Well, I feel Montreal, for many years, was paralyzed by its political issues and I felt that it wasn’t evolving like other cities. We lost a lot of people to other big cities in North America that were just young people, well-educated people to other cities where they thought they might prosper there faster than in Montreal. What’s changed is that has changed. Montreal is much more sophisticated now.

Montreal is on the map worldwide for business, culture, its diversity, its openness. One aspect of Montreal I find that’s not discussed enough is the fact that we’re a safe city. There’s a whole aspect of it that has to do with a comfort here, a comfort of expression. You could say anything you want in Montreal. You can say it however you want in Montreal whether it’s artistically, whether it’s through music, through word. No one would criticize me for writing the wrong book. Everyone would kind of probably just ask me why I wrote that book. But it certainly always feels safe, from an artistic point of view, in Montreal as well.