Road Travel – First Stop on the Gaspe Tour

The highway ended at Metis. The road to Matane was poor; the roads past Ste-Anne-des-Monts were yet to exist. This began to change in 1928 when the government of Quebec invested massively in completing the “route de ceinture”, a new highway around the Gaspe Peninsula. Inspired by the Good Roads Movement, the government saw road-building as a way to end the isolation of the villages on the north shore of the peninsula and an opportunity for economic development.

Opened with great pomp by Premier Taschereau in July, 1929, the new highway was baptised the “Boulevard Perron” in honour of J.L. Perron, the minister of transport who had championed the project. The Gaspe tour rapidly became one of the continent’s premier road trips, offering 550 miles of driving pleasure from start to finish. Metis, already popular with travellers, became a mandatory stop for visitors circumnavigating the region.

Metis resident Wilfred Bovey described the transformation:

A few years ago, Quebec was notable for its medieval main roads – there were plenty of them, but a few hours of rain transformed them into slippery ribbons of mud, covered with brown puddles of unknown depth. Motoring was an undertaking, not a pleasure; even in fine weather the risk of broken springs was always considerable. As for the side-roads, no cars travelled on them – there were no cars to travel…The first to visualize clearly the possibilities of improvement was J.L. Perron…He saw that a good roads movement would benefit the country people, and would be highly popular among them – hence politically good business.