits, I spend my two and a half summer months in Mauricie. I’m trying to pull the plug! »

A odd appreciated in his village

“When I came here, I was a odd, in both senses of the word! I got the famous questions, like: whose son are you? Where were you born? »

Two decades later, his neighbors, those who chat to him on the street corner, know where he comes from. Above all, they know where he is going, with his way of forging lasting ties in his community.

The stranger has become a familiar face. He likes to rally the world, his world, around collective and community projects. It is a question here of occupying the territory, of the return of young people to restore the villages’ lost vitality, of immigrants who will have to be made room to fill jobs left vacant, with this worrying labor shortage.

For this, he concedes that it will be necessary to work more to change mentalities. “We see people from the city arriving in the regions, with teleworking and the pandemic, but everyone must make their efforts, he submits. Newcomers should know that country life is not like city life. »

He adds: “Yes, it may smell of liquid manure when there is spreading, that we will hear the train whistle at 4 am. We are in the countryside, we are in agricultural territory. There are flies! »

MC Gilles does not just speak to the world. It happened to him, and it still happens to him, to provide financial support to charities to help the less fortunate in the village.

No wonder Dave-Éric Ouellet has become, over the years, the most prominent citizen of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade… well beyond the small fish in the channels!