Jean Drapeau

Jean Drapeau (1954)

Jean Drapeau , CC , GOQ , (born February 18, 1916 in Montreal , Québec , † August 12, 1999 ibid) was a Canadian lawyer and politician. From 1954 to 1957 and from 1960 to 1986 he was mayor of Montreal.

biography

Jean Drapeau is the son of Joseph-Napoléon Drapeau and Alberta (Berthe) Martineau and was born in Montreal in 1916. His father was an insurance salesman, a member of the city council and an election worker for the Union nationale . Jean Drapeau studied law at the University of Montreal and was politically active for the first time in the organization Ligue pour la défense du Canada, which campaigns against conscription (→ conscription crisis of 1944 ). He ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the nationalist Bloc Populaire in 1942 and 1944 . He began as a criminal defense lawyer in Montreal in 1944 and in 1949 defended some activists in the so-called asbestos strike, a month-long asbestos dispute mining miners.

Drapeau made his mark by publishing a corruption case known as Pax Plante in the early 1950s. When the mayor Camillien Houde gave up his office in this episode , Drapeau followed him at the age of 37. In 1957 he lost to Sarto Fournier , who was supported by the influential Prime Minister of the Province of Quebec Maurice Duplessis . Drapeau was re-elected mayor in 1960 with 53%. He was a member of the local party Parti Civique de Montréal, founded in the same year (and dissolved in 1994) .

During his tenure, Jean Drapeau played a key role in the construction of the Montreal subway , the Place des Arts art center and the Expo 67 world exhibition . To support spending, he created the first state lottery in 1968, which he himself referred to as a "voluntary tax". The provincial government picked up the idea again later and transferred the company in 1970 to Loto-Québec .

Drapeau used the October crisis to discredit his political opponents during the local elections in October 1970 by accusing them of being sympathizers and supporters of the terrorist Front de Liberation du Québec . Some members of the opposition, including his main opponents, were arrested after the election ended. The 1970s were overshadowed by preparations for the 1976 Summer Olympics . Scandals and massive cost overruns forced the provincial government to intervene. The construction of the Olympic Stadium alone , the tower of which remained unfinished until 1987, cost 770 million Canadian dollars . Drapeau's decision to remove the eight-kilometer-long Corridart art path after the games was also received critically . The public criticism of the city administration and Drapeau grew and in 1974 led to the establishment of a new opposition party. Drapeau, who has now ruled for over two decades, suffered a stroke on June 20, 1986. In 1986 he did not stand for re-election. The then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney named Drapeau a UNESCO Ambassador to Paris for Canada .

Jean Drapeau died in Montreal in 1999 at the age of 83 and was buried in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery. One of the largest parks in Montreal, the Parc Jean-Drapeau , bears his name, as does the Jean-Drapeau subway station .

Honors

• 1967: Companion of the Order of Canada
• 1967: Gold Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
• 1987: Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec

Web links

Commons : Jean Drapeau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jean Drapeau ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Information and pictures about Jean Drapeau (French)
• Radio address by Jean Drapeau at the 1967 World's Fair

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Spiegel : Magnificent Catastrophe (July 12, 1976)
2. ^ Order of Canada: Jean Drapeau, CC, GOQ, cr, LL.B.
3. ↑ RAIC Gold Medal - Past Recipients. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .