The Sun Life Insurance Company, the builder, was involved in a controversy in the 1970s when it moved its headquarters to Toronto. Quebec nationalists claimed the decision was politically motivated and meant as a warning to the growing separatist movement that the price of independence would be the loss of businesses. During the Second World War, British government securities were held in basement vaults while its gold was kept in Ottawa. Across Dorchester Square on Peel Street, the Windsor office building is the remainder of a posh hotel by the same name that once received British royalty and political figures such as Winston Churchill, American celebrities such as writer Mark Twain and the city's Mayor Jean Drapeau of Expo'67 fame. Champlain hotel became permanent fixtures as well.
Neighbourhoods can grow but still retain a certain distinctness.
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