Citadelle, the maple syrup producers cooperative headquartered in Plessisville, Quebec with over 2000 members, has posted an excellent history exhibition on the organization’s website. Titled A Cooperative History: A Struggle for Survival of the Maple Industry, the story is presented in a more or less chronological fashion beginning in the 1920s and their collective efforts to secure a fair and reliable price for maple sugar and syrup.
The narrative chosen to tell the early years of their history is an interesting, almost Robin Hood-like perspective. Capitalist American maple sugar tycoon, George Cary, is presented as the evil villain who is vanquished by Cyrille Vaillancourt, the heroic representative from the government and champion of the small maple farmer. While there are certainly truths to the storyline that Cary was a barrier to the Quebec producers getting the prices they thought they deserved, the reality of those relationships and the industry in that era are not so simple. As someone who has conducted extensive research on George Cary and the Cary Company, and even published a book about him, I must say that role and relationship of Cary to Vaillancourt, the Quebec producers, and the industry as a whole, was a bit more complicated than the Citadelle presentation. But altruistic hero defeats the capitalist villain is always a much more interesting story.
The well-written and descriptive narrative text is available in both English and French and is illustrated with dozens of wonderful historic photographs. The story is broken into six sections, each with their own subsections – The beginnings of the Cooperative, Making a place in the Industry, The Quality Policy; The Catholic Heritage; Plessisville, World’s Maple Capital; and Producers of Pure Innovation.
Regardless of my feelings on the chosen tone of the narrative, the Citadelle history exhibition is a fantastic online addition to maple syrup history. With its presentation in both English and French, Citadelle should be applauded for sharing their history in such an accessible and informative format.
In addition to this special multi-tiered history exhibition, one can also read about the coop’s history and timeline at additional links on their website.