Montreal's 15 Minutes

This is an Op-Ed piece from yesterday's National Post from a certain Martin Patriquin about the 15 minutes of recognition that Montreal received as a result of two articles, one from Spin and the other from The New York Times, on the burgeoning Montreal music scene. Besides the fact that the piece drips with cynicism and sarcasm, I took enough issue with his remarks about the Anglophone community in Montreal that I wrote a letter to the National Post editors. In case you are not registered to the National Post on-line, the article is below.

Montreal's 15 minutes
Given the chance, most ex-Montrealers will talk your ear off about how much they would have preferred to stay home. Montreal is beautiful, they say, full of laissez-faire joie de vivre and all that. Their reasons for leaving are eerily similar: A job dragged them away, right down Highway 401, or all the way to the West Coast.

Scratch the surface with the help of a stiff drink or friendly massage, and they'll get into the other reasons. Language is always a favourite: It's easier to find a job in Toronto than memorize French verb conjugations.

But some ex-pats may now be second-guessing their decision. Thanks to a recent mini-boom in the city's economy, as well as a dose of revisionist history, the city is attracting international notice as a trendy hot spot for new Yorkers and Europeans.

"No really - Canada is now officially cool," read a five-page article on Montreal in Spin's February issue, which deemed the city "The Next Big Thing". Not to be outdone, The Times flew in a correspondent to pen 2,400-word tribute to the music and club scene. "Montreal has become such a cultural magnet that some Americans are relocating here," he gushed, underscoring the theme of the articles: If Americans find the place cool then it must be so. Indeed, when Time Canada followed up by putting famed Montreal band Arcade Fire on its cover, the writer took pains t mention the lead singer is from Texas.

Montreal has its Anglophone minority to thank for its rebirth, we are told. Due to the French nationalism upsurge of mid-1990s, Anglos became of the more frustrated and cliquish - the perfect Petri dish for music and art. "The threat of secession (sic) was supposed to end Anglophone viability in a majority French culture," reports The Times. "Instead, it seems to have led to an artistic regenesis."

To locals, the idea that Anglo angst can function as an artistic muse - let alone a "regenesis" - is a little bizarre: In my experience, demonstrations of Anglo angst are generally whiny, preachy and unlistenable.

Unfortunately, the warm fuzzy feelings everyone has about the city now threaten to throw off the benefits that made this place such a blast to begin with: cheap rents and unyielding cynicism. What if all the ex-pats decide to flock back? Worse, what happens if Americans heed the call and snatch up all the charming Montreal walk-ups with their bloated American dollars?

Thankfully, the press, particularly the music press, is notoriously fickle. With any luck, it will soon be the turn of some other neglected town to bask in the limelight, for 15 minutes at least. (For the record, I nominate Peterborough, Ont. You aren't anybody until you perform a booze-fuelled stomp down George Street.) And thanks to a slew of recent Liberal cock-ups, separatism is once again on the rise. Soon Montreal will be in the throws of paranoia and bankruptcy once again. I can't wait.

My letter to the editor follows this post.