“Le cadeau du père Labelle”

Painting by Dominique Beauregard from the exhibition « Les Stations du curé Labelle »

This painting shows the well-known firewood collection organized by Labelle. The winter of 1872 was especially harsh, and to make matters worse, there was a severe shortage of firewood in Montreal. In December, the Corporation of the City of Montreal submitted an official request to the Village of Saint-Jérôme, enquiring whether it could buy some firewood for the city’s poor. Labelle was asked to organize the convoy.

Being persuasive, as well as a clever tactician and publicist, Labelle managed to convince settlers in Saint-Jérôme to donate firewood to needy Montrealers. A convoy of 80 sleighs carrying the precious fuel, around 100 cords of wood, headed to Montreal. He seized the opportunity to demonstrate what advantages a railway linking the Northern Townships to the big city would have: being able to move freight and resources from the north to the south, and vice versa.

He organized a similar collection and convoy in 1876. On that occasion, the City of Montreal agreed to pay a million dollars toward the building of a railway that would link Montreal with Saint-Jérôme.