The 1967 World’s Fair was held in Montreal with great success. It was the most visited World’s Fair of the century with over 54 million attendances and the highest number of countries participating at 62. Expo 67 had a lasting impact on Montreal – and on Canada. The metro’s Yellow Line was built for visitors to access the fair from downtown Montreal and the city’s baseball team was named the Expos until 2004. Charles de Gaulle also uttered the contentious words “Vivre le Québec Libre” when he visited for Expo 67, contributing to decades of tension and Quebec’s failed attempts at obtaining sovereignty.
The three most visited pavilions were, in order of popularity, the USSR, Canada, and the USA. All three pavilions still exist today. While the Soviet pavilion has been relocated to Russia after the end of the fair, the remaining rump of the Canadian pavilion is now an event space, and the American pavilion designed by Buckminster Fuller has been converted into an environmental museum.
Traveling around the islands is easy by bicycle or by car. The main road circumnavigating Notre-Dame Island is an F1 racetrack used for the Montreal Grand Prix since 1978. The speed limit is 30km/h and it’s shared with bicycles and pedestrians, so don’t think you can drive around it at speed. Notably, the striking French pavilion now serves a casino that looks like a spaceship.
Apart from exhibition space, Habitat 67 was also built for the fair as an experiment in brutalist co-operative housing. Moshe Safdie originally designed the structure in his master’s thesis and was awarded permission from the government to construct it for Expo 67 in his 20s. Individual units interlocked with each other while providing private and public outdoor spaces in a vertical setting. Safdie later designed the National Gallery of Art, Ottawa City Hall, Museum of Civilization in Quebec City, Vancouver Library Square, and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
