Lowertown’s pull-tab king

By Dave Bowen

The neighbourhood has seen a lot of changes over the past few decades and Jacques Archambault has been there for most of it. Born in 1949, he has lived in the same side-by-side duplex on Bolton Street since May 1951, sharing the space with nine brothers and sisters. His uncle lived in the house next door with four daughters, giving the two families enough for a baseball side with a few spares. Large families were the norm, and Jacques recalls that the owner of Ma Tante store on Boteler had a family of 17 children. Lowertown was their playground, with far less traffic to worry about given the McDonald-Cartier Bridge had not yet started dumping vehicles into the area.  

In addition to the parks and schoolyards in the area, Jacques and his friends also roamed the industrial zone in the north end of the neighbourhood. Train tracks still ran parallel to Boteler Street where apartment buildings now stand, the National Dairy and Florence Paper were near Boteler and Dalhousie, Richie’s Feed and Seed, and ReadyMix Concrete Company towards Sussex.

There were still several schools in what is now Lowertown West, including Bolton School for primary students, where Sussex Square now stands. Our Lady School, now a literal shell of its former self. St. Brigid’s, Duhamel, Guigues, and Routhier. Jacques recalls the linguistic and religious divisions of the schools also extended to rivalries between the gangs of kids in the neighbourhood.

Jacques’ father died when Jacques was only 12 years old, so he started working as a newspaper boy, delivering groceries for the store at the corner of Bolton and Dalhousie. This was only one of many corner stores at the time – he estimates there were 15 stores between St. Patrick and Boteler west of King Edward. You also didn’t have to drive far to find a gas station with several scattered around the area. You could also get a hotdog for fifteen cents at the stand beside a house on St. Patrick.

Jacques started working for the federal government at age 18, right after graduating high school. He spent 46 years as a civil servant but also had many what are now considered side gigs – he worked for a limousine company, managed a crew delivering flyers, did landscaping, wedding planning, and kept his mornings busy delivering papers.

He joined L’institut canadien francais d’Ottawa on Dalhousie Street after retiring and slowly started out helping a friend collect cans and tabs to raise money for charitable causes. When the person responsible for taking the beer cans back to the Beer Store moved on, Jacques took that over, with the money going to a fund directed to local women’s shelters. This has now evolved to an almost full-time job where he collects cans and tabs from diverse groups like House of Commons staff, Ottawa paramedics, the Bikers’ Church, El Taco d’Oro, Brigid’s Well, and Fat Boys. The money raised now goes to War Amps for veterans and children who require artificial limbs, a fund to purchase wheelchairs for those in need, and to women’s shelters, all charities dear to him.

The amazing thing is that over the years he has collected over 4.3 million of these tabs. His goal is to hit 5 million, and it is likely that his goal will be well exceeded before he passes the torch to the next tab king.