Nine years ago, the sky nearly fell on us. The announcement of a first-ever St. Jean Baptiste celebration in Westmount Park was met with outright astonishment by those who had always viewed this city as a staunchly federalist — even monarchist — English-speaking enclave, and had remained blind to any demographic evolution.

As expected, the media had a veritable field day with the story, for Westmount and all things French-Canadian had long been viewed as fundamentally adversarial. Suddenly the two were coming together in a warm, fuzzy embrace to celebrate not only the Fête National but also Westmount’s 125th anniversary.

The event was extremely well attended, of course, as the earnest revellers were roundly outnumbered by curious visitors who converged on the park with the same trepidation as a child entering a Depression-era carnival sideshow. But once the festivities began, any apprehension was duly replaced by an overwhelming sense of fun and goodwill. There was music, dancing, a huge St. Jean bonfire, and, believe it or not, the mayor himself dressed in the 19th-century guise of his earliest predecessor, Eustache Prud’homme.

Of course the novelty value was immense; the queue of TV news vans parked along Academy Road assured us that we would make the late-night newscasts, most likely as the final item — the one usually reserved for the wacky, lighter side of the news.

This year, Westmount’s 10th annual St. Jean celebration was held in the park, but by now any sense of novelty has long since worn off. The TV news trucks don’t come any more, and there is very little chance of spotting the mayor decked out in 19th-century garb.

But the spirit remains intact. What was once viewed as an oddity is now tradition — no more peculiar than the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at City Hall.

This single event speaks volumes about the changing face of our city and the easing of tensions between those factions most famously described by Hugh MacLennan as the Two Solitudes. As our society continues to shift toward more global sensibilities, language and cultural issues seem much less important than they did a generation ago.

As a result, there is no movement to drop the u from Westmount’s name, nor are there any plans to drop the St. Jean celebration from the City’s schedule of community events.

Happily, the spirit of acceptance and tolerance is so much stronger than it was back in 1999, when the very thought of Westmount hosting a Fête National sounded absurd to so many. Now it's just another popular community event to be enjoyed by all.