Project info
Reclaim the Main is a grassroots effort to protect Montreal’s “The Main” national historic site, also known as St. Laurent Boulevard.
The Main holds a special place in the hearts of all Montrealers. As the first street to stretch beyond the ancient fortifications of Old Montréal, The Main is renowned as a gateway of immigration, a multi-cultural boulevard, and the spine of Canada’s most artistic neighbourhoods. To protect this vibrant thoroughfare, in 1996 the federal government designated The Main a “national historic site” suggesting the fabled corridor must have a "sense of history”, and to protect it insists that “intrusive elements must be minimal".
(http://www.pc.gc.ca/culture/proj/main/intro_e.asp)
Recently, long-time Plateau residents have started to complain that “The Main” was being inundated with “intrusive elements” – specifically, abusive corporate advertising. Billboard trucks, reality advertisements branded as “street parties” (for online gambling, beer companies, etc.), television billboards, and a host of marketers handing out flyers, rollerblading with ad-flags sticking out of backpacks, and promoting products in any conceivable way possible have taken over the historic site. At the time, according to infringement festival organizer Jason C. McLean: “This corporate spam is polluting the atmosphere and ruining our historic area.”
Historic sites are regulated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, a branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage. After complaints about the “intrusive elements”, Executive Secretary Michel Audy wrote (on December 11th 2006): “It is the responsibility of site owners to ensure that the national historic site they own is operated to a standard that meets the principles for which the site was designated…The Main is the responsibility of the City of Montréal, and if you have not already done so, I encourage you to contact the Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal.”
With moral support from the Conseil du patrimoine, Plateau residents have teamed up with Erik Chevrier of Concordia University’s überculture collective in order to press the issue with City Hall. Chevrier, who is challenging municipal bureaucrats on the Billboard Trucks issue, claims: “They're multiplying. They pollute the air we breathe in order to sell products like lipstick, suntan lotion, and bling clubs. They are prolific in places like Toronto and Montreal, and the companies offering this offensive "service" are growing in size and number every day…Advertising trucks are technically illegal in Montreal”.
When recent construction finished and a new chapter started on the Main, Plateau resident Donovan King of the Optative Theatrical Laboratories vowed: “This time they should start things on the right foot and show some respect for the historic site. In the 21st Century the importance of protecting the mental environment is more prominent than ever. If we cannot even protect a historic site, what hope is there to preserve our culture against an onslaught of Generica monoculture?
It is time to take action against all these corporate intrusions on The Main. If Mayor Tremblay refuses to act on this issue, he will leave the grassroots with no choice but to fight back against these abuses to our historic site. If necessary, we shall resort to any dramatic means necessary to Reclaim the Main. If we can save Park Avenue, we can save The Main too.”