Photo cred - PartyWithSylvain The new year is nearly here, and while we look forward into the impending future that is 2015, it is still important to take a glance back at the preceding year, to learn, recognize our achievements, and laugh at all our stupid mistakes. That's what we've done with Montreal's last 365 days, as we've compiled the 50 Best Montreal Moments of 2014. Choosing 50 specific events wasn't too easy, as a lot happened this year, though we used a super non-scientific system of popularity, controversy, and our own biased perspective to create this list. Many of these moments are shining examples of Montreal's awesomeness, others...well not so much. What they all have in common, though, is being quite memorable. All the big moments are on here: that day the city smelled like shit, all the 6am bar drama, the St. Paul street debacle, to name a few. And since life is nothing but a glorified sitcom, I took the liberty of naming each in the style of Seinfeld/Friends episodes, and lets be real, some of these moments are so ridiculous you'd think they happened on TV and not IRL. Now without further ado, take a year-long trip through memory lane and remember the 50 most memorable moments we all shared in Montreal this year. 1. The Opening Of North America's First Ever Cat Cafe Cementing the city's unhealthy adoration of all things feline Full Story 2. The Moment We Learned 6am Bars Were Going To Be A Thing Coderre officially became our best friend when this news dropped Full Story 3. And Then The Moment When They Weren't Going To Be The day before the project was going to launch, no less. Thanks Quebec. Full Story 4. The Women & Taxi Drivers Debacle Some pretty gross stories surfaces, and the SPVM released a not-exactly-empowering statement to all females in the city Full Story 5. The Students Being Denied The Right To Vote Episode Let's please never bring up the definition of "domicile" ever again. Full Story 6. The Quebec Language Debate On The Metro Rants are okay, just not in confined public spaces Full Story 7. The Moment When Montreal Was A Complete Badass And Wanted To Screen "The Interview" No Matter What One Montrealer's initiative put the city on the map (or at least the front page of reddit) on an issue that did end up blowing over anyway Full Story 8. The All Black Tim Hortons In Île-Perrot An amazing prank and marketing strategy rolled into one. Full Story 9. The Biting Lady Bug Invasion Proof that zombies shouldn't be at the top of our list for worrisome things that will take a bit out of our flesh. Full Story 10. The Day Montreal Smelled Like Shit Otherwise known as #ShitStormMTL, needless to say, it was kind of a crappy day, at least for our noses. Full Story 11. The Dawn Of îleSoniq Our very first EDM festival, which rocked Parc Jean-Drapeau, and lead to a hilariously large amount of drug busts. Full Story 12. The Second We Thought A Tornado Was On The Way The whole thing blew over (pun!) but for a second we thought St. Jean Baptiste Day was gonna be ruined. Full Story 13. The Justin Timberlake Spotting On Saint Catherine Street A wild JT appeared, and we all creamed our jeans. Full Story 14. The First Free Outdoor EDM Festival On Crescent Street Villa Paradizo kinda came out of nowhere, but we're glad it did, and here's hoping it's an annual tradition Full Story 15. The Anti-Homeless Spikes Kerfuffle Archambault removed the spikes, but the moment really portrayed how certain people view the city's homeless population. Full Story 16. The Morning After The Winnipeg Jets Got Wasted In The City Proof 'peggy boys can't handle Montreal. Plus we schooled them pretty hard 3-0 later that night. Full Story 17. The Closing Of Chapters In Place Of Victoria's Secret Bras beat books, unfortunately. Full Story 18. The Moment When We Learned A Nutella Bar Was Opening Next Year We're still shaking with excitement, though that could be from all the sugar in the Nutella we've been eating in preparation. Full Story 19. The Saint Paul Cobblestone Street Debacle When Saint Paul street's cobblestones were defaced by city workers, how much Montrealers care about the roadways and architecture of Old Montreal really shone through. Full Story 20. The SPVM Officer Who Gave Out $100 Bills A veritable Christmas miracle. Full Story 21. The Ranking Of Montreal's Women As #8 Most Beautiful In The World Honourable mention: all the other world rankings the city received. Full Story 22. The Opening Of Montreal's First Urban Acrobatic Park Also a first in all of North America. Full Story 23. The Start Of The Village Ephemere By Jaques Cartier Bridge Partying under a bridge is no longer just for trolls. Full Story 24. The Prank Call To Bell Mobility By A Quebec Man Finally, someone gave phone companies a taste of their own medicine. Full Story 25. The Opening Of Brutus, The City's First Ever All Bacon Bar Even 'merica got jazzed for this moment in Montreal history. Full Story 26. The Habs-Themed McDonald's Fast food and hockey, joined in unholy matrimony. Full Story 27. The Google VS Montreal Woman And Her Breasts Case Even against a corporate giant like Google, the little guy/gal can win, even when it comes to cleavage. Full Story 28. The First Ever Free Vegan Food Festival In Montreal Finally, a food event catering to all of the city's vegan, and there are quite a few. Full Story 29. The Mayoral Hockey Bet It was team vs team, city vs city, Coderre vs whatever the hell the mayor of Boston is called, in a hockey wager to end them all. Thank Odin we won this one. Full Story 30. The Sugar Sammy Metro Ad Some old crusties hated Sugar Sammy's poignant attack on the OQLF. All of us with a funny bone loved it. Full Story 31. The Montreal Money Hunt Probably the best idea for a scavenger hunt, ever. Full Story 32. The Time A Drug Dealer Called The Cops To Help Him Escape His Customers Honestly, the whole thing sounded like an article from The Onion. The fact that it took place IRL makes the whole moment all the more memorable. Full Story 33. The Woman On The Metro Eating A Bird Saga So much intrigue, all for a female eating some foul. Full Story 34. The Mysterious Green Orb Above The City Was this ever fully explained? I'm still saying a wizard did it. Full Story 35. The Moment We All Learned Romados Delivers Even if the crack chicken joint delivered pre-2014, we don't care, because we learned this year and it changed our lives forever. Full Story 36. The News Of Montreal's First Doggy Cafe To be fair, it's not opening 'til January, but folks still went wild when the news got out. Full Story 37. The Saint Sulpice Makeout Drama Some say the two gents were kicked out for being gay, others say because they were being a innaproriate. Whatever the case, the whole thing was a shitstorm of drama. Full Story 38. The Franco In Montreal You may not think it was that big a deal, but when JF hit up Chapters in Montreal, you know the ladies (and me) went nuts. Full Story 39. The Montreal Officer Sex'ing It In The Front Seat Of A Cruiser Scandal Everybody's gotta get some, so we can't judge. Full Story 40. The City's First Vape Bar One of the many e-cig establishments to pop up throughout this year, this moment embodies the vape-hype of 2014, and its visible waning. Full Story 41. The Videotaped Laptop Theft On Saint Laurent Street An inside look at an issue that worries all of us with a computer in a cafe. Full Story 42. The Firefighters Taking Over City Hall Actually quite intense, the video footage was pretty raw, and included a guy taking an opportunistic selfie Full Story 43. The Squirrel With A GoPro Video One squirrel, one camera, and a whole lot of excitement from the general public. Full Story 44. The Memory Of Jean Beliveau A true legend was lost to us this year, though Beliveau's memory will certainly live on. Full Story 45. The OQLF On Facebook Everyone's favourite linguistic watchdog took to social media, and everyone was basically all "seriously?" Full Story 46. The Metro Getting Cellphone Service 2014 finally saw a working cell network on parts of the the green line. Fingers crossed 2015 we'll be able to text everywhere on the network. Full Story 47. The "MTL" Sign On Mount Royal Debate A cool idea we hope to see happen in the future, although the idea has been denigrated by all the traditional/old people who want the cross to remain strictly as a religious symbol. Full Story 48. The Atwater Metro Homeless Fight Not exactly a shining moment for the city, but it happened, and people watched. Full Story 49. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Takeover We could feel the turtle power when our inner eight year old's beloved TMNTs took to the streets of Montreal. Full Story 50. The Olympic Stadium's Free Public Skating Rink Because we all like it when things are free. Full Story Are you looking for more? Click here for The Top 50 Most Memorable Montreal Moments Of 2013 >
