One of the many the many wonderful things about living in Montreal is that stuff like this makes news here.
Following a poll of 5.6 million board gamers around the world, the latest version of Hasbro’s time-honoured Monopoly game will feature Montreal in place of Boardwalk, the most fancypants property in the game. Montreal narrowly edged out Riga, Latvia — that other international centre of fashion, music and the arts — for the top spot.
Eager as we Montrealers are to thumb our collective nose at Torontonians for any damn reason at all, we’re quick to point out that Ontario’s capital now occupies the cheap seats in Monopoly land, sitting in Virginia’s traditional spot. Oh, and their hockey team stinks.
Even Vancouver did better, sitting in New York’s spot. And Vancouver’s hockey team stinks too.
From the Globe & Mail:
In Toronto, Mayor David Miller was given the city’s title deed by a man dressed as Mr. Monopoly. He shrugged off the fact both Montreal, at $4-million, and Vancouver at $2-million, were valued higher in the new game than Toronto, priced at $1.4-million.
“There’s a part of all of us that wants to be Boardwalk,” Mr. Miller chuckled. “But if you want to win Monopoly, you buy the affordable places and you build hotels, that’s what going to happen with Toronto.”
Hotels and more hotels! Gentrify the slums! A sound plan for prosperity if there ever was one.
Unfortunately, our own mayor didn’t come off much better:
Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay told a ceremony in the Old Port that the city’s place on the board gives it visibility and would attract more tourists eventually.
He says he played Monopoly as a child.
“I learned a lot and I took the necessary steps to use my youth to be more successful in the business sector.”
If I were running a city, I wouldn’t advertise the fact that I got my financial education by mortgaging the electric company.
Gdynia, by the way — the Mediterranean-replacing bottom-dweller of the new Monopoly universe — is in Poland. And yes, I had to look it up.
1 response so far ↓
1 Gen Di Napoli // Sep 16, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Ha. Hahahahaahaha!
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