Sunday, March 11, 2007

Farewell Montreal Gazette

I've done it. I've cancelled my subscription to The Gazette. For the last 4 years i have done nothing else after waking up but reading the latest edition of the Gazette with a cup of coffee. This habit has not been completely static:
In 2005 I switched to the digital edition. This allowed The Gazette to penetrate anywhere there is an internet connection, even my vacations (Toronto, Vancouver, Moncton, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.).
In 2006 cigarettes no longer were part of the equation (i only lit up the first cigarette once i had sat down in front of the paper).
In 2007 I got a cappuccino machine, and filtered coffee was ancient history.

Though the nature of the ritual has changed over the years, The Gazette has remained there. My boyfriend (If it were a gender it would definitely be a middle-aged man from Beaconsfield), if you will, who i would wake up to.

I don't know what I'm going to do now. I feel a little lost. This is almost worse than quitting smoking, and i just cancelled the membership an hour ago. The Globe and Mail is just too nationally-focused and expensive (35$/month does not justify reading news mostly about the ROC, Rest Of Canada). I've already gone through the 2-week trial of Lapresse in order to have a smooth transition, but i found out that reading French in the morning is equivalent to eating a poutine for breakfast.

Why, one may ask, am i doing this? Well, many would agree that The Gazette mostly consists of a club of West-Islanders. I've felt for a long time that it is a bit too conservative, but it's hard to give up on habits. Especially when it involves someone (me) who many (Jeannette) believe may be a little (or very much) OCD.
All i ask is for your patience in dealing with this. And if you have suggestions of where else i can get some local news, please let me know.

5 comments:

Kate M. said...

For Montreal news, might I propose the Montreal City Weblog?

sarah said...

while these aren't updated as often as a daily, here are a few okay sources. haha

http://rabble.ca/
www.greenleft.org.au/ for world info (unbashiedly leftist)
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

and theres always:

http://www.ledevoir.com/index.html

Unknown said...

hey jonny! yes i do. go to www.greenleft.org.au it's considered "radical" because there's no advertising and socialist leanings. i discovered it in sydney, and is quite good, online. also in your first sentence you wrote "have have". and the meaning behind the beaconsfield bf sentence was not evident.

Jonathan said...

Thanks guys! And Kate, i have been visiting your site once a week or so for the last couple of years... i guess it will be more often now.

Adrian said...

Congrats in the chnage! There are many great sites for news in Montreal. I would suggest you create a portal at myyahoo or via https://www.google.com/ig and then add your favorite blog about Montreal via RSS feed.

A quick list of Montreal blogs
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/montreal

cheers!