^^ Although I agree with most of what you say it depends on what generation of people you're talking to and what part of the world they're from. The majority of Australians I run into are bowled over when I tell them that Vancouver isn't Canada's biggest city. They're shocked further when I tell them it's not even 2nd largest. To my parent's generation, Montreal was the face of Canada. My Dad grew up half way around the world but even there it was Montreal front and centre. Pierre Trudeau was widely admired and it coloured his entire view of Canada. To him Trudeau was great, Trudeau's Montreal was great, so Canada was great too. Toronto was viewed as a big but provincial backwater.
In some respects, we ended up in Canada due to my fathers's feelings about Trudeau, the city that produced him (Montreal), and my mother's life long love of Canada. It began when she first read Anne of Green Gables growing up in Finland.
Quote:
Originally Posted by park123
I think what a lot of Americans in this thread having been getting at is that Toronto is not especially large or unique in the North American context, so while we as Americans are vaguely aware that Toronto is more important these days, Montreal is still something special. And I think that's true. Here in NY, Montreal still seems to be an order of magnitude more exotic and desirable as a weekend destination than Toronto.
As a personal aside, when I visited Toronto from NYC a few years ago, the Canadian immigration officer at Pearson gave me a hard time because he didn't really buy that I was going there for tourism lol.
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Maybe you look sketchy.
Joking aside, I somewhat agree with you. Toronto may have zoomed by Montreal but it's still figuring out what it's going to be. When you have half the population born in another country and another big chunk either from other parts of Canada or born to parents from another country it's quite understandable. Vastly smaller metros in Canada have a far more developed character than Toronto. When one says Quebec City, Ottawa, Halifax, St. John's, Winnipeg, Calgary, Kelowna, and even transient Vancouver some fairly distinct characteristics come to mind. Things in Toronto are still in a rapid state of flux. Turn around for a minute and things have changed. It can be unsettling at times. Toronto will surely develop its own distinct persona but I suspect it will take a few more generations for it to form.
That said, Toronto doesn't feel like any other city I've been to. It doesn't feel like Montreal. It doesn't feel like New York. It doesn't feel like Chicago. Toronto has its own thing going on, I'm just not sure what it is. I wonder if NYC felt like this 1880-1930.