April 22, 2015 Vol. 12 No. 8

Nobody ever has to convince me to head down the highway to Montreal, so last week I did just that. I had a reason, though I never really need one. In this case I was going to our truck show, Expocam, which alternates year by year with our other show in Toronto, Truck World.

The latter is bigger by some margin but the Quebec affair never fails to be just plain fun, and this one was certainly no exception. The people are friendly and open, no matter my language limitations, and even when the industry is in the doldrums, they’re happily unhappy if I can put it that way. There’s always a good spirit in the air, exhibitors included.

And then, of course, there’s Montreal itself, home of my hero Leonard Cohen. A great city in my eyes, Canada’s best, a place where it seems anything goes. I feel utterly free there. Dress up or dress down, nobody cares, though the locals do ‘down’ with a distinct style that I’ll never match.

People are often critical of the city’s drivers, but I love ’em. They break the rules and break them often so you have to have your wits about you, but that suits me just fine. They’re predictable in their unpredictability and at least nobody’s fearfully crawling along at 18 km/h. 

You can dine awfully well in Montreal, as I did one night with an American friend, or you can pig out on the best smoked-meat sandwich anywhere, and do it in a humble little place with live blues bands pretty much every night. That would be Smoke Meat Pete’s on the western outskirts of the city, which I artfully contrived to visit on my way into the city and then again on my way out. Forget Schwarz’s, go to Pete’s.

Anyway, that’s enough of a travelogue, let’s get down to business.

Expocam, following the Mid-America Trucking Show by just a few weeks, doesn’t usually attract many new product introductions but this time there were a couple from International Trucks and a major announcement from the Michelin family.

UNIROYAL LAUNCHES A TIRE LINE. That’s right, Uniroyal has come to the Canadian truck market even before entering the U.S. with its first ever truck tire lineup — six tires specifically for this country. A Michelin brand, the company entered the Mexican truck-tire world last year.

Uniroyal has made passenger and light-truck tires for 123 years dating back to 1892.