It was more than thirty years ago, during a television interview with American actor Kevin Bacon, at the start of his career, on an American network. He recounted his brief stay in Montreal and his visit to the “French Quarters” with a somewhat contemptuous anecdote to support it. Robert Stack, another American actor participating in the show, immediately corrected him by specifying that Montreal was, like the whole of Quebec, predominantly French-speaking. Recall that Robert Stack spoke French (and Italian) fluently and obviously appreciated French culture. That he felt it necessary to correct his young colleague in this way, for an American audience, says a lot about the man he was. We would like Mayor Plante to be as proud and protective of our image. His decision to rename the Latin Quarter of Montreal the Quartier de la francophonie is incredibly stupid. Would Kevin Bacon have been a visionary?
To watch on video