[Martin Mtl]

Just wanted t share this one with you (it's not mine though)

 

[Canuck 36]

Lovely, fantastic city.

Canada should be proud having such international cities with such unique flare; such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

 

[Martin Mtl]

 

[samplain]

That 2nd pics rocks.

Shows how Montreal is such a compact city with a very human scale.

 

[Observer Walt]

Martin Mtl: Thanks for these pictures. It's fun to pick out landmarks.

Blocks and blocks of flat-roofed rowhouse-walkups ... a distinctive Montreal type of architecture. We don't have many of those in Toronto.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Ah- mont royal. I spent many an evening gazing at the skyline from the Chateau steps.

 

[Christopher DeWolf]

here are two even better aerials of the island...

 

[ronald1987]

^ Thanks for my new desktop background

 

[PUTOTO]

I think Montreal is the only city in Canada, among the top 3, has the geography with a grand& perfect(?) feeling to it. It just looks really awesome from above, even without many skyscrapers.
In comparison, Vancouver also has the vast coastal plain(?) kind of geography with rivers and mountains in the distance, but its size is too small for a grand city (only the narrow northern 2/3 of Fraser Loweland).
When I look at Toronto's geography, it is a little unnecessarily hilly + simply slopping up(expanding) to one side. Most of all, its geography has almost no mountains or rivers standing out at all..

I love Montreal for many reasons including beautiful & grand architecture and the great geography.
And many times I thought it's almost a shame that we're wasting that land like an abandoned city. i.e. just a beautiful version of Detroit.
I honestly believe it's time for Canadiens to repeal the Bill 101 in Quebec or at least in Montreal, and put this great vessel to good use, like New York City in the U.S.

 

[Tewder]

I think Montreal is the only city in Canada, among the top 3, has the geography with a grand& perfect(?) feeling to it. It just looks really awesome from above, even without many skyscrapers.
In comparison, Vancouver also has the vast coastal plain(?) kind of geography with rivers and mountains in the distance, but its size is too small for a grand city (only the narrow northern 2/3 of Fraser Loweland).
When I look at Toronto's geography, it is a little unnecessarily hilly + simply slopping up(expanding) to one side. Most of all, its geography has almost no mountains or rivers standing out at all..

I love Montreal for many reasons including beautiful & grand architecture and the great geography.
And many times I thought it's almost a shame that we're wasting that land like an abandoned city. i.e. just a beautiful version of Detroit.
I honestly believe it's time for Canadiens to repeal the Bill 101 in Quebec or at least in Montreal, and put this great vessel to good use, like New York City in the U.S.

Hamilton has a great location too, in fact. I hope it will be (re)discovered at some point too.

As for Toronto its location on the shore of Lake Ontario, its islands and inner harbour are all very beautiful when combined with the most spectacular skyline in Canada. Hands down... not to say I don't love Montreal or Vancouver because I do.

 

[PUTOTO]

Hamilton has a great location too, in fact. I hope it will be (re)discovered at some point too.

As for Toronto its location on the shore of Lake Ontario, its islands and inner harbour are all very beautiful when combined with the most spectacular skyline in Canada. Hands down... not to say I don't love Montreal or Vancouver because I do.

Canada as a nation has to choose the best possible option open to itself.
And I don't think GTA's geography is the worst of all cities in the world at all, but I think Montreal's geography: the rich and vast lowland with higher mountains (than any other hilly highlands of Ontario), and much greater abundance of rivers and islands tells it's without doubt the best location for a grand centre of Canada to sit on. Like Japanese made their financial/ cultural capital in one of the most rich plaines on the main island of Japan. (Kanto Plain where Tokyo sits on is the largest plain with mountains over 3000m in the west and the great ocean in the east. Tokyo also has some rivers as large as Hudson River (smaller than the St. Lawrence) flowing thru the city.

Not just the geography, but also in terms of "location" on the map, I think Montreal has more merits.
First of all, it has a slightly better & closer access to the ocean. Have you ever seen a cruise ship in Toronto Harbour? Secondly, it has greater distance from our border. (the distance from the border on Lake Ontario shared with the US to City of Toronto is about 25km, from the Quebec/NY border to Montreal it's 55km. Vancouver is just a total humiliation- a border city eh?).

In terms of weather, Montreal is located a little further up north, with milder summer but colder winter. I think this city is more worthy of the title of CANADIAN, than the warmer and hotter city like Toronto (doesn't mean that Miami for example is a much worse city in terms of weather than NYC in the US). It's just that the heart (financial/cultural capital) of Canada should be more snowy "Canadian" in terms of the climate. (and with a cooler summer of course).
Just one thing to add, Montreal is slightly less windy (& calm) all year around than Toronto. (People even including myself probably got used to the windier weather in Toronto and most of the time think of it as normal, but it is actually a really nasty& disturbing condition, that doesn't exist (lowland) cities like New York, Vancouver, L.A., etc)

Then there comes the beautiful Mount Royal "within the city" and the mighty St. Lawrence River and more rivers. And then, I notice we never even talked here about the first thing comes to our mind speaking of Montreal, the beautiful historic architecture no other cities in Canada can battle.

New York City, that Americans chose and succeeded, has it all. Montreal has it all too! except a very essential thing: love from Canadians and the support including continued financial support. It's all Rene Levesque and what made Rene to hate Canada and English language so much to blame I figured.
According to statistics, there are 11.5 Million French speaking residents/descendants in the US, and they are happy to speak English and be part of Americans. Also according to statistics there are about 10 Million French speaking residents in Canada, and they're obssessed with the language and even trying to separate, hating Canada. Funny thing is French people in America speaking English seems to be more stable, secure and satisfied. (only 4% of the population of State of Louisiana is speaking French as home language- they aren't necessarily unhappy, humiliated, or anything.)

Yes, it's all politics and Montreal is so sc***ed up.

This might be a little off topic, but I strongly believe Bill 101 should be gone now, and let Canadiens freely choose what's the most beneficial and efficient for themselves.(even if it means naturally Quebec will become more English-speaking than now). Water naturally flows from mountains to oceans, Gays & Lesbians become naturally who they are. If Quebec is really going to be completely English speaking when Bill 101 is gone (like some extremists say when they defend Bill 101) , then what it is now is that much against the natural order or what it truly should be. In other words, Quebec, is not meant to be French and French only.
The same goes to the largest city competition. Once this linguistic freedom is achieved in Montreal and it becomes officially bilingual, I wouldn't say the country should now fully support Montreal because its vessel deserves more. Let each of Canadians think and choose/head to wherever they think is the best place. I'm sure Montreal will restore its glory and naturally become a New York City of Canada in no time.

 

[junctionist]

For cities, geography isn't an absolute factor for success; the economic activity of their people is much more important, as Jane Jacobs argues shrewdly in The Economy of Cities. Still, the great ravines and grand lake that could be mistaken by a visitor for a sea is hardly an inferior geographic context. There's no majestic process of a nation choosing a city, either. Toronto rose up through its own great economic activity and took over. PUTOTO, your reasons for Montreal deserving to be Canada's great city are all abstract and romantic, when in reality it's clear that Toronto deserves its place as Canada's great metropolis. Is it not admirable that a great city can rise up through its own hard work and go on to reach the most exceptional cultural achievements? Hints started to come over for a long time before its population exceeded that of Montreal in the 1970s, such as the city opening the first subway line in Canada in 1954, bringing Canadians the kind of infrastructure associated with the most significant metropolitan cities.

Montreal is the ancienne métropole. That era of national dominance is over and it's not going to come back. The gap is too wide now and not the result of any particular injustice, politics, or historical wrong. What one was associated with Montreal is really what Toronto is cementing today: the most sophisticated architecture, streetscapes that are both vibrant and beautiful, the best public spaces, the strongest national and cosmopolitan culture, and engaged diversity. Toronto is an amazing city that will win admiration of the country and the world as it continues to refine itself and become more impressively metropolitan. It may even become more bilingual. It's pointless trying to come with abstract and romantic reasons for why Montreal should be the national metropolis when the Toronto of today is such a vibrant and exciting place. Enjoy it and try to advance it.

 

[Tewder]

Yes, the referencing of Hamilton with respect to Montreal was a little deliberate on my part. Both have potential to realize, but certainly not as financial/commercial capitals. Their glory days are past, for the most part... and as for the whole language issue, it has indeed been artificially propped up and it has been and will continue to be both the downfall of Montreal as well as a blessing in many respects.

If there is ever a challenge to Toronto's preeminence it is likely to come from the west and not the east, no matter how much you personally like the geography there.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Have you ever seen a cruise ship in Toronto Harbour?

No, but I've seen one at Yonge and Sheppard.

 

[Goldie]

PUTOTO: "Have you ever seen a cruise ship in Toronto Harbour?"

I know what you're getting at, however here's a "cruise ship", the Cayuga, that many of us experienced during its trips from Toronto to Niagara-on-the-Lake.