A Canadian Family

Happy 5oth Birthday – St-Lawrence Seaway!

When I was growing up in 1950s/1960s Quebec, the St-Lawrence Seaway was considered a great technological triumph. The seaway is 3,700 kilometres long but what is particularly impressive is that it includes a series of 7 mammoth locks that can lift large ocean-going ships hundreds of metres up, so that they can negotiate waterways reaching from Montreal all the way to Lake Ontario. Of course the Seaway is more than just a source of pride to those who built it – as the transportation hub for southern Quebec and Ontario it’s been the linchpin for the economic growth in that area for half a century.

The line you see snaking through the lakes is the Canadian/American border – which was quite a loose border when I was growing up. In fact we used to call it “the longest undefended border in the world“.  But that was before 9/11 – and the world has changed since then.

At the lower left hand corner you can see the area where I live – Chateauguay, Quebec. Chateauguay is not named but it borders the Mohawk (Iroquois) community of Caughnawaga. Today it’s called Kahnawake. A little further up you see the town of Candiac. I’m a teacher at St-Lawrence School in Candiac.

To the right bottom of the card you’ll notice the city of Montreal and some of its West Island communities of Verdun, Lachine, Dorval, Pointe Claire and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

Lachine is one of the earliest settlements in Quebec. Its name comes from the fact that the earliest French explorers were looking for a quick trade path from Europe through to China and India. They thought that the St-Lawrence River must be a waterway that would bring them to “La Chine”.   Next door to Lachine you see the community of Verdun.

To this day Verdun has many inhabitants of New Brunswick Acadian origin. This is because in the mid twentieth century there was an Acadian priest in the Montreal area (Msgr. Richard) who was concerned that too many Acadians were emigrating to New York and Maine for work and that they would lose their French language and Catholic faith, so he encouraged Acadians to settle in the Verdun/St-Henri area. My Theriaults were among the Acadians who settled in Verdun in the 1940s.

Another town in the area is Dorval which will be familiar to people who’ve arrived in Montreal by plane because it’s the site of Trudeau Airport – which was until recently called Dorval Airport.

RELATED POSTS ON THIS BLOG

Index: Vintage Postcards of Quebec

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The St.Lawrence Seaway: Gateway to North America

FROM OTHER BLOGS

 St. Lawrence Seaway Maximum Card.

Ships on the River

The Musical Ride Comes To Iroquois

One Tank Trip: Exploring the legacy of a historic shipping route

The Lost Villages, Canada

Map of the St. Lawrence River Canals – 1907

Reverse of St-Lawrence Seaway Postcard

Published by Benjamin news Company, 425 Guy St., Montreal

Plastichrome by Colourpicture Publishers, Inc.

Made in Canada  P25393

Montreal, Ville de l’Exposition Universelle – 1967 – World Exhibition City

Note: Expo 67

July 2, 2009 Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | postcard, postcards, Quebec, St Lawrence Seaway | 24 Comments