“I know that all of my friends, and we talked about my graduating class and how many people moved to Toronto, and they’ve built wonderful lives, and they’re very successful, but I see it in their faces when they come back to Montreal to visit. They’re missing that foundation, the roots, the fact that this is still where they came from, and everything that they’ve taken to their new homes is still based on all of the values that came from growing up in Montreal. We’re unique. It’s as simple as that.”

“Immediately, when I think of Montreal, its culture. There’s no question that the uniqueness of Montreal is the French and the English, and everything that has come from that, whether it be the food economy, whether it be the political side, the economic side, everything. When I think of Montreal, that’s the first thing that I think of.”

“Now I’m a consultant working with companies on investor relations, strategic, any type of strategic management work with these companies. I’m far from a genius, very far from a genius, but I’ve been very fortunate because I have always had opportunities that came my way.”

“What role did Montreal play? Montreal was huge. And it goes back to a very simple thing, and that’s the importance of your roots, the importance of history, the importance of family, the importance of community.”

“I think that one of the weaknesses that befell Montreal was that people took it for granted that because other cities like Toronto had all the head offices and had the buzz, people didn’t think that there was a lot that was going on in Montreal and I think that a lot of people end up being very surprised by the level of activity that’s taking place in Montreal.”

“It’s a street sign and it’s the street sign of the street where I grew up. So it’s a little bit battered now from all the years that it had been sitting there, but the reason that I brought it, we were able to buy any of the street signs in Côte-Saint-Luc when they changed all of their street signs many years ago. ”

“I was teaching last year and I had this incredible opportunity to teach business communications and 90% of my class were students from India that were just immigrating to Montreal and we talked a lot about why they loved Montreal, why they felt so good about it. And the first thing that I said to them is are you okay with the climate?”

I don’t think that anything that I’ve done could’ve been done without being in Montreal. Montreal, as I started with right at the beginning, is I think one of the major reasons that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done through my career both on the business side and on the community side. Montreal gave me that opportunity and I just want people to know that this city has it all. You don’t need anything more than what’s available in Montreal. All you have to do is look a little bit harder than the way that you would have to look for it in some other cities. It may be hiding, but it’s all there. There’s no question in my mind, Montreal has it all and they definitely can build whatever they want to build here, the same way that they can do anywhere else in North America, on a global basis, we do it all.