Summer in Pointe-Claire

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Outdoor pools

Our wonderful outdoor swimming pools are opening again here in Pointe-Claire. What an exciting time of the year this is.

We forget sometimes just how much of a leader our municipality has been in aquatic recreation. As new neighbourhoods took shape in Pointe Claire after the Second World War, our local urban planners made provisions for the seven outdoor pools we have today: Pointe-Claire Village, Lakeshore, Lakeside, Sunnyside, Valois, Cedar Park Heights, and Viking.

A summer pool culture was born from that, something that has become a defining part of the city’s personality.

In 1965, under mayor Arthur Séguin, Pointe Claire went one step further and opened Canada's first indoor Olympic-size swimming pool, just east of city hall – the Pointe Claire Aquatic Centre,. In 2011, under mayor Bill McMurchie, the city built a second Olympic-size facility right beside it. When I was mayor from 2017-21, we added a third indoor pool when we purchased the YMCA on Brunswick Ave. north of Highway 40 and reopened it as the Olive Urquhart Sports Centre.

Our outdoor pools offer swimming lessons and competitive opportunities and have become an important feeder source for the more highly competitive Pointe-Claire swimming clubs that operate from fall through spring. But these outdoor pools offer important social spinoffs too. Children make new friends. Families get to know one another. Social events are organized. Community bonds are created.

Through it all, those teenaged lifeguards we hire become important role models for children. My daughter Calista really looked up to the lifeguards at the Pointe Claire Village pool when my wife Sandra and I registered her for lessons as a young girl. I took an active interest in that pool myself, serving as president from 2007-2012. In that role I learned a lot about how recreational services work in Pointe-Claire and how spending decisions are made, knowledge that helped me when I was mayor.

What I brought to my role as pool president was to serve as a mentor for our lifeguards, just as the lifeguards do for young children. Although pool opening and closing is always done by a contractor, everything in between is done by our lifeguards and volunteers - from managing the pumps to running the canteen.

First and foremost, we teach children how to swim. We encourage them to compete on the various aquatic teams which help them build their skills but also to work as a team. We also have special Leaders programs to help young people pick up leadership skills and potentially move on to become lifeguards and even pool managers.

Through these 10 glorious weeks of summer when our neighbourhood outdoor pools are open, the special pool culture in Pointe-Claire is in full gear!

My hope is that every young family in our city will take advantage of the many perks that our fine outdoor pools have to offer.

June 24-July 1

The one-two combination of St. Jean Baptiste Day (or la Fete Nationale) and Canada Day – just a week apart from each other - is our unofficial two-step start to summer.

Here in Pointe-Claire, the two “national” holidays have traditionally been celebrated with community gatherings in and around our two villages – old Pointe-Claire Village and Valois Village – as well as by fireworks displays out on the lakeshore by Alexandre-Bourgeau Park. Last year, the fireworks were suspended because of poor air quality resulting from those wildfires in northern Quebec and environs. This year, they are back on!

In my own experience, I have watched as our June 24 holiday in Pointe-Claire has become more inclusive, just as it has across Quebec. As for Canada Day, I am always personally drawn to the annual citizenship ceremony that is held every July 1 at Stewart Hall. This ceremony used to be held on the lawn in front of the water-treatment plant but moving it to Stewart Hall allowed us to hold this incredibly important ceremony even in the case of bad weather. In my opinion, nobody was a better officiator at these ceremonies than the late George Springate, who had a talent for making people feel good and so welcomed to our country.

When I was mayor from 2017-21, I had the opportunity to participate in the citizenship

ceremony up close. I could see right into the faces of these new Canadians, and I was moved by the authentic joy and pride these immigrants showed at officially becoming members of our lucky Canadian family, now numbering almost 40 million. I must admit, it brought tears to my eyes.

Gardening

I love flowers and gardens, as anybody who has passed my house on Lakeshore Blvd just west of Pointe Claire village can see very well.

I grew up with flowers and gardens. It’s been a family thing.

My first memories of gardening date back to 1964 when I was just 5! I spent so much time with my grandfather, George Doug Morell, at his country house in Rivière-Beaudette, off Highway 20 near the Ontario border. He taught me a lot.

It was my uncle Don who founded Don Belvedere Florist, in which various family members held shares for 55 years until the company was sold.

My cousin Greg Belvedere owns Landcare Inc., which provides irrigation services and commercial snow clearing in the West Island and elsewhere.

We’re a green family!

I like a tidy, groomed lawn and garden – more in line with the French tradition of carefully manicured gardens, as opposed to the wilder English country-garden style. I’m a details-oriented guy, and I wonder if my gardening style reflects that?!

One of the things I was most proud of during my term as mayor of Pointe-Claire from 2017-21 was overseeing an expansion of our floral displays on public lawns, street medians, and city office building gardens. If we are a garden city today, I like to think that I have made an important contribution and helped carry forward the Pointe-Claire brand of garden city first put in place by landscape artist Frederick G. Todd’s Canadian Nursery Company in the early 1900s.

Today, single-family homes dominate the Pointe-Claire landscape, meaning most people have private land for their own private gardens. We also have a few community gardens in Pointe-Claire where residents can share their gardening skills and work together to bring about the brightest flowers and best crop!

Working the soil in Pointe-Claire can be tricky; we have a lot of clay here. Weather is always unpredictable. Last year, our gardens were very wet. Every growing season brings its own weather, and its own challenges. As gardeners, we must work with what Mother Nature gives us. She always leaves us with gardening challenges to work through. That’s what I learned from my grandfather. But it’s all fun. Most of all, I like the challenge. I encourage everyone in Pointe Claire who has a garden to take a new look at it and imagine new possibilities for it.