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And now, not only does he decide to flee, he abandons us for … Toronto? And, not only does he abandon us, he’s painfully candid about the reasons? How dare he call us a “difficult part of the world”? Our joie de vivre is legendary, you guys! Besides … dirty laundry should never be aired when there’s a parting of ways, right, Jay?

Only this wasn’t a love affair gone wrong. It was just a move. But a move that was probably less emotionally charged for the mover than its acceptance was for everyone left behind.

Baruchel made the mistake of candidly admitting that “Quebec politics did his head in.” It’s no big secret that constant linguistic and cultural strife, coupled with the temptation of opportunities elsewhere, can occasionally get tiresome and wear us down. Some of us decide to leave. Jay is allowed to publicly express that sentiment without being treated like Judas Iscariot.

We here in Montreal get so caught up sometimes in the shameless navel-gazing and the self-congratulatory pats on the back

Is admitting that incessant linguistic bickering and the Charter of Values and the corruption scandals and the OQLF chasing down restaurant owners for using the word “pasta” and depleted opportunities for English speakers can be tiresome really that much of revelation? Did it catch some of us off guard? Or is it that we’re just not used to having a well-loved Quebecer publicly acknowledge it as he’s waving bye-bye?

We here in Montreal get so caught up sometimes in the shameless navel-gazing and the self-congratulatory pats on the back about how awesome we are, and how amazing a place this is for artistic expression, and how creative types flock to us to, you know … create, and pursue a bohemian lifestyle. And we look down at poor Toronto and its focus on work, work, work. We’ve got it all figured out here, man, and those poor corporate drones that waste their lives away in pursuit of six-figure salaries … they almost demand pity.