Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
It all depends on your priorities. Mine is a deep sense of belonging, strong enough to be a nearly ethnic-level sense of place, and a fulfilling artistic and cultural life. So I'm willing to sacrifice a lot to remain where I can get that. If your personality allows Montreal something that leaves you unsatisfied with anywhere else, you can always go back and be truly, completely satisfied and happy with the decision.
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I will always love Montreal. Nowhere is more fascinating. Nowhere would the spectacle of human flourishing mean more to me.
I am an anglophone and Toronto was always better on paper. But Montreal had the intangibles, at least as far as I was concerned. I made my life there and refused several opportunities to head down the 401.
This time, it was different. I felt the weight of more young people trying their luck, more young people working their passions, in Toronto. That Friday night on Queen had more working musicians playing mid-billed shows, playing rooms you could just wander into, for very little money than the next Friday in Montreal, and their average level was quite a bit higher too.
I was in Montreal one week later.
I looked. I wanted it to be
even better but it was not as good.
Maybe it was an anomaly or a construction thing or whatever, but I doubt it. The sheer human activity level, the vitality, just wasn't there.
Toronto will never mean anything like what Montreal means to me but, and I apologise for the lyricism mais c'est mon estie de fil, the nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed, have left no addresses.