Christian Blanchette, a man with a university career spanning almost 30 years, is the Rector of the UQTR. His mother wanted him to learn to create his own ideas and not always rely on others. This allowed him to develop his own self-confidence. He was never afraid to say “yes” to any challenge that was offered to him.
You grew up on the Plateau Mont-Royal.
I want to be clear: before it became the Plateau Mont-Royal that we know today. I lived on Rue Marquette, between Laurier and Saint-Grégoire, and there was a slaughterhouse on my street at the time.
Her mother was a single parent.
We are in the early 1960s, I was two years old when my father Serge and my mother Pauline separated. My brother Sylvain and I have never felt a father’s absence at home. At school, however, we were the first children of a single mother.
Describe your mother to me.
A caring and very authoritarian mother who made so many sacrifices to improve our quality of life. My friends said they wouldn’t have liked a mother like her. But if they had known her, they would have loved her.
Her mother was avant-garde.
One of our neighbors was a single parent with four daughters. His schedules as a prison guard were complicated for him. So the four girls stayed with us for the week. When everyone was at school, mom was the street tailor.
A neighborhood of convenience stores.
On Marquette Street, where I lived, there were three grocery stores in the middle of the block. Also, I learned how to cross the street by going to the grocery store to buy candy for 2 cents and 5 cents.
You learned to swim at Laurier Park.
I was almost five years old, but the minimum age for swimming lessons was six. The elders lied for me. After three jumps from the springboard, the elders said, “If he can do it, let’s go. »
They formed two hockey and baseball teams.
On my street we were several children, so we formed teams of boys and girls to play in the streets and alleys. I also played baseball for the Saint-Stanislas community.
You and your brother were street vendors MontrealJournal.
We had an occupation that spanned ten streets and started at 5am every morning. As a safety measure, we switched roads, which allowed us to cross each other constantly.
Your Uncle Claude was your father figure.
He was a taxi driver. The three adults in the front seat, with their four children, my brother and I in the back, heading to Oka Beach.
You have discovered Portuguese wine.
At 14, I was a packer at the grocery store checkout. Every Saturday I delivered four boxes to a Portuguese family. After dropping off the fourth case, a tip and a huge glass of house wine were waiting for me. I came back to work a little tipsy.
You asked a colleague for help.
I waited impatiently for his report. The family had given him two glasses of wine to drink.
You were a regular at the Montreal Public Library.
What a wonderful architectural building just a 30 minute walk from our home on Sherbrooke Street! Every week my brother and I would come home with several books. I read at least two books a week.
Were you disciplined at school?
I was very disciplined in elementary school. However, in high school it was the other way around because I felt the courses weren’t progressing fast enough.
You loved getting kicked out of class.
Yes, because the teacher gave me the book of the course in question so I could master it faster.
Contrasts attract.
Guy Villeneuve, whose nickname is Shanghai, and I are still good friends. Shanghai wore hunting shirts and played guitar. One day I went to school in a hunting shirt to show him that he was not separate from the others.
You discovered jazz.
We went to jazz shows all the time. He played guitar. He also excelled at table tennis and baseball. The one and only Guy Shanghai Villeneuve is a co-founder of Fair-Play, of which he is Executive Producer. Among his TV shows there is Revolution.
Their old schools have become condominiums.
Shanghai and I laugh as we imagine that the people currently living in these condos are in our math class or sleeping in our chemistry class.
You met your future wife at Canadian Tire.
When I was 17, Annie and I worked at Canadian Tire on D’Iberville Street. I was a clerk in the athletic department and she was a cashier. However, I also sold kettles so I could see them at the checkout. More than 40 years later we still share our lives. Annie, my wife and mother of my children, is an extraordinary woman.
Your children have your wife’s last name.
We didn’t want Patrice and Audrey to have a compound name. However, Blanchette is one of her names.
French was the language spoken at home.
We lived in Toronto and only spoke French, although our son occasionally tried to speak English to us.
A little anecdote.
We had Torontonians at home. My 3 year old son comes up to us and asks if he can speak English because it is forbidden to speak English at home. It was the first time we heard our son speak English.
