Memories of the "Main"

Editorial

Boulevard St. Laurent in Montreal – St. Lawrence Boulevard to the English; the "Main" to real Montrealers – has a mythic place in the lore not only of that great metropolis, but also of this country as a whole. For those who viewed Canada primarily as a country of two solitudes, of French and English, it has been a place demarcation. Historically, St. Laurent has been the dividing line between the traditionally anglophone (and wealthier) west island of Montreal and the overwhelmingly francophone (and more working class) east end. The area has been the reception point for generations of immigrants and the incubus for almost all that Canada's Jewish community has become.

This reality – not entirely new, but new enough to be noteworthy – was recognized officially last week when Boulevard St. Laurent was named a national historic site in recognition of its instrumental and continuing contribution in welcoming new Canadians.

There is hardly a Jewish family that has been in Canada for more than a generation that does not have some personal connection to the Main. For all of Canada, Mordechai Richler may have immortalized the characters of the area, but for most of us, the characters are even more intimate and familiar than Solomon Gursky or Duddy Kravitz. They are our grandparents, our teachers or the merchants who sold the familiar products that lined the kitchen shelves of our youth.

For those who do not have family roots there, the neighborhood still holds significant symbolism as a sort of stand-in for ethnic Canadians all across the country, sandwiched by two entrenched linguistic communities, struggling to carve out an identity separate from the surrounding cultures yet somehow thriving symbiotically.

For Canada's ethnic communities, and most particularly Canada's Jews, the Main and the neighborhoods that surround it are far more than a no-man's land between two "founding nations." The Main and other neighborhoods like it in major cities were temporary way-stations for newcomers on their way to integrating into the urban or suburban mainstream in Canada.

With the altering of this country's self-image from one of two founding nations to a multicultural society enriched by a diversity of peoples, neighborhoods like St. Laurence Boulevard have come to be viewed differently by their residents and outsiders alike.

In formally declaring Boulevard St. Laurent an historic site, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps said, according to the National Post, "Our country does not belong to just two founding peoples. It belongs to all Canadians." She called the designation "a first step toward a new story of Canada that includes all of our partners as equals."

This statement, coming from a federal minister, may be news to Canadians who viewed St. Laurent as merely another street, notable mostly for fat-riddled meat sandwiches. For generations of Jews and other immigrants whose vision of Canada has been indelibly formed by the vibrancy and values of the Main, it is official recognition of a richness we have always known.

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