I was six years old and growing up in Montreal was pretty cool. My dad had a nice 64 1/2 Mustang. Expo 67 was an eye-opener for a lot of folks here and the city was booming. And in spite of the olympics in 76 which brought another spurt of enthusiasm, the city had a lot of issues similar to Detroit which contributed to its decline.

There were the war measures act where the army was called in for a month scanning the city streets. I was nine years old in october 1970 when that happened. A lot of artists, writers etc... sympathetic with the nationalist cause in Quebec were thrown in jail with their rights suspended. Prime minister Trudeau who was of mixed scotch-french ancestry was a staunch believer in cultural diversity and reacted violently to the idea of a break-up of Canada, even though he was very pro french and anti-establishment in his youth. So when a labor minister in the Quebec governement [[Pierre Laporte assassinated) and british commercial trade commissioner James Cross were kidnapped, Trudeau invoked the war measures act and this all happened. A friend of mine's father was a judge and I remember he had two soldiers posted in front of his house. There wasnt the violence that Detroit lived in 67 but the scars are still there. The cultural divide is still present in Montreal. But it is more harmonious because english montrealers are more prone to speaking french proud in fact of their french slang, their kids are in french immersion even in english schools. The french majority is now in control of many strategic businesses, which for a long time was the unhealthy reserve of the anglo elite.I think that the city is slowly seeing the benefits of this strange cohabitation from 1760 til today. There is more of an oecumenical feeling now that we need to fight for a better city. Besides the fact that Montreal was always cosmopolitan, it is now much more diverse and like Detroit, it has to look to the future and not dwell on past grievances like families holding grudges.