Here’s my piece on that great city in the Montreal Gazette. Incidentally, we were there on Thursday evening en route to a delightful event with a terrific group of faculty, students, and alumnae at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Point is, Montreal has an energy which is just infectious…
We are living through a great turning point in world history. In just a few short months, our economy and our society are on their way to being transformed.
The U.S. and Canadian stock exchanges have lost as much as a third of their value. Gone are the days when regions will grow wealthy from ephemeral finance capital. Only those that build their real economy from the only true capital we possess - the creative energy of our people - will enjoy sustainable prosperity.
Gone, too, are the days when one’s identity can be purchased literally off the shelf through designer brands and a Sex and the City lifestyle. Times are tight, credit is no longer freely available, and the house is no longer an infinite piggy bank that can be used to finance luxury consumption. The regions that will succeed and be attractive are those that offer history, authenticity, and realism - and where the price tag is more affordable.
Montreal is well-positioned not just to weather the economic storm but to flourish in the long run. The city and its surrounding region have underlying economic and social capacities which, if properly harnessed, will position them to develop a truly sustainable prosperity and perhaps to serve as a model for other regions in Canada.
By no means am I trying to pooh-pooh the problems facing Montreal. Some of them stem from external economic forces, while others are self-inflicted - and I’ll get to them in a moment. But Montreal has not just the opportunity but the obligation - to itself, Canada, and the world - to lead the way out of the current financial crisis.
With credit tight and in some cases unavailable, the real economy, real people, and real creativity replace finance capital as the new coin of the realm. …
The rest is here.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
As a creative Montrealer, I really loved getting your perspective on this city…I also have a question for you and your readers…
Many artist friends have told me that they find Montreal to be an inspiring, nurturing community, yet there is no money to be made from the arts in Montreal. I think that this is partially a language issue: the local audience available for English arts is tiny; yet the global reach of French media is also a small pool. Consquently you have Anglos singing in French to score some radio time, and Francophones grumbling about the lack of grants for English language arts in Quebec. Meanwhile, everybody still needs a day job, and if they are not fluently bilingual, it is probably pretty dull.
I’ve always perceived there to be a great transience among creative Montrealers (especially anglos.) The Arcade Fire story is emblematic of Montreal in more than one way: students and artists from around the country flock to Montreal to find that spark of creativity - and then move on when it comes time for the “real world”. Even born-and-raised Montrealers will often stay in the city out of love rather than any great opportunity.
Is transience characteristic of other creative cities? What impact does this have on the city’s ability to get ahead of the curve?
October 19th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Great article.
Alanah, you raise a valid issue and I’ve noticed the same phenomenon. I always joke that I wish I went to McGill, so that I could have been a student in Montreal. But post-school, there just doesn’t seem to be the opportunities in Montreal.
I think the issue of infrastructure, particularly the idea of high-speed rail, is critical. As evidenced by Canada’s first national railway, which “unified” the east and west, trains have huge socio-political impacts. And as the last Canadian election showed, Quebec votes like it’s its own country.
Maybe a Great Canadian High-Speed Rail Project is what is needed to bring our linguistically fragmented country together. Hey, if England and France can do it, why can’t Ontario and Quebec do it?
October 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I thought the article was a great one, and I think I agree with the theory in general. Sadly, it is true that anglophone artists in Montreal get almost no support. Our bilingual & multicultural critical arts festival, http://www.infringementfestival.com, has run for 5 years and has never received a penny in support from any level of government. Our sister fest in Buffalo, NY, on the other hand, is the biggest in the city and gets ample coverage, and probably some support. The fact that we run a fest with over 100 acts on less than a grand attests to the fact that the city is creative, but it doesn’t bode well for non-capitalist, non-corporate, or critical artists. Many of the organizers struggle just to stay afloat, so it was refereshing to read that there are theorists out there who are thinking about us. However, who will protect the artists from the gentrification that is driving them out? There needs to be a system of checks and balances to protect the creative classes from capitalist exploitation, otherwise these cities will end up stale and dull, hollow shells of their previous existence.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
thanks for spelling Bishop’s correctly, now if we could get La Press to do it too!