Look, I'm always going to think Montreal is the best city in Canada. I was born here, I know it like the back of my hand, and in all of my Canadian travels, I've never found a city anywhere near as cool.
I can already hear Torontonians chuckling that I think quaint little Montreal is cooler than their sprawling metropolis. But let's be honest here: once a city reaches a certain population level and amount of sprawl, it loses its spark. Its shared camaraderie. Its je ne sais quoi.
There are absolutely things other Canadian cities do better. Victoria is way safer. Vancouver's weather is paradise compared to Montreal's winters. Saskatoon is better set up for families. St. John's has the best apartment rental prices. Toronto is way larger and makes way more money.
But here are seven things that, in my humble (biased) opinion, Montreal does better than any other Canadian city.
We throw the best parties in the country, night after night
Montreal has been lauded for decades for its vibrant nightlife — so much so that people travel here just for the culture after dark.
Entire industries rely on the city's propensity to drink up and throw down after a hard day of work or study. Any night of the week can be spent on a restaurant terrace for 5 a 7 with friends.
Think Happy Hour, but make it chic, and put it out on the street for as long as the weather permits. The goal is to unwind, see, and be seen.
The next phase of the night is the party. Montrealers have their pick of dozens of amazing venues to dance, see a show, or enjoy some live music, all open until 3:00 a.m. (And then there's the underground party scene — if you know, you know.)
And if this isn't enough, there's always an afterparty in someone's old, tiny, unbearably cool apartment in the Plateau.
While Vancouverites are waking up early for their pre-work hikes and Torontonians are on their grindset by 8:30 a.m., Montrealers are rolling out of bed with perfectly imperfect bedhead after a night spent on the town letting loose, making friends, and taking in music years before the artists blow up.
We're so good at festivals, we make a whole season of it
Summer in Montreal is known for two things: street construction and festivals. And the city is so used to both, daily life carries on seamlessly around them all summer.
There are the big, internationally known festivals, like Just For Laughs, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and Osheaga. The weeklong festivals will have events dotted all over the downtown core, making it easy for locals and tourists to curate their own experience and take in the city at the same time.
While Quebec City boasts the largest music festival in Canada — the 11-day-long Festival d'ete de Québec — with a top capacity of 125 thousand people — Osheaga is the most culturally relevant music fest in the country. It's held on Saint Helen's Island, just one metro stop from downtown, in the gorgeous Parc Jean-Drapeau.
But Montreal doesn't stop there. Every weekend of the summer, Montreal offers free street festivals celebrating every culture and passion imaginable. As a Montrealer, I've personally wandered into multiple street fests entirely by accident.
Montreal street fashion >>>
Don't get me wrong, you're going to find dapper dressers in every major city in Canada. But Montreal has taken Canadian street fashion from an art to a lifestyle.
Even in the harsh winter weather, while the rest of Canada is hidden in ski jackets and anonymous parkas, Montrealers manage to bundle up in a way that still turns heads. But when the weather gets just a bit warmer, Montrealers get to really turn up and turn out.
Picture the effortless, practical chic of Paris mixed with the gritty creativity of New York City. Montrealers know that you don't have to choose between style and function. It is entirely possible (and dare I say, easy) to pull a fit and still be comfy.
And sorry-not-sorry, I don't know if the rest of Canada has gotten the memo.
Our architecture is iconic
Another way that Montreal boasts its East Coast culture with a European twist is in its absolutely unique architecture. The city has managed to preserve its history while continuing to innovate, making the city a bit of a jumble of eras — all while always looking distinctly like Montreal.
Old Montreal is a must-see for tourists. The oldest building still standing dates back to the 1680s, with most of the neighbourhood being built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Much of the area is closed to traffic, making it possible to walk down the cobblestone streets and into the past.
But even outside of Old Montreal, the city is full of beautiful Gothic-style churches and repurposed monastic buildings, which you just don't see outside of Quebec.
In the past century, Montreal has become known for its gorgeous walk-ups with exterior staircases, along with its mid-century experimentation. Habitat 67 and the Olympic Stadium are both examples that have stood the test of time.
More recently, Montreal has continued its tradition of out-of-the-box construction with the Underground City and the BAnQ.
Out of all of Canada, Montreal does the best job of organically embracing its own past, present, and future in its architecture.
We do Hockey Night like no other city
I don't personally follow sports. But even I know that the Montreal Canadiens are doing well this season. I know because Hockey Night in Montreal is so ubiquitous, even by Canadian standards, that I'd have to be living under a rock not to know this.
Folks are wearing their Habs jerseys like uniforms. Habs flags are flying from cars, outside people's homes, and outside of shops and restaurants.
What's more, I know every time the Habs score a goal, because even from home I can hear people cheering from the pubs two blocks from my house.
Last week, the crowd outside of the Bell Centre was so large and rowdy that they literally triggered a mini-earthquake when the Canadiens scored. I'm not joking. Tens of thousands of people all jumped up at once, triggering local seismographs.
Can Toronto's love of the Maple Leafs be measured on the Richter scale? I think not.
Our work-life balance is peak
For a city to have work-life balance, it needs two things: to have a healthy work culture, and to have a healthy leisure/entertainment culture.
Vancouver, Ottawa, and Halifax aren't grinding their professionals into dust, but there's very little to do after work or on the weekends. Some very cool new venues are starting to crop up in Ottawa, but overall, it's very quiet. Vancouver is known to only be fun for athletic nature-lovers, and Halifax... ouf.
Toronto has an excellent arts and music scene, but between the terrifyingly high cost of living downtown, the long work hours, and the endless commuter traffic to more affordable areas, who has the time, let alone the energy?
Montreal, more than any other Canadian city, has mastered the balance of work and play. Quebec's workers' rights are some of the best in the country, and we have places to be after we clock out for the evening.
Montreal is the best place in Canada for celebrities to visit
Montreal doubles as New York in a lot of movies, so it's not uncommon to spot actors and directors in line at Starbucks.
But even outside of the film industry, a lot of celebrities travel to Montreal for fun because of our general attitude surrounding celebrities here. It's a very artsy city, with up-and-coming artists and household names alike performing and exhibiting all the time.
It's not uncommon for Montrealers to have at least one story of hanging out with a musician before they were on the radio, or walking into a house party and finding a semi-famous person hanging out in the kitchen with the host's cat.
As a result, we're not likely to get totally starstruck when we see an A-lister out in public. This has led a lot of musicians, in particular, to stick around in Montreal while on tour when their schedules allow for it, just because they can hang out without being mobbed or photographed.
Admittedly, there are a few very funny stories of certain celebrities who were outraged by the lack of special treatment they received in Montreal, but for the most part, public figures love visiting Montreal because of our down-to-Earth celebrity culture.
The only exception to this I can personally remember was in 2017 when Justin Trudeau took Obama out to one of his favourite pubs downtown. Folks really embarrassed themselves that night.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
