A friend of mine raised a good question concerning all of this “where would I go if suddenly the opportunity came up?” drama. She asked, “How about Montreal? Would you ever go back there?”
Montreal is my hometown and it always will be. I spent 26 years of my life there and even though when I was living there, I often wanted to move away, I still respected it and now miss it. Thankfully Ottawa is so close that if I’m ever craving a walk down memory lane, I can just hop in the car and be there in under two hours.
But would I pack up and actually move back? That’s a really tough question.

As much as I love Montreal, I don’t know if career-wise it would be a smart move. There are many factors at play here, both good at bad.
On the Pro side of things, Montreal costs less. From groceries to taxes to the all important cost of housing (including rent and home ownership). Insurance costs less, utilities cost less, and they even have a better cable package. (Videotron’s Illico service let’s you actually pick the channels you want instead of charging you $70 (taxes included) for 300 channels, most of them being repeats or lumped with other channels you don’t want. But I digress…)
Certainly a cable company isn’t reason enough to move back to Montreal — unless you happen to work for that company, and that brings us to a hurdle: work. The English media in Montreal is small — smaller than Ottawa — so your choices are really limited. Of the top English radio stations in the city, three (Virgin Radio 96, CHOM-FM and CJAD-AM) are owned by the same company (Astral Media) and the only English language daily newspaper, The Gazette, seems to keep making cuts to their staff.
For the ever-changing TV market, Montreal has three English choices; CTV (CFCF-12), Global-TV and CBC.
Not a lot of options for someone like me. I do speak French, but probably not well enough anymore to land a job on the French side of media in Montreal. Besides, I feel more comfortable in my own language.
My experience in Toronto and now in Ottawa certainly helps — it’s been my finding that Montreal media occasionally likes to bring in folks who like the city and have worked in other markets — but they also like to “recruit from within”, so to speak.
Going back to the part where I said I don’t know if career-wise moving to Montreal would be a smart move, surely that will ruffle a few feathers as many Montrealers have had long and illustrious careers in the media there. A majority of them never moved away leaving a nearly eight year gap. It’s hard to just decide to move back and jump into the game when there are players who have been doing their thing for many years.
And, let’s not ignore the elephant in the room. There’s the issue of politics which is always a hot-button for Montreal and Quebec. I don’t notice it so much now, living close to Gatineau, but I do remember what it was like when I was in the middle of it in Montreal.
Sooner or later, the Parti Québécois will come back into power (sadly, it’s unavoidable) and while it won’t drive the English-speaking people from the province, it makes for a tougher economic environment as well as a somewhat unpleasing atmosphere knowing that the people running the province are looking to break up the country that prints the money they enjoy spending. But I don’t feel like getting into that right now.
Still, these are all things I think about. The idea of living in Montreal again is great. It’s an amazing city, filled with many memories, but honestly right now at this point in my life, there’s a greater chance of my heading back to Toronto than Montreal.
So, hopefully that answers that question. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be visiting my hometown for my birthday this week.
And just for old time’s sake…. Go Habs Go!


And let’s not forget how BOTH the Citizen and the Ottawa Sun ran FRONT PAGE stories about the Bell Sens Soirée fundraiser and splashed pictures of Fisher and Underwood across the cover as if it was the Second Coming of Christ.
Alanis Morissette Multi-award winning singer/songwriter who is largely responsible for launching the angry girl movement of the mid 90’s grunge and alternative eras. After two bubble gum pop records, Ottawa native Morissette returned in 1995 with
Dan Aykroyd Actor, writer, winemaker, one half of the Blues Brothers. Whether he’s Dr. Ray Stanz fighting ghosts and marshmallow men or Jake Blues,
Paul Anka Singer, songwriter, composer and music icon. Mr. Anka shows no signs of slowing down after an outstanding career writing and performing some of the more memorable songs of all time. And when it came time for Johnny Carson to be
Tom Green Some might think of Green as Ottawa’s dirty little secret, but you have to give the man credit. When he’s not pulling pranks or dating Drew Barrymore, Tom Green makes movies and TV show appearances all because he had a small, local talk-show on Rogers TV (Cable 22) back in 1994. He has since moved on and made it “big” in the United States with shows on MTV and of course a rather memorable role in the hit comedy Road Trip and a not-so-memorable role in Freddy Got Fingered. Still, he’s a household name and a big-name star and keeps finding new ways of (sort of) reinventing himself.
Sarah Chalke You may remember her from Scrubs or Roseanne or have seen her most recently on How I Met Your Mother. But when you talk about actress Sarah Chalke, you have to mention the fact that she’s from Ottawa. Yes, she did move away to British Columbia, but as far as Ottawa exports go, Capital City did pretty well by her. And while she has never achieved super stardom, she has always remained employed and worked very hard to keep her status as a bankable and likable actress on both the small and big screens.
Mike Bullard Maybe not the biggest or best comedian in Canada — it seems many people have a rather strong opinion of Bullard — but I happen to like him and he was nice to me when I was on his show back in 1999. Oh, and he’s from Ottawa too. Say what you will, but how many of you had
Margaret Atwood Probably one of the greatest writers our country has ever produced and as luck would have it, she’s from Ottawa. Ms. Atwood has had articles published in countless magazines and publications — including (another little known fact) Playboy magazine. Ms. Atwood is the recipient of the Order of Canada,
Lorene Greene Often referred to as the Grandfather of Canadian Broadcasting, many will remember Mr. Greene for his New Wilderness program or from his roles on Bonanza and the original Battlestar Galatica. He was born in Ottawa and went on to become the principal newsreader for CBC where he earned the nickname the Voice of Canada. He also was a narator and actor for both TV and film. Sadly, he passed away in 1987, but his mark has been left on Canadian media and broascasting, as well as film and television for generations to come.

Since before moving to Ottawa, I had gotten used to my world changing at the drop of a hat. From everything being fine one day, to changing almost completely the next. Plans that were almost a sure-fire hit, became nothing more than a distant memory. And you would think with that much going on, I would have become used to changes by now. But that’s not the case at all.


Thanks to 





My collection of Bridgehead latte cups
I just wanted to clear a few things up
Make no mistake about it: Ottawa is a bicycle friendly city. So much so that even a foot of snow won’t stop some die-hard cycle-heads from hitting the streets with their bikes, ready for whatever mother-nature can throw at them.














So in an effort to show her a different side of Ottawa, I found 


Last night’s
It was a long time coming. This blog needed a new name and now it has one. The new name, along with the new look, reflects the promised changes.
Every year since 2002 when I moved to Toronto, I’ve been making an effort to spend at least two weeks in Montreal with my family for Christmas. It hasn’t always been easy — some of you might remember












I’m back from Toronto and Montreal and what a wonderful surprise. My first official winter in Ottawa began with the dumping of snow in my driveway and it just went downhill from there. But I can say that I enjoyed my days in Toronto and my brother’s 30th birthday celebration was nice, albeit quiet. (Really, I was expecting him to make a big deal out of it, but he didn’t feel like doing much by the time I got to town. He did however say he was glad I came.)
Don’t let my being 300+ kilometers away fool you — I keep my ear to the ground when it comes to things happening in Ottawa. (Okay, truth be told a friend told me this, and I also looked it up on line.)
Remember
Over the next week, since I’ll be in Toronto and Montreal, I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to blog. I’ll try my best, but I can’t promise anything. Although I already have a few post ideas in mind, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to make the time, which is a sad comment on how busy things can get sometimes.
This week is going to be “one of those weeks”. Not one of those bad weeks, but rather one of those busy weeks. While most of you will trudge through a five day work-week, I will only have to deal with a two-day week. That’s right. My week ends on Tuesday night.
The New Hotness that is the OC Transpo web site
Old and busted (and a strain on the eyes)
















Turns out that I’m not the only person who moved to Ottawa and found it hard to meet new people. Amanda Blain was in the same boat — except she did something really creative about it. Rather than just blog about her thoughts and experiences, she launched
Part of the member growth stems from many events that Girlfriend Social has helped facilitate, including pub nights, Rideau canal dog walks, scrapbooking get-togethers, bowling nights, rock climbing, movie nights, and a lobster dinner.
The other day Bunny dropped a bombshell on me.









This weekend will be my first Bloggers Breakfast meet-up and I’m really looking forward to it. Honestly, it’s actually my first real social outing with local Ottawa people since I moved here — although to 


This past weekend, I made the near-fatal mistake of going to a local grocery store for a few things in the middle of the morning rush. It normally wouldn’t have happened, but I desperately need a few things that just couldn’t wait. I can assure you that will never happen again.
Remember that immortal line from
















Everything posted on this blog is my personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or its clients. © 2008-2010 All material Nachos At Midnight
Cans for Comments Update
Tags: blogging, blogs, cans for comments
The time has come to tally up all the comments I received during my first attempt at Cans for Comments. I’m really surprised and impressed with the response and the number of people who stumbled upon this blog as a result of it.
I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who did their share by leaving a comment which equals one can or non perishable food item.
The grand total — including my response comments — was 37 comments. And just today, Bunny decided to do something amazingly generous and supportive. She agreed to MATCH cans for comments and double the amount. So 37 comments meant 37 cans, and thanks to her generosity, it became 74 cans. (We bumped it up to 75 to make it a nice round number.
There you see it, folks. All the cans and non perishiable food items in a shopping cart, waiting to be bought and then packaged up and taken to a local food basket.
And here are the cans and food items in the back of my car, on their way to be donated. The organization I selected had a bin at the Independant Grocer on Strandherd Drive and was quite full by the time I dropped everything off.
Everyone really came through during this last week and a half, posting comments and helping suport a good cause, and again a huge thanks to Bunny who decided to match the cans. It really helped more than you could imagine.