Montreal's moment

Was forced to consider why I would not live in London, or Paris for that matter. Not that any actual opportunity exists for me in those cities, but I started to wonder why I so intuitively reject the prospect of living elsewhere.

In Paris this August I was reminded how the town feels like a museum. Then my girlfriend pointed out how crowded with expensive shops the streets were. Then I became overwhelmed by the sameness of the Hausmannian planning. I have been looking through photos of old Paris by Eugene Atget. It is striking how much has changed. How varied and messy were the streets of Vieux Paris. It is striking also to consider how different is Paris' role in the world today compared to back in the nineteenth century. Back then, the City of Light was arguably the most important city in the world. London was not far behind, or maybe a little way in front -- I suppose it would depend if you ask that of the French or the English.

Since then it has been an inexorable decline. For sure, London is once again a financial giant, and the streets are hustling and bustling with an urgency that would be alien in Montreal... this is a much sleepier town. And yet, the urgency in the big European capitals is now intensely about making money. The progress that London makes is in becoming more like America.

Montreal also has suffered a decline. It has gone from being Canada's number one city to being squarely relegated to number two behind Toronto. Relics of the industrial past are everywhere. The factories are fenced off and crumbling. The warehouses have broken windows and weeds growing over the bricks.

Can I pause for a second to say how much I love those parts of town? How much I love to see the corpse of a moment in history right in front of me. We should let some of that crumbling splendour stick around. Industrialization was a remarkable and violent process for much of the world. I, for one, don't think we should forget it.

So there we have Montreal's former moment... and now... now where are we? There has been a justice served, of sorts, in restoring French to its rightful place as the dominant language of the city and indeed the province. Is that enough? Is that struggle over? The Parti Quebecois would say no. They have abandoned separatism for now. The new fight is cultural. But it is a fight that seems to have a dwindling army to fight it.

Personally, I have a quiet optimism that the contribution Montreal might make to the world is in expanding the role of the "public sphere" -- a place of conflict between the corporate elite and the rest of us. I hope Montreal will find a way to make the quality of life the main fight, rather than the quantity of economic output. I hope we will have more bike paths, more galleries, more parks, more meeting places. I hope we will show that millions of people with different languages and different races can live happily on one island. And that they can do so sustainably, on modest means, and that they can be less greedy and competitive than their contemporaries.

And I say "we" now consciously. I thought to myself today as I walked on the outskirts of Hochelaga that no matter what, I will stick it out here. I will stick it out here even if when I finish my diploma the only job on offer is down at the depanneur.