Savard hints that Smith was getting bored. "With the Alouettes," he says, "Larry had gotten to the point where he could run the team before having his breakfast."

	Larry Smith at an Alouettes practice in the 1970s. PHOTO: Courtesy La Presse

That's not to say the Alouettes are no longer dear to Smith's heart. His new office is filled with football memorabilia. The sport, after all, has been a huge part of Smith's life.

His football career began at Bishop's University, where he was a star athlete and was selected first overall Canadian college draft choice in 1972. That same year, Smith graduated at the top of his class with an economics degree and was promptly recruited as a running back for the Alouettes.

It was an impressive feat, given that Smith and brother Don, now 54, were the first of their family ever to attend university. He could have been an Oxford University graduate, too, recalls Perowne. "But Smithie refused an opportunity to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship."

Smith had other plans. Although he stayed with the Als until 1980, while also working for the team's public relations office, he simultaneously earned his law degree at McGill. "It was at McGill that I learned how to really think," Smith says. "As a law student I learned how to cut to the chase and get to the facts."

Smith with McGill Provost Luc Vinet, former Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque and Alouettes' owner Robert Wetenhall announce renovations to Molson Stadium.

Smith also credits McGill's law program, taught in French and English, with improving his second language. Ditto for the four summers he crisscrossed Quebec as a sales rep for Ultramar (then Eagle) Petroleum. "When I would introduce myself as Larry Smith, sales rep, everybody would say, 'Please speak English,'" he recalls. "And I would reply, 'Non, non, non! Il faut que je continue de parler en franÁais!'" (No, no, no ! I must continue speaking French!)

He's so fond of French that he dubs himself "franglais;" a hybrid for franÁais and anglais. During our entire interview, he insists on speaking French, which he does with a thick Québécois joual, because the writer's mother tongue is French.

"That's typical of Smithie," says Perowne. "He takes great pride in his ability to speak French. He feels addressing francophones in their language is respectful and that all English Quebecers should speak French."

Smith says he began identifying as franglais after moving from his native Hudson to Toronto, where he headed the CFL from 1992 to 1997. "I realized that if you spend 40 years in Quebec, you have francophone friends and you're bilingual, culturally a change has been made," he explains. "You become franglais."

If the term repulses language purists, because it implies the threat of anglicization of the French language, Smith argues that Quebec's first language is safe. "There is no more threat to the French language," he insists.

	Christena Keon Sirsley of VIA Rail and Larry Smith with the Grey Cup in 2001, when Montreal hosted the championship game. PHOTO: courtesy Montreal Alouettes

That's why francophones figure prominently in his action plan at The Gazette. "We need to attract new readers," he says, given that Quebec's English community is dwindling and internal surveys have shown a quarter-million fluently bilingual francophones and allophones are an untapped market for the paper. Smith is determined to get a healthy chunk of those people reading his product. The Gazette is now making a visible effort to cater to the French community.

The paper's Arts & Life section, for instance, has exploded its coverage of French entertainment. Whereas francophone A-list stars were often ignored in the past unless they crossed over to the English market, The Gazette now devotes gallons of ink to A- and B-list talent. The paper even introduced a weekly gossip column, Chaud-Show, which chronicles French pop culture.

"Larry is very sensitive to the local culture of Quebec," says Perowne. "He's a lateral thinker who likes the opportunity to make The Gazette more relevant to Quebec society." The paper has visibly shifted its focus. "Instead of being daily for the English," Smith stresses, "we will deliver the news in English for everyone across Quebec."

His boss, Don Babick, president of the publishing subsidiary of CanWest, calls Smith a "Montreal icon," and is confident he is up to enforcing external and internal change at The Gazette. "Larry is very competitive and has a desire to win," he says. "He's a leader with great people skills who's already given the place more momentum and spirit than it's had in the last while."

Some of the challenges that await Smith include the need to diversify The Gazette's predominantly white newsroom to better represent Montreal's growing ethnic minorities and to lure allophone readers; the need to hire more rookies to replace aging staffers amid tight budgets; the renegotiation of an expired labour contract with unionized reporters; the redesign of The Gazette by 2003 to attract more readers; the final transition to new offset printing presses, a painfully slow project that should be completed this summer, one year after its debut.

As for content modifications, The Gazette has identified ten categories, such as Quebec universities, where coverage must be bolstered. "It's important for us to be more pro-active," he says, to pique reader interest "and improve the quality of our news."