Lionel Groulx

The Lionel Groulx station is in the southwest part of the city core, just about on the boundary between the working-class Little Burgundy and St-Henri districts. An incredible cross-section of Montrealers pass through it, because although it's in a blue-collar francophone neighbourhood, it's a waypoint for people headed to touristy Old Montreal or the high-class commercial part of downtown on the orange line or McGill University or the lower-rent parts of downtown on the green line; the orange line runs into ritzy anglophone neighbourhoods in the west and the green line heads that direction into francophone suburbs.

There's a sporadic controversy over the name, given Lionel Groulx's fairly abhorrent politics. Many Montreal subway stations are named after historical figures, and defenders of the name argue that whatever Groulx's flaws were, he was important in Quebec's history. Still, whenever a prominent Montrealer or Quebecer dies, there's brief talk of renaming the Lionel Groulx station after him. This has happened, with varying degrees of seriousness, since the deaths of Robert Bourassa, Nick Auf Der Maur, Jean Drapeau, and Pierre Trudeau.

Parts of the Bruce Willis movie The Jackal were set in Montreal, and shot there. The movie's final shoot-out was set in Washington, D.C., but was filmed in the Lionel Groulx métro station over several weeks when the system closed down at night. They changed the signs, but the station is instantly recognizable by its utterly hideous red, yellow and orange floor tiles.