Montreal is different from the regions
The Journal has a brief resumé of an interview with one Kevin Paquette, a business consultant whose company, despite his plea for saving Quebec culture, is called Crestview Strategy. Paquette was interviewed on what he sees as a deep cultural and linguistic gap between Montreal and the rest of Quebec.
I don’t think that’s exactly a startling insight.
Paquette ends by saying Montreal must reconnect itself to the regions. I wonder what that would look like to someone like Paquette. He says “les gens ne vivent vraiment pas la même réalité quotidienne.” Well yeah. Montreal’s not a small town or a farming village. Our difference from our regions can be likened to the difference in lifestyle between city and rural life anywhere in the world.
Second thoughts after writing this: the reality in the regions is you drive everywhere because you have to. In the city, you can live comfortably without a car. Would I “reconnect to the regions” better if I drove a pickup truck?
MarcG 17:48 on 2026-01-30 Permalink
Anti-urbanism dovetails with the rise in fascism.
Ian 19:44 on 2026-01-30 Permalink
Do you mean urbanism as in urban design, or urbanism as in urban vs rural populism?
MarcG 08:45 on 2026-01-31 Permalink
Door #2
Ian 17:31 on 2026-01-31 Permalink
In that case yes, I suspect you are right. The “big city” is always a stand-in for “corrupting foreign influences”