Stephen Leopold wants to replace a sow’s ear with a silk purse.

The high-flying real estate executive wants Ottawa to think big when it decides on a design for the new bridge to replace Montreal’s crumbling Champlain Bridge.

Leopold wants the replacement to be an international architectural icon that puts Montreal on the map. The idea is a good one. In addition to generating global prestige, an extraordinary structure could help revive Montrealers’ spirits. The city has been dragged down by shocking revelations about widespread corruption, not to mention renewed language tensions fuelled by the Parti Québécois.

Some greeted Leopold’s idea with a collective groan. Not another megaproject — cost overruns, here we come! But the idea, promoted via social media, started gathering momentum this past autumn.

And it’s gaining support in prominent quarters. Backers include businessman Paul Desmarais Jr., financier Stephen Jarislowsky and real estate magnate Jonathan Wener. The federally owned Champlain is crossed 60 million times a year, making it Canada’s busiest bridge. Ottawa has promised a new structure will be built — at a cost of $3 billion-$5 billion — within 10 years.

A spectacular bridge won’t necessarily cost more than a plain-Jane one. But even if it does, Leopold told The Gazette, “If you make it something special that has the world turning to Montreal, all of a sudden, this extra cost pays for itself a hundred times over” by encouraging tourists to visit and companies to consider the city for investment. “Millions of people want to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, to Sydney to see the Opera House.”

Similarly, he contends, heads might turn to Montreal if it had a standout bridge.

But the current federal government isn’t known for its interest in artistic expression. And federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel — one of only five Quebec MPs in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s caucus — doesn’t sound interested in anything but a utilitarian span that just gets people from Point A to Point B. “We’ll do the best project for the money we have,” he said when asked about the bridge’s design.

The Conservatives seem to have all but written off Quebec. But perhaps getting creative with the bridge’s design could help curry favour in the province. Already, Lebel seems to be trying to please Montrealers: he has hinted the new bridge could be named after Canadiens hockey great Maurice Richard, a beloved figure.

Leopold, 60, has always thought big. While still a McGill University law student, he talked his way into a job as an investigator on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. He went on to be an aide to former prime minister Brian Mulroney during his 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership run. After moving to New York City, Leopold developed two acres of food courts in the World Trade Centre.

Now back in his hometown, Leopold says many Montrealers are too cynical, part of the decline that began with the financially disastrous 1976 Olympics. Whatever the cause, it’s time to shake off decades of gloominess and start dreaming again — the kind of dreaming that created Expo 67, an event that enchanted the world.   IE