This is a great juxtaposition of communal identities. Before becoming a part of Canada, this was the Cathedral of St. James. As a part of the British Empire, places such as Victoria Square became a part of the Montreal landscape. In what appears to me as a symbolic strike back against the British Monarchy’s supremacy, this Cathedral is renamed Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary, Queen of the World). The fact that the Hotel Queen Elizabeth is looming overhead only heightens the tensions regarding whose queen reigns supreme; this isn’t the real issue. The dueling queens served as a proxy for tensions between British political control and French cultural identity in Quebec several generations ago.

Source: instagram.com

I was recently in Montreal; my last few Instagram posts aren’t the prettiest pictures of my time in Canada.  I tried to select images that represented geographic concepts and would be the things I’d mention if we were on a walking tour of the city. 

Tags: Canada, social media, urban, economic, images, place, culture, landscape, tourism. 

This is a great juxtaposition of communal identities. Before becoming a part of Canada, this was the Cathedral of St. James. As a part of the British Empire, places such as Victoria Square became a part of the Montreal landscape. In what appears to me as a symbolic strike back against the British Monarchy’s supremacy, this Cathedral was renamed Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary, Queen of the World). The fact that the Hotel Queen Elizabeth is looming overhead only heightens the tensions regarding whose queen reigns supreme. The dueling queens served as a proxy for tensions between British political control and French cultural identity in Quebec several generations ago. #Quebec #MTL #montreal #culture #cultural #geography #political #iconography #landscape #symbolism #monumental

A photo posted by Seth Dixon (@professordixon) on Jul 12, 2015 at 1:09pm PDT