You’re trying to make the subjective objective.
Toronto has things like the Jazz Festival, TIFF, and the one of the largest Pride events in the world. Just because they aren’t your thing doesn’t mean the city is “boring”.
Also, having been born in Montréal (and where I return several times a year), I question whether you haven’t just succumbed to the Toronto-resentment that’s so pervasive there (IMO, moreso that just about any other city on the eastern side of the country). People treat Toronto like the rest of the US treats NYC; that it’s a place just for businessmen and smalltown gawking tourists.
My biggest concern upon moving here was that people would resent me for being from Toronto. That's a fallacy. A big urban myth. I was received with open arms. To francophones, Toronto is simply not on their radar. It's pretty much irrelevant to their dailly lives. With me, they are either curious about it or, having been to Toronto, they liked it. No francophone that I've ever met gives a flying f*ck about Toronto and none of them have ever bashed it. They hate the Leafs, that's about it. People who go on business like the restaurants..
Anglo Montrealers are a different story. Most of them have relatives eleswhere in Canada - the people who preferred to flee rather than learn a second language. Many of them have moved to a different part of Canada at some time or other and returned - for whatever reason. With them, it's complex, and you can't generalise. Many lifelong Anglo Montrealers are professional victims - not worth talking to, all they do is complain. Much like lifers in any given city. The ones who have returned are the ones who have done so out of love. They have context on their side and they're generally cool. You can trade stories.
I've come to the conclusion that I was systematically lied to over the years. Most of the people who claim to be ex-Montrealers aren't
real Montrealers - they are West Islanders - self segregating suburbanites. They know about as much about Montreal as someone from Oshawa knows about Toronto.
Think of it this way: You're in Montreal and all the information you get about Toronto is from some guy from Oakville who commuted downtown and went to the occasional Jays game - 30 years ago. That's what I'd been listening to from so-called 'ex-Montrealers' - many of whom were children at the time and have been listening to their parents bitch about the 'goddam separatists' for all their lives. Like it's forever 1980.
The Toronto Jazz Festival is probably not a very good example to throw out here, considering..
And nobody anywhere but Toronto thinks of Toronto as the New York of anything. We really have to get over that idiocy, Toronto is not at all comparable to New York unless you're in the same camp as those who think that Riga is the New York of Latvia; Ho Chi Minh City the New York of Viet Nam. Then, maybe...
