ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Montreal during the Depression and the happenings at the municipal level during the 1930s. Instead of a city hall with indistinct institutional contours, Montreal now benefited from relatively numerous and well-defined services. The 1930s seem to be one of the important decades in the transformation of Montreal's local government. The economic crisis was particularly acute in North America and would provide a rude awakening. Like other important Canadian and Quebec municipalities, Montreal held a certain number of powers enabling it to manage local problems. The advent of the economic crisis, which hit the largest North American cities particularly hard, highlighted the limitations of the previous decade's reforms. From the 1932 election onwards, the question of municipal finances and management of the economic crisis became substantive issues, moving to the forefront of political debate. Camillien Houde, who was elected mayor again in 1934, forged links to the business community and set out to transform Montreal's taxation system.
