Leonard Cohen's Montréal Will Always Be Ma Ville

Although Cohen left to find adventure and fame outside the city, he maintained a house in Montréal's Plateau-Mont-Royal district, which he returned to regularly.

Leonard Cohen with the song, “Suzanne,” filled with references to Montréal, symbolizes the changes Cohen undergoes, including moving down from Upper Westmount—where he was born—into the City of Montréal.

“The streets change swiftly, the skyscrapers climb into silhouettes against the Saint Lawrence, but it is somehow unreal and nobody believes it, because in Montreal there is no present tense, there is only the past claiming victories."
—Leonard Cohen, The Favourite Game (1963)

Leonard Cohen was known around the world, his songs filled with poetry, pulling at the heartstrings and speaking of the emotional stirrings of love, longings, acceptance and belonging. We tend to want to belong somewhere, a place where we can be our true selves, a place that is home.

At heart, Leonard Cohen [1934-2016] was a Montrealer, un vrai Montréalais, which is where he belonged and where I place him. He was born in Montréal and he is buried in Montréal, not far from where he was born (Strictly speaking, Westmount is a suburban community on the Island of Montréal, even though it is close to downtown.) In between the twin markers for all of us is a life filled with triumphs and adversity; love and loss; friendships and betrayal; tears of happiness and of loss. And so much more.

I will not discuss these life markers here about Cohen, because, being in the public spotlight, many articles have been written about such parts of his life—the sum of the parts not making up the whole, chiefly because human beings are not mathematical or geometric models, where one plus one equals two.

This is important to bring up in light of the fear of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), which says it all. It is not human intelligence but an attempt at replication. I do not fear A.I., but I do find the hype around it an annoyance. It is not that AI will become human, but that humans will become more like machines, think more like a computer does. That is all I am going to say on A.I. here, because I plan to post an essay later on, one dedicated to computer tech and how it has influenced our way of being and of communicating.

What I do want to discuss now in general is the city, and most particularly give a sense of the neighbourhood, in which Leonard Cohen spent much time. It is also where I grew up for the first twelve years of my life, and where many of my best memories were made. Surprising to some, perhaps, this area of Montréal did not change much from his time to my time, although there is a generation difference in when we were born and Cohen grew up in Westmount and only later on explored and took to this area of Montréal. Time stood still for a long time in Montréal or rather, the landmarks that Montrealers have come to know a way to get one’s bearing have remained the same.

Lac aux Castors or Beaver Lake near the top of Mont-Royal. This is a place where I spent many summer days, and winter ones, as well. And many days in between. During the hot months of the summer, our family, on many a Sunday, would walk up from our home on Park Avenue to come here to picnic, and where as a treat we would get ice cream at the chalet, which is the wooden structure seen in the background. Photo by Wikipedia

First and foremost is “the mountain,” Mont-Royal, the centre-piece of the city, with its trees, birds, squirrels, chipmunks and other sentient beings. The mountain is the focus of life, where life is abundant and a sanctuary of natural beauty, a refuge from the urban density of concrete, glass and steel. It is where the smells and sounds of our natural world can be found. The mountain is the central place of Montréal, the place where we get our bearings and our focus.

It is also on Mont-Royal where a large metal cross illuminated by lights sits; in 1924, the steel cross replaced the wooden cross that Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, erected in 1643, a year after the founding of Montreal, in 1642, the fifth oldest city in Canada. The cross can be seen pretty much from any place in the city; it was certainly visible when I was growing up within walking distance of it, from the bottom of the mountain on av du Parc, or Park Avenue as we then called it.

Not far from the mountain, within walking distance is where the triplex home of Cohen’s was located, at 28 Rue de Vallières, a modest building which is squarely situated in the Plateau Mont-Royal district and right across Parc Portugal. This is a few minutes’ walk to the Main (or “la Main” in French), which is what Saint-Laurent Boulevard is called by the locals. Cohen’s residence sits east of The Main, which places it on the French side of the city. Or what was traditionally the dividing line between the French (the majority francophones) and the English (the minority anglophones, of which I am a part). There are also the allophones whose mother tongue (langue maternelle) is neither French nor English.

I know this area very well, because I grew up a few blocks north and west of here, in an adjacent district called Mile End. I lived on av du Parc between Mont-Royal and Villeneuve, five minutes from the mountain (Mont-Royal) and across from Dairy Queen. The mountain and Fletcher’s Field (now called Parc Jeanne-Mance) were my playgrounds. As were the streets in the neighbourhood Going east to Jeanne-Mance, L’Esplanade, St.-Urbain and west to Hutchison; going north to Villeneuve, St.-Joseph, Laurier, Fairmont, St.-Viateur and all the way to Bernard; and south to Mont-Royal, Marie-Anne, Rachel and Duluth, which was close to the southern boundary of the large park. This park is where many of my memories were formed.

One of Four Lions guarding the Sir George-Étienne Cartier Monument, by sculptor George William Hill (1862–1934), with depiction of George-Étienne Cartier, located in Mount Royal Park. I have many fond memories playing on and around these lions. Photo by Wikipedia

There is, as well, all of the places of business that we shared, and were well-known to locals: Bagel Etc., The Main Deli, (now closed), Schreter’s Clothing Store, Les Anges Gourmets and Moishes Steakhouse (closed and re-opened downtown), a bit too high-end for me and my beer budget, but I was there once, about 30 years ago, when a friend invited me for dinner. And of course the street itself, boul St.-Laurent, St. Lawrence Blvd, The Main, dividing the city by its English-French roots. English to the west; French to the east. Jews tended to follow the English, because way back when Jews were not allowed to attend French Catholic schools, so the Jews (myself included) attended English Protestant schools.

In July 1998, these religious school boards, which were part of Quebéc’s identity since 1841, twenty-six years before Confederation and the founding of Canada in 1867, were abolished and changed to conform to the changes that had informed Québec since la révolution tranquille (“The Quiet Revolution”). This revolution of the socio-economic sort began in June 1960 with the election of the the forward-thinking government of Jean Lesage, who was leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec or more appropriate to its French name, Parti libéral du Québec, or PLQ. This is an old political party, which was founded on the day of Canadian Confederation, July 1, 1867.

With the election of the Quebec Liberals, many changes were made to bring the province of Québec (and its French-speaking majority) into the modern age, which for all intents and purposes moved it away from the dominance of the Catholic Church. The former religious confessional school boards were replaced with linguistic ones. Language still remains an issue in Québec, and the linguistic tensions likely date to 1759 and the Plains of Abraham, where the decisive battle was fought, and where the British under the command of General Wolfe defeated the French under the command of General Montcalm. Both generals subsequently died of wounds sustained in war. The war led to the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

The battle lines remain, at least politically and emotionally, fed by history, both from this time period and of more recent vintage. The French or francophone are the majority in the province of Québec, but since the victory of the British the Majority French speakers felt (and were at times treated) like second-class citizens in a land that they founded, including la Ville de Montréal (the City of Montreal). It might help win elections, but Montréal remains Montréal for reasons that supersede politics. And, yet, having lived in Toronto for more than ten years, I not only understand, but greatly sympathize why the Quebecois want to protect their french language and culture. One professor explained it this way: “Québec is an island in a sea of English.”

Yes, there is a government agency, l’Office québécois de la langue française. Yes, it was formed as part of la Charte de la langue française, adopted by the Quebec government (l’Assemblée nationale du Québec) on June 1, 1977, and amended on June 1, 2022, with more stringent measures. I remember the fear and hand-wringing among members of the anglo community back in 1976, after the the Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, defeated the incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Premier Robert Bourassa. I remember the closing of head offices and many English-speaking people heading down the 401 to Toronto, vowing to never return.

I was not one of them, and I had no thoughts of ever doing so, because although I travelled a lot for work (1983–1993), I was always happy to return home. I have memories of the plane circling in for a landing, Montreal’s skyline coming closer into view. This always gave me great comfort. I was returning home; my life was wedded to the city. I did move, however, 35 years later, in 2012, encouraged by my wife, who was not a native of Montréal. A move I soon regretted, because Toronto is not Montréal. And Montréal is where I feel most at home.

It is clearly French, and thankfully so, because its French culture, cuisine, architecture and way of thinking are what defines and shapes the City; yet, it is also English in some ways, but thankfully not in the same way Toronto, Ottawa or Vancouver are, and I say this with the utmost sincerity and seriousness. The hardliners on both sides might find fault with the status quo, although the regular majority of people find it all good and well. No need to mess things up. Yes, the tension remains, and this tension, I believe, is also the fount of creativity that makes Montréal the city of artists and of immense talent, Leonard Cohen being a notable example.

There is a reason why Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, William Shatner, Oliver Jones, Oscar Peterson, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Robert Charlesbois, Harmonium, Beau Dommage, Michel Pagliaro, Céline Dion, Corey Hart, Gino Vannelli, Denys Arcand, Arcade Fire, and the Cirque de Soleil all came out of Montréal. It’s the water, the air, the food, the culture, the people. It is all of these things and so much more that is hard to describe, to put into words, that one can only truly apprehend by living here.

Cities change, and Montréal is no exception, as it has increased its population, but it has been spared the major fundamental changes found in many other large cities, such as Toronto, which has expanded too quickly and without any thought for beauty and aesthetics. Even so, thankfully, Montréal remains the same, and certainly in its character, its essence, its joie-de-vivre, in my mind and in my memories. It might seem strange that Cohen had to leave Montréal in order to find Montréal, which he always found place for, and time, too.

As I still do. One must always find time for one’s heart. I also hope to return. If this sounds like a cri du cœur, well, you can take it as just that. I did not know then, back in 2012, that when I left Montréal, I was leaving a magical city. I will end here with a song befitting a city I love, and one symbolizing the music of Leonard Cohen. Here is Pop’s Poet Laureate singing “Hallelujah” at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place-des-Arts, at one of his three prelude concerts (June 23 to 25) to the 2008 Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Merci et à bientôt.

Born at 315 ppm

Now at 425 ppm