Jack Couture was a prolific writer. He wrote hundreds of stories about the history of Aylmer, Quebec which he published in local Aylmer newspapers. His stories about events and Aylmer residents were written with a homespun charm. He also authored a large collection of articles and letters to the editor of the Ottawa daily newspapers. These efforts were attributed to a persona he invented to comment on issues of the day and were written in a far more sophisticated and urbane style.
For decades prior to his death in 1973, Jack Couture operated the local poolroom in Aylmer. He was extremely active and very public in his involvement in the local politics of Aylmer. Couture was also considered by some as the local historian who founded a historical society and collected artefacts of Aylmer’s past.
Yet for all of this, Jack Couture was virtually unknown outside of local lore. Examples of his writing could be had only if one came across an old newspaper resurrected from an attic or basement during a spring cleaning. It is baffling to consider that so many words written about a community were now unavailable and their author not remembered. Poolroom and Politics was written in an attempt to change that situation.
Jack Couture took an active interest in Aylmer town politics. He attended council meetings regularly and reported on them in the local papers. The council meetings of the day were of a nature where citizens could not vote on matters but they could voice their contributions to the debates. Couture often took advantage of this opportunity and at times was thrown out of meetings. He took his political activism to the streets during election campaigns incurring the disfavour of more than a few local politicians. He also took his activism to the courts and once forced the mayor to resign as a result.
Through his years in Aylmer, Jack Couture appeared as a nonconformist. He did not conform to certain town values as the operator of a poolroom. He was publicly vocal and oppositional as a political activist within the town. He wrote about what he considered to be inequities within society as a whole and frequently within the town of Aylmer. On more than one occasion Jack Couture was in trouble with the law over his personal or business activities as well as his writing. Frequently the messages in his writing were designed to make the comfortable uncomfortable, especially when dealing with class, culture or religion.
In his persona as the eccentric old guy who ran the poolroom Jack Couture was there, but never examined. He was not taken seriously or recognized for the contribution he made in writing about the issues of the day and the richness of Aylmer’s past. Let us hope this publication allows people to celebrate his contribution to just that.
