As a kid, I used to love going to the cabane a sucre in Montreal to go sugaring off with our school. Sleigh rides, hot maple syrup, pour that syrup on snow and you got yourself some taffy. Need I say more?
The excitement of the fans in Montreal, especially in the playoffs, I don’t think you can get that anywhere else. For a hockey player, I kind of wish everyone could go through that and experience what it is to play there. It’s very unique.
Montreal is just so multicultural and ethnic and diverse, and it’s what makes us special. I say ‘us’ like I still live there, but I still do feel like a Montrealer.
In Montreal, when I grew up, I’d go to the Notre-Dame Basilica, a gorgeous cathedral in town. I’d listen to huge symphony orchestras, Pavarotti singing operas; that was absolutely marvelous. I like that aspect of the cathedral, the spectacle.
Montreal is a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated, erudite, educated, glorious city today. But it wasn’t quite that way when I was growing up there. There was a lot of anti-Semitism. And I had to deal with that in an area of the city that had very few Jews.
Yes, I worked in Montreal. I worked there for 20 years… I came back to Beauce in 2006 to represent the Beaucerons.
After moving from Montreal (where French vs.English is the only conflict) to New York (where everyone is obsessed with race) it was impossible to ignore how intellectually lazy and knee-jerk people are when it comes to any mention of ethnicity.
The feeling being back in Montreal, it will never change. Montreal’s going to be home because of the relationships that I’ve built here.
And some places you been before are so great that you don’t ever mind going back. Some places you been before you don’t ever want to go back, you know, like Montreal in the Winter.
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