“Anglo Reality Check” was Global News’ four-part series looking into the reality of life for Anglophones in Quebec. The series aired in November 2012.
MONTREAL – Julie Kristof left Quebec for university with every intention of moving back – then she ended up living in Toronto and Halifax for 15 years.
Kristof finally came home 4 years ago and she couldn’t be happier.
“It’s not unusual to find that there is at least two languages being spoken interchangeably, if not three, which I find incredible,” she said. “I honestly didn’t know that I missed that until I came back.”
Shared love of Montreal
Kristof is not alone. More and more Anglophones are finding their way back to the province for the very reason many of their friends and colleagues left: language and the charm that comes of the unique mix of French and English.
“It’s an utterly unique city in North America,” said Montreal-based journalist, Josh Freed, who often writes about life in Quebec.
“It’s a big glowing French city with a massive French population but also a huge English population and it’s by and large bilingual.”
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Add to that the multiculturalism, the joie de vivre, the cosmopolitan vibe, the terraces and the food – and you have a winning combination that’s hard to beat . . . even with all the politics looming overhead.
“Despite politics despite what I see as some xenophobic policies in the current government there is a melding of cultures in Montreal that does not happen in any other place,” noted Kristof.
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And Josh Freed agrees.
“This is a city you can love even though it’s aggravating you all the time. It’s just that kind of place it gets into your soul into your heart, despite the problems. We’re really lucky. I hopes it stays that way.”
Politics means more charm
In fact Freed insists that if it weren’t for all the aggravation and politics, Montreal would have lost its charm years ago.
“The PQ has held us back just enough so we are a very liveable city, a remarkable liveable city, a special city – and it makes it a city you love to be in,” affirmed Freed.
This sentiment couldn’t be more true for Kristof.
Her love affair with Montreal was rekindled almost instantly when she returned to Quebec.
“When I moved back to Montreal I didn’t realize how much I missed the language,” she admitted.
“I didn’t realize how much I miss the bigness of Montrealers, the loudness of Montrealers.”
That bigness, that loudness, that uniqueness, all wrapped in a community within a community.
“The flag of Montreal is a symbol as what I aspire to as a Montrealer and a Quebecer,” said Anne Lagace-Dowson, director general of the anti-bullying Tolerance Foundation and broadcast journalist and political analyst.
“The lily for the French, the shamrock for the Irish, the thistle for the Scots, the rose for the British.”
A melting pot of cultures, languages and communities, all saddled in the one of the world’s only bilingual cities. It may be what truly defines us as a distinct society.
The Parti Quebecois Minister for Anglo relations has responded to the series. Watch the interview here.
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