Came across this online recently, for sale in Halifax/Bedford. I couldn't help but notice 1) the lack of chrome on the forks and stays; and 2) the half hoods (is that the correct term?) and abbreviated bar tape.
With regard to 1, it reminds me to bring up the fact that I'm not familiar with any Mercier import history with regard to Canada. Anyone know anything about that? It seems that a fairly high percentage of examples I've come across in Canada don't have any chrome on the forks and stays, or at least conform more in general with european market bikes (and this one also has the "Special Tour de France" decal on the top tube, another euro market feature). So it's unclear to me whether there was an established import program in Canada back in the day, or whether I'm just seeing euro bikes that ended up in Canada.
With regard to 2, the combination of half hoods and less than full bar tape seems relatively uncommon (and on bikes like this that appear to be unmolested, it appears to be factory original in this regard). These two details also happen to have been the spec on my original 1969 bike. Just looking for patterns here, anything where I can connect some proverbial dots.