Mysteries of Montreal

I'm a day late with this post, as this post pertains to the happenings of the night of the 31st of March, but I only learned of it today, and it was too cool a story to pass on, or indeed wait another year. Vintage Wings of Canada is an organisation that is involved in many aspects of vintage aviation, and they are funding the search for a lesser known part of Canadian history, the lost dirigible, the HMCD Samuel de Champlain .  In her purpose built hangar in Cape Breton I'll not recount the whole story here, go read it for yourself. What I will do here is to expand upon the completely wonderful gaming opportunities for gaming the crew members of the RCNRAS (Royal Canadian Navy Rigid Airship Service), and the missions that they and they alone could accomplish, whether it is search and rescue missions in the Great White North , or on missions to destroy enemy submarines in North American shipping lanes. Both types of missions that will take the crew off the beaten trac...

Camillien Houde  Médéric Martin  Camillien Houde was elected as the new Mayor of Montreal. The Conservative Deputy won by 20 000 votes over his rival, the previous Mayor, Médéric Martin , who had held the post since 1926 (and for ten years between 1914 and 1924). It seems both men went on to be big in Canadian politics, rather than just staying in local/city politics, being elected into the House of Commons after serving as mayors. I can't see any of the modern equivalents being able to do so, especially after recent scandals. 

Camillien Houde As of today, in 1929, all married Montreal women, who pay municipal taxes, gained the right to vote (in municipal matters). The then Montreal mayor, Camillien Houde was not too happy about this law passing, even though a subset of women had had the right to vote in federal elections since 1918, full sufferage for the women of Quebec dd not come about until 1940 ( source ).

Okay, not quite today, but a couple of days ago, but hell, after a hundred years, what's a day or two? On the 18th of November, 1912,  the 'Établissement de detention de Montréal' (Montreal detention centre) opened its doors for the first time, (before firmly closing and locking them again one assumes) for 100 prisoners. Within 6 months, it held 150. The prison is frequently refered to as  Bordeaux prison , and as such it even warrants a mention in the Urban Dictionary . It was then, as it is now, the largest provincial prison in Quebec, it was built to hold 500 prisoners, and now her a capacity of 1,189 inmates (now all male). In 1915, there was a tramway built to connect it to town (as it was originally built to be out of town, although it has now been enveloped by the city). Prison construction in 1910 As a then very modern prison, there was some outrage amongst the general population that prisoners should be treated to such 'outrag...

The first "horseless-carriage" to be driven in the streets of Montreal was a Waltham Steam . It was driven by Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand, on the 21st of November, 1899. His passenger was the then Major of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine . The car was bought from Massachusetts in the United States for $600, and ran on 6 water reservoirs, with a range of a whopping 24 miles before having to be refilled. It could reach a high speed of 40 mph, but had to be stopped when there was a horse-drawn carriage in view, so as not to scare the horses. By 1903, Mr Dandurand had a total of 4 automobiles, but not everyone approved of such noisy vehicles, and he was often stopped for disrupting the peace.  Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand and his wife in his first car. ( source ) Mr Dandurand outside his house, with car and chauffeur (1915) ( source ) Links CBC Radio Link (in french). M. Ucal-Henri Dandurand (in french). Maison Durand (in french). Edit 25-11-2014 MTLblog h...

On this day in 1922, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks came to Montreal. Whilst here, these two holiwood stars visited the City Hall, and signed the 'livre d'or', which I assume to some kind of visitor book for the city. Whilst the couple were here, they stayed at the Ritz Carlton where: When Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks booked rooms at the Ritz-Carlton, crowds thronged outside to see them. Fairbanks would climb out onto the hotel’s balcony above the sidewalk to acknowledge the ardent admirers. ( Source ) Pickford and Fairbanks at the newly built CKAC studio in Montreal ( Source )