There was a sense of shock Thursday as news broke of the death of Leonard Cohen. I was filing out of Théâtre Denise-Pelletier after seeing the première of a French-language adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 and it was La Presse columnist Marc Cassivi who was the first to tell me Montreal’s poet laureate was no longer with us.
By Friday, there was a pervasive sense of sadness in Cohen’s city, as we all woke up and the reality sunk in that maybe the greatest singer-songwriter ever to come from Montreal would no longer be there to accompany us in troubled times with what he so famously referred to, with droll self-deprecation, as his “golden voice.”
Also by Friday morning, there was already much speculation both in the media and around coffee machines throughout the town about just exactly how the city of Montreal should pay tribute to one of its most noted sons. Let’s look at a few possibilities.
Leonard Cohen in front of his Montreal home in 1977.
Name a street after him
This is always the first thing folks think of when they’re mulling over how to honour a local luminary who has just died and some have already mentioned Marie-Anne Street, which is near his home. I won’t beat around the bush here. I think changing street names is a mug’s game and is really the last thing you should do. Look at the divisive debates that erupted when the powers-that-be re-named Dorchester Boulevard after René Lévesque and even more problematic was the ill-fated, ultimately unsuccessful plan to re-name Parc Avenue after Robert Bourassa. The idea is to honour Cohen not to create more division. So this one is a non-starter for me.
Luminothérapie’s seesaws light up Place des Festivals.
Rename Place des Festivals
This is the best idea I’ve heard so far. First off, this public space between Jeanne Mance and Bleury Sts. just beside Place des Arts in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles is a cultural hub, home to many great live music events, so it makes perfect sense to name it after a great Montreal poet, novelist and chansonnier. Better yet, its current moniker is rather generic and hasn’t been with us for many years, so there’s little sense that Montrealers have that much of an emotional attachment to the name Place des Festivals.
People gather on the street outside Leonard Cohen’s home in Montreal following his death Monday, Nov. 7, 2016.
Rename Parc du Portugal
This small park between Marie-Anne and tiny Vallières Street just east of St-Laurent Blvd. has been packed with folks coming to pay homage to Cohen ever since word of his death broke Thursday evening. The park is directly facing the house Cohen has owned for years where he and his family stay when they’re in town. This, too, is a great idea given the location, by his home, across the street from Bagel Etc., a restaurant/diner long associated with Cohen. The downside is that it’s a key landmark in our city’s Petit Portugal neighbourhood and I wonder whether the Portuguese community would endorse the name change. I’m not even convinced Cohen would like the concept.
A woman walks by Westmount library as the snow falls in the late afternoon in the Westmount area of Montreal, on Saturday, January 3, 2015.
Naming a local library after him
This one makes sense on a number of fronts. One, re-naming a library is less traumatic than re-naming a major street and it’s clearly a fitting way to pay homage to a man of letters like Cohen. The city did exactly that with another famous Montreal author, re-naming the Mile End Library in 2015 to remember the life and work of Mordecai Richler. So Mile End is out as a location, which would’ve been appropriate for Cohen, given its proximity to his old stomping grounds on St-Laurent. How about naming Westmount Library after the man who sang Suzanne, So Long, Marianne and Bird on a Wire? Cohen was born and raised in Upper Westmount, on Belmont Avenue, and is unquestionably one of the most noted Westmounters of the past half century. I also like this idea because he happens to be a guy from Westmount who had a huge impact on both anglophone and francophone Montreal.
Night shift cook Muhammad Saleem slices up some smoked meat at the Main on St-Laurent just after midnight in Montreal March 25 2007.
Renaming The Main Leonard Cohen’s The Main
I’m not talking about the street here but rather the venerable deli/resto on St. Laurent above Pine Avenue. This idea is a little more outside the box in the sense that obviously it’s not the City of Montreal that can dictate it, but rather the owners of this iconic smoked-meat emporium. And they’d also have to come to some kind of agreement with the Cohen family to use his name. But why not? It’s just down the street from his home, on the boulevard that was so much a part of his life, and Cohen used to often swing by The Main for a midnight coffee. My old friend Duncan MacTavish, an alternative music promoter and producer, posted a wonderful story on Facebook Friday about seeing him at the deli many a night back in the mid-’80s and MacTavish recalled how he finally worked up the courage to give Cohen copies of a bunch of the records he was working on, including music by the local bands The Darned, Asexuals and Weather Permitting.
So what do you think is the best way for the city to pay tribute to Leonard Cohen? Comment below.
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