Depending on how you look at things, Montrealers can be considered a pretty optimistic bunch.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, according to the recently released annual World Happiness Report<\/a>, Canada has slipped to 25th among countries.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you separate Quebec, they\u2019d be fifth,\u201d observed Gazette columnist and author Josh Freed<\/a>, who is this week\u2019s guest on The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand at the Snowdon Deli.<\/p>\n \u201cQuebecers know that despite all of our complaining, we have a lot to be happy about.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, will Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon take those happiness rankings to heart? Freed thinks the rosy outlook might actually be more of an anglophone thing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to Quebec I find, especially when it comes to Montreal in particular, I think anglos and francos are different at complaining, potholes aside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnglos complain about stupid language legislation. But most of us like or love the city. I think that\u2019s why we live on island. But francophones have been fleeing for the last 10 years to the South Shore because they\u2019re tired of Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest gripe, and one that comes up every spring thaw, is about cleanliness. Or lack thereof.<\/p>\n Headlines will vary greatly. You\u2019ll have Montrealers shouting out our \u201cfantastic city\u201d on television while accepting an Oscar<\/a> or the New York Times hailing us a \u201crotisserie chicken heaven.\u201d<\/a> But you\u2019ll also get pundits lamenting the sorry state of the roads and lack of garbage pickup.<\/p>\n \u201cMontrealers are exhausted by the end of winter. We\u2019re just too tired to lift the garbage and put it in a garbage can,\u201d Freed said.<\/p>\n But he also suggested a public education campaign<\/a>, or even more fines, could encourage locals to be more mindful of where they dump their trash. More bins would also help.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll walk 11 blocks before I see a garbage can,\u201d Freed said.<\/p>\n This week, the city rolled back a pilot project to remove bins at Parc La Fontaine<\/a>.<\/p>\n And while Freed might get a tinge of jealousy when he visits tidier locales during his travels, like Japan or Switzerland, Montreal\u2019s penchant for rule-breaking is part of the special sauce that keeps him here.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s in our character,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest, one of the things I like about Montreal is that it\u2019s a really chaotic city.\u201d<\/p>\n The Corner Booth is also available on The Gazette\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a> and on Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Depending on how you look at things, Montrealers can be considered a pretty optimistic bunch. On the one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[205352,205351,49,48,204571,214162,2338,196260,205355],"class_list":["post-551246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-aaron-rand","tag-bill-brownstein","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dave-sidaway","tag-josh-freed","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-gazette","tag-snowdon-deli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}