Pragmatic visions
It all started with nine enterprising merchants who understood the importance of banking to business.
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iNOVA Award
BMO has received the 2017 iNOVA award for our BMO History website. The iNOVA awards recognize excellence and innovation in corporate websites.
Expanding West. First stop, Winnipeg
When the first Canadian Pacific train reached Winnipeg in 1880 – at the time described as a “muddy, generally disreputable village” – a Bank of Montreal representative was on the platform to greet it. The bank’s office had been open in the city since 1877, in a building owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Main Street and Broadway. The population was just 4,000. The Hudson’s Bay Company was still trading at Fort Garry inside its stockades and bastions. This was an isolated frontier community, yet to experience a flood of land-hungry settlers.
Fifty years later, by 1927, Winnipeg had become the financial centre of Western Canada — and the third most important in Canada. That year, its clearings were equivalent to the combined clearings of the 10 next highest-ranking cities.
1903: The Montreal Bankers Hockey League
Established when bank president Lord Strathcona offered a cup to the best bank clerk hockey team. The games were hugely popular, drawing over 4,000 people to each game.
After the Interprovincial Bank Championship of 1914, in which Bank of Montreal trounced the Canadian Bank of Commerce, an epic ballad was written to document the highlights in dramatic fashion. The final stanza tells us the winning score:
Twice more the puck through Commerce goals is fired.
The whistle blows, the warriors’ rage subdue.
The game is won. The score stands twelve to two.
The Commerce team slinks mournfully away.
The B of M are heroes of the day!
A visually rich tribute to Canada’s first bank, A Vision Greater than Themselves: The Making of the Bank of Montreal, 1817-2017 by Laurence B. Mussio tells the compelling story of the bank from its origins to present day.
Visit the McGill Queen’s University Press site
to order your copy.
BMO is a presenting sponsor of the Montréal en Histoires project, celebrating the 375th anniversary of Montreal and BMO’s bicentennial. The sponsorship includes a variety of technology-driven projects and a mobile app.