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oh dear, northern magus, you're calling him a racist and not addressing the issues raised. how very... canadian. we can be such a tinny and self-righteous little people. (oh no... i called us a "people." i meant "post-people human collective.")

quebec separation would be a horrible process, with lots of spite and bad faith dealings... but, really, were canada and quebec already separate, i wouldn't exactly be arguing for them to join.

my feeling was that martin was referring to a sub-type and not the whole. i agree with this, though: "Montreal is an American city with American people who speak French with an American accent." perhaps it is just too subtle for ads in enroute magazine.

you are not able to get over your bitterness? please don't ruin the thread. i am not here to re-enact the petty canadian regional wars so routinely fed to us by the media.

i wouldn't say they hate the french. they are still one of the largest immigrant groups, and there are many french people here. i see your point, though, but it's resentfully phrased.

Again, I feel this inserts culture in an area where less ephemeral metrics explain the circumstance rather thoroughly: Where Pittsburgh seems excessive is at those points which demonstrate nothing other than the fact that, in, say, 1924, it was wealthy in the manner that Toronto is now -- and...

riding through griffintown, the old port and up st. laurent this morning, i thought: i've had about enough of this "european" nonsense. montreal is canada's most american city, and here's why. - the built form: it has a skyscraper core that is comprised of offices, not condos, which quickly...

the great cities of europe are being dismissed to summarily and too shallowly... this canadian "multicultural" boilerplate is not the only route to greatness. in fact, it's kind of new worldy... you cannot expect spain to jump on the "nation of immigrants!" thing in the same way canada or...

OK, I think I am beginning to see what you are getting at... and it appears to be a vast appreciation for toronto's sort of informal, lived-in, loose-limbed and cobbled-together quality, which is a thing that it actually does possess, so at long last we begin to enter the same page in at least...

oh, let's not make it into something like that. i won't pursue these sorts of things.

there is nothing more characteristic of youth, whether civilizational or individual, than pursuing the exact opposite of one's recent past with stunning ardor and a near-total lack of perspective.

this smugness must be a lingering family compact relic. i am proud of canada's achievements in the areas you mention, but the united states is a large, vast, unruly country. it is a different thing than canada is, and should be both criticized and appreciated for this central quality.

oh please. ladies mile's statement was direct and precise, and thank you for it, LM. the above is the worst sort of canadian anti-american posturing. that statue stood when the lower east side, for example, had more jewish inhabitants than anywhere else in the world, and at a time when...

i am more interested in the anwer to the following: "the other question is, of course, this: if we are to take everything you say as true and accept that pre-war toronto is just head-and-shoulders above its supposed peers -- even those, like new york, that were world capitals at the time, or...

you know what? not really. it is a type that is present in large numbers when a city is in the process of becoming great. the overreaches inherent to the character should be viewed in this context, and with some fondness.

you two are quite the pair, i must admit, and even if i have been coming to this site and opposing your view with some regularity, this idea of two self-consciously cultured and urbanely witty boosters, really, is at its core a very fun one.

this is something other than what it purports to be. by no reasonable metric can toronto be considered the greatest urban ensemble in north america, and that it was why nobody says that it is (save ladies mile). (it is, however, an incredibly vibrant and unique city, so let's not let the...

i did not say it should return to prominence, nor any of those things.

it was a time and a place and a culture. it would be absurd now, but it would be sad were it never to have sprung up.

you are certainly lucky that you are far from such distasteful monstrosities (and also so close to world-beating landmarks such as "the four seasons centre for the performing arts"!) you are a critical anthology of one, but it is fun to watch you sneeringly establish toronto, ontario as the...