THE TALENT OF JEAN-LUC MONGRAIN
By Bernard Bujold -
Jean-Luc Mongrain and I were friends, but Jean-Luc had many friends. I was just one among many!
However, there were three direct connections between our lives: he had been my condo neighbor when he lived in Old Montreal; we had shared the same religious influences during our youth—he had studied to become a priest, and I had grown up in my village’s rectory, where my aunt was the priest’s housekeeper; and I was the one who called him to ask if he’d be willing to have lunch with Pierre Péladeau to join, as an executive, the TQS television network that Quebecor had purchased in August 1997. Pierre Péladeau had met Jean-Luc through his two weekly newspapers in Sherbrooke. The two became friends from that time on, even though Jean-Luc had sold the weeklies to Paul Desmarais… The group of founders, including Jean-Luc Mongrain, sold the weekly La Nouvelle de Sherbrooke in 1986. The buyer was Groupe Trans-Canada, a subsidiary of Power Corporation (owned by the Desmarais family). The newspaper had been co-founded in 1982. Four years later, its sale to Power Corporation allowed it to be integrated into the same group as Sherbrooke’s major daily, *La Tribune*, while Jean-Luc Mongrain stepped away from editorial management to make the definitive leap into his prolific television career.
Jean-Luc and I also shared a passion for horses. He loved spending time in his barn with his horses.
Jean-Luc was particularly skilled at that “preacher’s touch” when it came to communicating… He loved putting on a show!
In fact, his hosting style clearly reflected that convincing and impassioned “preacher” quality…
Jean-Luc Mongrain was a larger-than-life figure, an artist who left his mark on Quebec.
His passing leaves a huge void, especially for those who knew him or spent time with him, but as he himself would say: “Life goes on…” In the end, it’s just a tree that fell in the forest…
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