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Montréal continues its muscular recovery from the economic malaise and political agitations of the 1990s. Optimism and prosperity have returned, and with them, an era of good feeling likely to last well into the future.

The Canadian dollar has strengthened somewhat against its U.S. counterpart (although not so much as to diminish Québec’s desirability as a tourist destination), unemployment is the lowest in many years, and a billion-dollar construction boom continues. One big change for residents was the creation of a new megacity, effective January 2002. The 28 towns and cities that occupy the Island of Montréal were merged into a metropolis of 1.8 million inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in Canada after Toronto. Almost inevitably, a movement is afoot to reverse the action. After 9 years of governance by the avowedly separatist Parti Québecois, which expended much of its energy attempting to persuade the citizenry to separate Québec from the rest of Canada, the provincial government is now under the power of the federalist Liberal party. Separatist sentiment has been muffled, at least for the moment, and occupies much less daily discussion than it used to.

The cultural divide between the Francophone majority and Anglophone and Allophone minorities hasn’t melted away, but it certainly has mellowed. And while Quebecers were even more vigorously against the American-British war in Iraq than other Canadians, their welcome for individual American visitors remains as warm and generous as ever. PLANNING YOUR TRIP Even in the face of a slide against several of the world’s major currencies, the U.S. dollar continues to be relatively strong against the Canadian version, making Québec an increasingly rare travel bargain for American travelers. While Montréal is one of the easier cities to get around by private car, it also has an excellent subway system, the Métro, which reaches every attraction and neighborhood of interest to visitors. Note that the name of the stop formerly known as Ile Ste-Hélène is now Parc Jean-Drapeau.

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