Why Expo 67 Still Matters
Fifty years later after Montreal hosted the world, “expophile” historian Maurice Guibord takes us back to that iconic moment in Canadian history
[Initially published on Passport2017.ca on April 27, 2017]
Maurice Guibord is the Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique’s president. An adoptive Vancouverite, the historian is also a passionate collector. Over the years, he has amassed what is now one of Canada’s largest collections of Expo 67 artifacts, which he hopes to hand over to a museum in “either Montreal, Quebec City or Ottawa.”
Passport 2017 reached Guibord at his Vancouver home this week to chat about his memories of Expo 67 — an event that changed his life and put the entire country on the world stage 50 years ago today.
You describe yourself as becoming an “expophile” since you visited Expo 67. Can you tell me more about the impact it’s had on your life?
I grew up in Ottawa in a poor family. Visits to Expo 67 were offered by the scouts and by schools. I was 13 years old and ended up going to the Montreal World Expo three times thanks to these organizations. As soon as I set foot on the site, it changed my life. The architectural prowess on display was inspiring. Intriguing artifacts were shown all around the site, some of which piqued my curiosity so much that I eventually became an archaeologist myself.
You were 13 years old — what was it like to witness the whole thing from a child’s perspective?
It was such a show! For the first time, I was facing countries that I never dreamed of being able to visit. At the time, French-Canadians were rather isolated — suddenly, the whole world was offering itself to us through its architecture, its cuisines and its cultures. It monopolized all of your senses, swept you away on every level. To walk on the immense Expo 67 site was phenomenal — similar to walking in some sort of dream.
How was Expo 67 different from previous World Expos?
It was the first World Expo hosted in Canada. If the Bureau international des Expositions (BIE) was thrilled to see a World Expo in Canada and in Québec in particular, it still thought we would fail at delivering the event. In the end, the sheer scope of what we accomplished delighted and surprised them so much that it set a new bar.
Expo 67’s success really is the story of an underdog — initially, Moscow was supposed to host 1967’s World Expo, wasn’t it?
That’s correct. However, Moscow was apprehensive about the costs of such an operation and ended up cancelling its plans to host. At that point, only Montreal and Vienna, the Austrian capital, remained interested in putting the event together. Montreal obtained the BIE’s approbation in November of 1962.
Thanks in part to then-mayor Jean Drapeau, who led the project with aplomb — almost militarily, which was necessary given the circumstances and short notice — we accomplished what we thought was impossible. We literally created an island that didn’t exist [Notre-Dame island, where Expo 67 was partly hosted, is an artificial island created with the dirt dug up from construction on the Montreal metro] to gather countries that weren’t necessarily in relation with one another given the political reality at the time. Architectural landmarks when built in that context — awe-inspiring buildings to this day. It was an accomplishment of colossal proportions.
Expo 67 shattered attendance records, in part thanks to a pretty smart ad in Life, an American magazine, that said “Look what the Russians are building, just 40 miles from the U.S.A.”
And what’s interesting here is that two years prior, New York City had organized its own World Fair, where only a few countries were present because most of them wanted to save their architectural efforts for Montreal.
The USSR — a country then perceived as problematic by the United States — wasn’t present in New York. Two years later, they’re building this gigantic pavilion where, obviously, they promoted communism. I will never forget the statue of Lenin that stood there — to my young eyes, it must’ve been five-storeys tall!
What remains of Expo 67, other than the architectural heritage?
A key element is the Montreal metro system — many cities that hosted a World Expo invested in transit infrastructures that remained when the event ends.
But apart from that, there remains a great sense of pride. I recently took part in an exhibition on collectors and their collections at the Museum of Vancouver. There I met some 60-or-so British Columbians who drove across the country in 1967 to attend the Exposition with their families and each of them told me how proud they were at the time. Almost 50 years later, they reminisced about their cross-country trip, the memories they made and the stories they kept. Expo 67 put Montreal on the map but also in the minds and hearts of Canadians at a crucial time of political awakening in both Quebec and Canada.
This interview has been edited and condensed
