Toronto is without a doubt one of the most multicultural places on the planet. It has become the main gateway for immigration to Canada. Montreal is the most bilingual city in Canada, and well over half of the population speak both French and English. Over a third of the population has neither French nor English as a mother tongue, and a huge proportion of Montrealers speak three or four languages. Substantial investments were also made in public art for each station.
While Toronto has us beat for suburban rail, the REM light rail system will soon provide speedy and frequent service to the North Shore, the South Shore, the airport and the West Island.
Montreal is also a pioneer in cycling infrastructure, with over km of bike lanes and paths to get around in the warm season. For the longest time, Montreal was the only great restaurant city in Canada. These days, Toronto has us beat in terms of sheer variety of ethnic cuisines, in particular Asian and Caribbean food. But Montreal is a quality over quantity town. A visit to the Jean-Talon, Atwater or Maisonneuve markets will quickly demonstrate just how much Montrealers love fine foods, and all three make St Lawrence market look quaint by comparison.
Plus, we have the only Time Out Market in Canada. While Toronto has a few notable urban green spaces like High Park, the waterfront and the Islands, Montreal has an incredible variety of easily accessible beautiful parks and elegant urban squares, thanks to its much older history and a keen sense of urban design.
I am thinking of studying there and the rent is so cheap! Besides this, this city is wonderful! Emma montreal is one of the worst cities in the world like a third world country and unless you live here or spend several years you will have a different opinion. So if you are a tourist sure you will say it was great and breathtaking and what not! Try living the experience before visiting for a limited time only!
On a positive note, what we can always take away from this is even bad experience is part of the experience. Moreover, stop idealizing Montreal or anything, anybody, any city. Take it all in, enjoy all the good things Montreal has to offer, tune out the bad ones? People here are not so nice. Very hard to make friends. Nice place to look around but over all a very bad place to live. Rents are very high.
Hard to find rental places that take pets in many areas. A real turd world country type of place. So many bad drivers. Courtesy is mostly dead. Hard to get into a hospital. The ongoing politics going no where for the past 40 years is sickening as well as all the corruption, mismanagement and BS. Nice place to visit but living here is limited.
The truth. I was there for three weeks at the end of winter, with my family, and found it to be the complete opposite of what Sheri is saying. I speak very little French and was surprised to find that most people in Montreal are bi-lingual, even if many prefer to speak only French.
Service in restaurants and cafes, and in stores, was friendly and efficient. I walked everywhere and felt safe, even very late at night. Obviously, like any big city, you need to be aware of your surroundings and not engage in risky behaviour but I never felt any cause for alarm. We visited Montreal lately and found it to be unfriendly and you get the feeling a civil war is about to break out.
People are violent and aggressive all nationalities and smash right into you when walking by. The people are really uptight and looking for someone to unload on. We suggest avoiding congested areas and unsafe areas. We do not consider it to be a safe city at all, The people seem really miserable and depressed and there are a lot of political tensions and animosity between people.
The food in restaurants used to be good, not any more. There are some interesting places to visit and things to do, but we found the city overpriced, including the transit system. Many drivers refuse to speak English so it is hard to get directions.
They must lose passengers like that which means they lose money. The city could be cleaner too. We go by what we see, not by what a guide book or statistics say. That is heresay, not the real experience. There are better places to visit, and we would not live here. Sounds like bad humour noir. Go to New York City and you could write about positive or negative comments but above and beyond New York is an extraordinary place, so is Montreal.
What wrong with those people??!! Wish I could live here!! What city did you visit? We just got back from Montreal and we had the most wonderful experience. The people were warm and friendly at each store and restaurant we visited maybe with the exception of some tourist destinations. We encountered tons of graffiti and at first, were concerned walking through these neighborhoods. Eventually, we realized that graffiti in Montreal was not necessarily territorial gang markers.
The Metro system was amazing. We had to travel from the D. O area about 30 min. Many of them, wonderful. After visiting Montreal, we are now looking to move there. Cheap homes, great transit system, low crime rate, low violent crime, great health care system, low cost of living, wonderful art and food scene… hard not to love this city.
AJ — that is so true. I used to live in SAn Francisco and people used to tell me it is this and that. Same goes for montreal. My Goodness, Sheri! Montreal is such an amazing place and very, very friendly. Perhaps you are from Toronto or perhaps you were simply in a very bad mood for the duration of your visit? From the minute we landed here in Montreal airport as new permanent residents we have come as Skilled Workers we have heard nothing other than Welcome to Canada.
As for racial or other types of tensions, in fact this is far less obvious than other major cities such as London or New York. Yes, recently I have met people who instantly strike up a conversation about the new legislation proposed here in Quebec to ban religions gear like headscarves, turbans, large Christian crosses, etc.
New immigrants are specifically told that they must accept secular regulations and are expected to sign up to a secular system of government. In my experience, this is in sharp contrast to the UK.
British people talk about a tolerant, non-racist society, yet UK governments still manage to get involved in wars, following the USA like lap dogs.
The UK today, just like colonial, imperial Britain has been complicit in the support of dictatorships as well as the torture and murder of civilians AND they blatantly spy on the public, just like the USA. On the surface it seems that the UK with its long history of democracy is a benevolent state and that so-called English CHARM and tolerance are something to be admired.
Underneath it all, you will find hypocrisy and political and social double-standards wherever you turn. My 9 year old son has a far better, more liberal place to call his home and one day he will be proud to be a Canadian citizen.
No country or state is perfect, but some are more perfect than others! Sheri — I completely agree with you. I have lived in many major cities in Europe as well as in North America; I have never seen anything like Montreal. As you said, people are very aggressive and full of animosity and they are ready to discharge on anybody that looked new to the place.
The city is very depressed and some parts are scary and dangerous. Hard to say, what they want from you — on the streets or mall, they kind of want to smash into you, stalk you closely or make strange sound to make you feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes, you could get away if you keep your mouth shut and if you speak in English esp in public places, you have put yourself in the soup. Always, try to be in a group when you are outside home. I concur with almost all information given here. Even though, I myself, as an Anglophone, have been experiencing difficulties and the challenges exist but I can confidently say that Montreal is a lovely welcoming city to live overall. As a matter of fact, if you walk down the street, you hear a variety of languages being spoken from passers by.
My city, Montreal, is a wonderful, culturally diverse city where many different kinds of people live in harmony.. There is always something fun to do. Then, maybe you will only see the negative in the place…and even invent some negativity in our own head to fit your construct. I am a Filipino. I studied French, I can speak and understand French but not so fluently. Are they accepted? Do you think it is easy for us to find a job in your country?
What about rental and food? What about English education? Are there any English public school in Montreal, do they accept immigrant children? What are the common policies before we can enroll to English school. I hope you can help me. It is the world record holder for highest double-tracked rollercoaster in the world. Every year, the park welcomes over 3 million visitors. Every year, Montreal hosts more than 18, foreign students from more than countries and in it has been ranked the number 1 destination for tertiary studies.
Montreal has the cheapest Tuition in Canada. However, the hotel gained its international recognition when John Lennon, who had been refused entry in the USA, conducted his bed-in in Room and wrote Give Peace a Chance there. Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Montreal Gazette, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
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