Sometimes I think there was a hex placed on them.
But seriously, a few things happened around there. The strike (which probably hurt Montreal more than us, but people use it as a convenient excuse for why they stopped following the Jays); Pat Gillick leaving and his replacement Gord Ash not being good at anything except imitating Dr. Evil; and Labatts selling the team to Interbrew, a Belgian brewing company that knew jackshit about baseball and didn't care.