John Lownsbrough: Montreal

Pioneerland-Fort Edmonton Dept: I was prompted to fetch these items from my bookshelf and from our shared past by the appearance of a brisk little book, The Best Place To Be , John Lownsbrough s evocative remembrance of Expo 67 and of a time 45 years ago when the world came to Montreal to experience culture, explore national character, sow innocent dreams and maybe, if memory serves, to have a Burmese dinner or some primitive junk food at Pioneerland-Fort Edmonton in the far reaches of La Ronde, according to Globe and Mail. For all of this and for all the politics, finance, construction challenges and even inconvenience prompted by a transit strike Lownsbrough is an ample guide, and his book, part of the History of Canada series produced by the Allen Lane imprint of Penguin Canada, is a bit of time travel with a nostalgic tint, written, you might conclude, to the melody of The Way We Were and and the 352-page guide? A bargain at $1, it is a reminder of the splendors created in Montreal by places now called something else: the USSR, Czechoslovakia, the United Arab Republic. Officially, it was called the Universal and International World Exhibition, and for 185 days it was a shimmery spectacle on the St. Lawrence, filling man-made islands with vacationers, school groups, royals and other dignitaries, internationally known artists and performers and, for about 90 hurried and hopelessly impatient minutes, president Lyndon B. Johnson. It was a coming-of-age moment for Canada and a coming-out party for nationalist Quebec. It was the last great international exhibition, its legacy a load of memories and one Habitat 67. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.