tard, le vent de la chanson francophone s’est levé sur la Cote du Pacifique, et on peut
lentendre souffler jour et nuit le long des rues, des vallées, de la mer et des fleuves, des
glaciers, et des montagnes, avec la personnalité distincte d’identités devenues mires, de
ces enfants aujourd”hui passés, pour de bon, dans la cour des « grands »». Il m’a semblé
que le temps était venu de faire quelque chose comme Vancouver symphonique : une
grande féte bancale, la plus grande de notre encore courte histoire, tant pour l’auditoire
que pour les artistes, pour qu’on se trouve tous ensemble, au méme moment et auméme
endroit, avec le bonheur d’unir nos voix pour enjoliver les multiples anniversaires de
cette année 2011. D’abord, 25 ans aprés que le premier pic du Coup de cceur fut planté
dans le sol d’Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, 75 ans apres que Radio-Canada ait commencé
a faire voyager elle aussi les paroles et la musique en langue francaise d’un Océan a
l Autre, et surtout, en cette 125iéme année d’ incorporation de cette ville, ayant germé
dans le delta du fleuve le plus occidental de ce continent, avec la sonorité des multiples
langues qu’ elle adopte volontiers, y compris landtre, plus que jamais présente et garante
du visage qu’elle se fagonne pour l’avenir, et celui du pays qu’elle prolonge, aussi loin
qu’on puisse voir, quand on se décide de se toumer a |’Ouest, pour admirer les demiers
rayons du soleil couchant, tonnamment roses, a cette extrémité de ’ Amérique.

“Now, in all directions, we can hear the wind that carries the music of our
identity. a”

I remember as if it were yesterday, the cold day in February of 1995 when I first met
Alain Chartrand in the Rideau offices on Boulevard St. Joseph in Montreal. It was
at the artists’ showcase organised by Rideau for the performing arts that was held in
alternating years in Quebec and Montreal. At the time I did not know who Alain Char-
trand was, nor did Ireally understand what this meeting was about. There were people
Jrom all across the country who were doing much the same things we were doing at
the Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver, organising artistic events in each of our
local environments, with artists from our respective communities, on a shoestring and
with very fragile infrastructures.

Alain Chartrand talked to us then about a festival that he had created with a team of
veteran supporters of that special francophone genre of music called chanson. Their
chosen home for the festival was Hochelaga-Maisorneuve, the most disadvantaged
neighbourhood of the city of Montreal, a community that most major cultural events in
Quebec’ metropolis paid no attention to. They faced the same challenges: not much
money, limited means, plenty of obstacles. But since 1987, they had been able to stay
the course, and they were starting to see results. Alain Chartrand summed up this ad-
venture with a simple sentence: “Where the wind didnt blow, we had to invent it.”
That phrase resonated with all of us, as francophone performing arts presenters outside
Quebec. This was the first time I heard the name of this festival: “Coup de ceeur fran-

cophone”’. It was clear that their success was the result of hard work, energy and the
dreams that quicken the pulse of our heart with a vision of changing things around us,

slowly but surely. And it would be no different for us.

Several months later, in Ottawa, this time in the context of the Contact Ontarois, the
same people and several new faces met in a hotel conference room and made a promise
to join our efforts to create this highway for Canadian francophone song. The discus-
sions lasted a long time, but I was already swept up in the dream. Iremember repeat-
ing the word “yes” to this marriage proposal from Quebec, a place where one does
not always expect it. A number of recalcitrant colleagues took some convincing, their
hesitation perhaps due to a fear of being disappointed once again, but only they would
know why. For Vancouver, Iwas convinced that there was nothing to lose. No vote was
held. Some people went out, talked to whoever had the final say, came back into the
room, and we all gave our blessing to this new alliance. Coup de ceeur francophone
was to become a reality right away, starting in the coming fall, as tradition had it, in
November, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

For Vancouver, and for our province and our singers, I could already see that this was
a necessary springboard. It would round out the Festival d’été that we already held
each year in June, but which could not in itself, without other support, create here, in