Thursday, September 4, 2008

Expo 2020

An interesting little news story has been circulating the last few days.

Benoit Labonté, opposition leader at Montreal city hall, upcoming candidate for Montreal mayor (and my new hero) announced at a press conference this week that he has taken steps to try to bring Expo 2020 to the city.

In a dramatic stunt worthy of Jean Drapeau himself, Labonté held up two distinctive red Expo 67 passports and said:

"What do the Expo 67 passports evoke?"

"It evokes Montreal's greatness, the moment when we thought everything was possible in Montreal, that the future belonged to us."

"But mostly, it evokes a great sense of collective pride, probably the greatest in Montreal in the 20th century."


A world exhibition in 2020 (over 50 years after Expo 67) would indeed rekindle that old Expo magic, and the economic boom that comes with it. Labonté has already created a non-profit organization to work on Montreal's bid for the world's fair. Bids officially open in 2011.

In another Drapeau-esque moment, Labonté insisted that the question wasn't "Can we afford it?" but "Can we afford not to do it?"

Expo Lounge fully endorses the Expo 2020 idea.

images: (top) vintage CBC graphic, recreated by Jérôme Cliche
(bottom) tripadvisor.com


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