Quote:
Originally Posted by ReeceZ
Signage is mostly in English. Was that the norm back then?
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That was a significant part of the impetus for Bill 101 in 1977.
I should say that English-only signage was very noticeable in much of Montreal (not just downtown but in much of the city), and it was especially striking how often French was totally absent.
I am old enough to remember the time around when Bill 101 was adopted, and believe it or not while not predominant as in much of Montreal (which looked a lot like Toronto in many parts), English only signage was also pretty common in places like Hull-Gatineau (probably 80-90% francophone at the time) and even sometimes other parts of the province like Quebec City (97% francophone).
Basically anywhere you had anglophones who operated and/or owned (or both) a business, regardless of what percentage of the local populace was anglo or franco, they often tended to operate in English only.
Note that while Bill 101 was passed in 1977, it took a while before the new signage rules worked themselves fully into the visual environment. So older English only signs were still fairly visible in Montreal and other places well into the 80s and even into the 90s in some cases.
Even today you still sometimes see English only "ghost signs" here and there.