Is May 1st still the big moving day in Quebec? Remember when the trucks were scattered along the narrow Verdun streets (because of parked cars) and people moved their furniture etc,, sometimes doing balancing acts from the third and second floors. They used to have extra tradesmen like Bell Telephone installers come in from Ontario to help out and the day was major chaos from morning to night. Does anyone know how such a crazy rule started with all rental contracts ending on May 1st? I used to watch the activity from our third floor balcony and see who was moving out and if any new kids were moving in. Always lots of kids to play with on the streets of Verdun....Diane
THANKS for stopping by, I do my best to acknowledge when someone leaves a comment,you do not have to be a member here & everyone is welcome. Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.
7 comments:
Diane, I think they changed moving day to July 1st. Just a slap in the face to English-speaking people. They then couldn't celebrate Canada Day, cause they had to move. Oh I am so very happy that I moved out of Quebec! Madeleine
Madeleine, I'm not sure they changed moving day to slap the English-speaking people in the face... They did it so that the students could finish their school year before moving away. When moving day was May 1st a lot of kids moving had to be relocated to a new school for a couple of months just before the end of year exams. This was a nonsense .
Denise
Denise, do you happen to know what the history was behind the "Moving Day? Quebec residents would have reasons to move at any time of the year, yet rental leases were always set for May 1st in the past.. Do you think it had anything to do with the Napoleonic Laws that operated in Quebec? I have never heard of anywhere else having one set day a year for moving...interesting.....Diane
Interesting question Diane. The tradition for a moving day began as a humanitarian measure of the French colonial government of New France, who forbade seigneurs, the semi-feudal landlords of the seigneuries, from evicting their tenant farmers before the winter snows had melted. In law, this date was set as May 1st. After the end of the feudal regime this evolved into a requirement that urban leases begin on May 1st and end on April 30 so May 1st thus became "Moving Day".
In 1973 the government decided that it would be better to move Moving Day to the Summer, so that students would not have to move during their school year. The law changed Moving Day to July 1st as of 1974 and that change in date from May 1st to July 1st was the result of a bill introduced by federalist minister Jérôme Choquette of the Quebec Liberal Party so it had nothing to do with Quebec Sovereignists wanting Moving Day to interfere with the participation in the patriotic Canadian holiday.
Denise
Thank you Denise for your informative explanation. It makes sense that tenant farmers were protected from eviction before the harsh winters were over...however, I'm surprised that compassion of this type was shown in those days as history usually indicates a complete disregard for the "lower classes" welfare. Obviously most people were not educated in those days, therefore education would not have been a consideration, yet evictions during the long cold winters would have proved fatal. You learn something everyday!...Diane
I remember May 1 moving days. When I got into my teens, my friends and I would make a bunch of money helping other people move when they didn't have a lot of help. Of course there were some people who didn't move very far and you would see them pushing wagons and baby carriages full of stuff down the street. Every now and then pieces of furniture would fall off and break and the the language was blue.
Denise Thank you for your in-depth and knowledgeable explanation which corrects political attitudes.Diane was right we do learn something every day.
Pauline
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