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A Plea for Improvements to the Road Network

Sepia photograph of a car on the Boulevard Perron consisting of a gravel road winding at the foot of a huge rocky cape in the narrow passage between the cliff and the sea. A simple wooden fence separates the road from the shoreline

Photograph

Cap Gros Morne, Gaspé, Qc, about 1930

Souvenir Album, Perron Boulevard, Gaspé Co., Que

Les Amis des Jardins de Métis Collection

In 1919, T.-J. Bertrand, engineer for the Gaspé district, made a plea for improvements to the road network at the sixth annual congress of the Association de bonnes routes. “A man is only as good as his circulation system” is how Bertrand began his pitch. “Given that you have been brought together to discuss good roads, you will allow me to discuss the roads around the Gaspésie. The road network has several missing links, particularly from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts to Gaspé. To get to Gaspé, about one hundred miles is missing and if you want to travel this distance in any way other than on foot, you will need an airplane,” Bertrand joked.

Bertrand’s pitch worked. Although it took more than a decade for his dream of good roads around the Gaspé to be built.