Scary Seagull Prices

If I remember correctly when I was in Toronto for Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages Theater (I fell in love with Toronto at that time - what a clean city!) one USD got us about $1.25 Canadian. I was happy, we bought some new camera lenses due to the exchange rate, found the police horse stables and they let the American tourists pet the horses, and just to make my life complete there was a Star Trek convention in town the same weekend! (This was in the mid 1990s.) I also loved that the trollies ran about every 15 minutes for about 25 cents and you could go all over town! What great public transportation! If that was available in this country I probably wouldn't own a car.

Phil Ochs' cousin was my dissertation chair.

As a Montrealer, If I lived in downtown Toronto core, I would be on suicide watch.

I've been to Toronto several times as we have friends who live there. I like the city a lot -- wouldn't necessarily want to live there, anymore than I'd want to live in New York or Boston or LA or other huge cities, but I've enjoyed my visits there.  People are friendly, the city tends to be far cleaner than any city that size in the US, the public transportation is decent (unlike that in Cincinnati, where I live), and there's lots to do and some wonderful diversity.  I've enjoyed my visits there.

I've only been to Montreal once, but didn't get the same warm feeling from my visit -- mostly because twice I went into stores where the staff utterly refused to speak anything other than French to me (I don't speak or understand much French beyond a few phrases), and pretended they couldn't understand my English. Mind you, when left one of those stores, I heard one clerk I'd been trying to talk to say to another (in perfect English) "So, what are you planning to do tonight?"  

On the other hand, when Denise and I visited France, we found the majority of Parisians and the French in general very friendly and accommodating, and we always managed to find ways to communicate across the language barrier. 

In contrast to both Toronto and France, Montreal was cold (not in the temperature sense) and unfriendly. I know it's not fair to judge an entire city based on one visit, but..

Oh, don't get me started on Toronto.  It used to be a great city, I used to love it. But now, I won't set foot in there unless you pay me, ... big time.  lol.  And I live right beside it.

I can't stand driving there, I can't stand the transit system, can't stand all the shootings, can't stand just too many things about that city.   Now.....ahem....of course........"get off my lawn!"