The Montreal Olympics are turning 50 this year.
And to mark the anniversary, The Gazette’s own Terry Mosher, a.k.a. Aislin, has returned with a new book titled Jean Drapeau’s Baby, a visual memoir of the Montreal Olympic Games, featuring his favourite cartoons from this exciting time in Montreal’s history.
The longest-running continuously working political cartoonist in North America joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to look back on the memorable cartoons of the era and the larger than life people who inspired them.
Of course, there was no character bigger than mayor Jean Drapeau. It’s hard to imagine in this day and age a mayor lasting for 29 non-consecutive years like Drapeau.
“The point to be made here is that in the 1960s Jean Drapeau, progressive mayor, could do nothing wrong,” Mosher said. “He built the métro, he built Place des Arts. Then Expo 67 and he brought in the Expos. He walked on water. But then with the Olympics, he bit off more than he could chew.”
Despite the lasting legacy of the Olympics and the costs associated with it, Mosher still bestowed Drapeau the title of Mr. Montreal upon his death.
“He was Mr. Montreal,” Mosher said.
Another politician Mosher enjoyed drawing was former premier René Lévesque. Aislin talked about his famous cartoon of Lévesque saying “O.K. Everybody take a Valium” after winning the 1976 provincial election, the first time for the Parti Québécois.
“I used to drink with him in Chinatown, back before he was in politics,” Mosher said, before fast-forwarding to a few years later.
“ At the National Newspaper Awards dinner where I got an award, I gave him a Valium as a joke. That sonofabitch swallowed a 10 mg Valium and his speech began to slur. I take full credit.”
The Corner Booth is also available on The Gazette’s YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
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