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[Minus_Me]

I've been to vancouver it felt way cleaner than Montreal ...

I'm not self-hating I couldn't live outside Quebec because I'm French and I like to speak french on a daily basis but yeah Montreal feels kinda left behind tbh

Some would argue that the protection and reassertion of the French Language during the Quite Revolution, and subsequent Nationalism of Separatism is what left Montreal behind. Sun Life for example was pretty outwards in their disdain for the language laws and was the reason for their move from Montreal to Toronto.

My parents have interesting stories of living in Montreal before the 1960's and I can understand how history ended up playing out.

 

[Pancake Mix]

Some would argue that the protection and reassertion of the French Language during the Quite Revolution, and subsequent Nationalism of Separatism is what left Montreal behind. Sun Life for example was pretty outwards in their disdain for the language laws and was the reason for their move from Montreal to Toronto.

My parents have interesting stories of living in Montreal before the 1960's and I can understand how history ended up playing out.

The heavily English-speaking West Island of Montreal and the natives in the far North of the province are the reason why the 1995 referendum thankfully failed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_referendum,_1995

49.42% of Quebec voted to leave (roughly 60% of Francophones), but if 50% +1 vote had wanted to leave, the premier of Quebec planned to declare independence, possibly that very night. That would have been very destabilizing.

 

[Minus_Me]

The heavily English-speaking West Island of Montreal and the natives in the far North of the province are the reason why the 1995 referendum thankfully failed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_referendum,_1995

49.42% of Quebec voted to leave (roughly 60% of Francophones), but if 50% +1 vote had wanted to leave, the premier of Quebec planned to declare independence, possibly that very night. That would have been very destabilizing.

I'm old enough to remember that night very well. The Parizeau concession speech is still one of the most cringey things I've ever seen.

 

[Donos]

The people who create those lists should maybe look outside the tourist/high income districts. The outer districts in Vienna have pretty much gone to shit in the last years. Today I've had a veiled woman literally spit in front of my feet on my way back home from grocery shopping. Yesterday two refugees had a fist fight on the open street in front of my gym and my friend of turkish origin is more and more often receiving racist insults by old austrian people. You can feel that society as a whole is heating up/things are getting more confrontational.

Then again thankfully we're still quite a lot away from Paris-style suburb areas. But I really can't shake the feeling the people who create those ratings only view the good parts of the city.

Aside from security there are also too few apartments and prices are constantly going up everywhere.

That's almost all big metropolitan cities world wide. These cities draw a lot of people. All big metropols/capital cities have parts where people with low/no income live and these areas get worse and worse.
But then again these lists are for middle class/ high income people...

 

[Mimosa97]

Some would argue that the protection and reassertion of the French Language during the Quite Revolution, and subsequent Nationalism of Separatism is what left Montreal behind. Sun Life for example was pretty outwards in their disdain for the language laws and was the reason for their move from Montreal to Toronto.

My parents have interesting stories of living in Montreal before the 1960's and I can understand how history ended up playing out.

I don't know. I'm not french canadian. I'm a french immigrant who's been living in Québec for less than a decade.

Also I don't like to talk about this sensitive subject. It's way too polarizing. Canada is a beautiful country and let's try to keep it united. But Quebec must remain bilingual. I understand why french canadians don't want to see their language and culture die.

 

[p_xavier]

I've been to vancouver it felt way cleaner than Montreal ...

I'm not self-hating I couldn't live outside Quebec because I'm French and I like to speak french on a daily basis but yeah Montreal feels kinda left behind tbh

Felt really, Vancouver is a big Brossard. Living in a city and visiting ar two things. I just hate it when people are spitting on their own. Toronto people love their Subway and it is a dump. People in Montreal hate the metro and it's tons better than Toronto's.

BTW, Montreal is in the 12th position, mostly due to the political climate and infrastructures issues.

 

[EvilMario]

Toronto definitely has its problems but a lack of perspective is among them IMO... I get crusty about the terrible council and traffic and construction too but when I travel anywhere in the world off the beaten path, then come home... yeah it has a lot going for it.

It's funny because I feel the lack of perspective from city council and others is really what holds us back sometimes. 'World class' is a phrase used all the time that gets made fun of, but I firmly believe people actually think it's the case.

Childcare, housing cost, NIMBYism all plague the city too, on top of infrastructure. I have chosen to make Toronto my home when I immigrated and I've no regrets about it. I do actually think we're one of the more livable cities around, especially in comparison to others in North America, but we have a ton of issues that might make the city unlivable, or barely livable for many. Cost is a major factor, whether buying, renting, children, or not, but we're drastically behind on accessibility, transit, public services too. You're paying a premium to live here basically, but you get a fairly poor return on your 'investment'.