As you now doubt have read, listened and watched all over, this is the 40th anniversary of Expo ‘67 – Man and His World.

You’ll no doubt have seen photos posted on Flickr, newsreels of the great events and listen to Baby Boomers all over lament as how those really were the good old days.. when Montreal made its mark on the world.

You’ll also hear later some of these same people complain, that our society today no longer has this vision. That these types of projects are no longer tolerated. They will point to the Casino/Cirque du Soleil as an example of ‘great’ projects that were killed.

I’m 35 years old. I wasn’t around for Expo ‘67. I don’t remember the Olympics. But I am quite aware of the mess that was left over after these grand ideas. I am quite aware of the deficits and more importantly the environmental cost that was left over.

In a news article published in the Globe and Mail of April 27nth, written by Tu Thanh Ha, Ha writes that at the time of Expo ‘67 “Hydro Quebec was building the world’s largest multiple-arch dam on the Manicouagan River. Planners thought Montreal would have a population of six million by the year 2000. (Montreal has a population of 1.8 million). Hundreds of low-income houses were razed to make way for an underground expressway and the CBC tower. ”

“”We had that old idea that progress means new things”, said Mr Marois, who is now a university professor specializing in urban development”.

Voila.

There it is in a nutshell.

This idea that we need mega projects, large expositions, to CONSUME in order to progress is an antiquated idea. Or at least it should be.

If you are 40 and under, ever feel like the Gods bestowed upon us a planet, a finite amount of food and all the materials needed to live and that your ancestors threw a huge party and left you with the bill and the clean up ?

That’s exaggerating a little, but that’s often how I feel.

I listened to Radio Canada – Première Chaîne, Friday morning and René Homier-Roy quoted a former city official stating that Expo ‘67 planners were concerned about the shad flies swarming tourists. The solution was to “dump tons and tons of DDT into the river”, to kill off the shad flies.

There’s a point where you can claim ignorance regarding the environment and claim that back then these weren’t concerns. But at a certain point, one must wonder.

“Tons and tons of DDT” directly into the river.

That’s progress all right.