Expo put montreal on the map in 1967, an exhilarating time when anything seemed possible for the city.

Fast-forward to today: the city is mired in negativity -— corruption, crumbling roadways, financial difficulties and power struggles between different levels of government.

It’s no wonder Montreal, founded on May 17, 1642, is having a hard time hammering out how it will celebrate its 375th birthday in 2017.

That year also happens to be the 50th anniversary of Expo 67, which seems to be making it that much more difficult to be gung-ho about a major party celebrating today’s Montreal.

This past summer, the city had asked Montrealers for help in planning 2017. The brainstorming produced a hodgepodge of ideas but no clear focus.

In fact, Montrealers don’t seem to be in the mood for big, expensive undertakings of any kind. They clearly do not want the city to build anything special for the event, for example. Instead, they have suggested the city fix up its current infrastructure. Many modest ideas were put forward: plant 375 trees, permit street food vendors (banned in the city since the 1940s) or set up more public markets.

The city has boiled down the ideas into a few promising themes it will explore before deciding.

One theme involves celebrating the St. Lawrence River by making it more accessible; the river is a key part of the city’s history, but there are few ways for residents to enjoy it. Another theme would zero in on Montreal’s vibrant gastronomic scene; after all, eating well is one of the things that unites Montrealers.

Whatever is chosen, it’s hoped the 2017 celebration will help Montrealers regain their once famous joie de vivre.

Fortunately for the city’s economy, the morose mood seems to be lost on the 7.5 million tourists who visit annually, leaving behind $2.3 billion.

The city’s “ambiance” is the thing visitors like most, followed by its arts-and-culture scene and its restaurants, an Ipsos survey found in November.

Tourism has turned around after a difficult 2009, when the Canadian Grand Prix Formula One race was pulled from Montreal for a year and the city’s summer hotel occupancy rate fell to an anemic 68% as a result. The three-day race, Canada’s biggest single tourism event, draws about 300,000 people. The return of this international event in 2010 was a godsend for Montreal, helping the city achieve its best tourism year in a decade.

And 2011 was even better, with hotel-room rentals up by 1% over the previous year. Summer hotel occupancy in 2011 was 78%.

That was much better than 2009. But the occupancy rate and the average daily rate for hotel rooms are still too low, a cause for concern to the city’s tourism industry.

Tourism Montreal is hoping for lots more well-heeled visitors. “One of the challenges for the coming years,” it recently warned, “will be to continue to fill the 5,000 hotel rooms added over the past decade, primarily in the high-quality niche market.”

Hopefully, the 2017 festivities — whatever they are — will help.  IE