This thesis explores the meaning of the Montreal identity from the perspective of Montreal's ethnocultural and linguistic minorities. Generally speaking, it is commonplace for authors in the academic literature on Montreal to describe the city and its identity in terms of its multicultural and cosmopolitan sensibilities. While this forms part of what it means to be a Montrealer, this is not the only significance that this project accounts for. In examining the opinion sections of the Montreal Gazette from the period of September 4th, 2012 to the period of April 7th, 2014 ̶ a period that coincides with the Parti québécois' eighteen months in power under the leadership of Pauline Marois ̶ this thesis reveals that the meaning of the Montreal identity is tied to both the aforementioned multicultural and cosmopolitan sensibilities, as well as a sentiment of exclusion rooted in an ethnic interpretation of the Québec nation. Accordingly, this research also shows how these aspects of Montrealness contribute to the building of a Montreal identity that is meant to be distinct and even opposed to Québec identity.

Les sociétés canadienne et québécoise se sont tissées au fil des rencontres avec l'altérité. Notre analyse comparative des éditoriaux de The Gazette et du Globe and Mail s'inscrit à un moment où s'opère, sur la scène provinciale, un renversement du rapport de force entre les deux communautés linguistiques québécoises, l'anglophone et la francophone, et, sur la scène fédérale, une véritable refondation identitaire du pays. En raison de son inscription dans la socialité franco-québécoise, le discours de The Gazette paraît être le fruit « d'un processus incessant d'échanges, d'emprunts, de négociations, de transmissions et de transformations » avec l'autre, à savoir les Franco-Québécois. Par son appropriation de matériaux culturels franco-québécois, le journal montréalais exprime une affiliation fluide et plurielle, voire de l'ordre de celle du caméléon, modifiant son épiderme selon les circonstances et les environnements. C'est ainsi que, suivant les contextes politiques, idéologiques et discursifs, cette position est québécoise, anglo-québécoise, canadienne ou canadienne-anglaise. En incorporant la variable « Québec » au cœur de son équation éditoriale, The Gazette saisit et présente, avec plus d'empathie, de justesse et de subtilité que ne le fait le Globe and Mail, les enjeux liés aux réalités québécoises et canadiennes. Dénuées du « fardeau » québécois, les analyses que publie le Globe and Mail sont plus distancées, mais aussi moins éclairées, à l'endroit de la donne québécoise, entre autres parce que le quotidien torontois n'inclut pas, ou inclut très peu, le Québec dans sa vision du Canada. / Canadian and Quebec societies have been woven together through encounters with otherness. Our comparative analysis of the editorials of The Gazette and The Globe and Mail takes place at a time when, on the provincial scene, the balance of power between Quebec's two main linguistic communities, anglophone and francophone, is shifting and, on the federal scene, the country is undergoing a true reshaping of its identity. As a result of being embedded in Franco-Quebec sociality, The Gazette's discourse appears to be the result of "a continuous process of exchange, borrowing, negotiation, transmission and transformation" with the other, namely Franco-Quebecers. By its appropriation of Franco-Quebec cultural materials, the Montreal newspaper expresses a fluid and plural affiliation, similar to the skin of a chameleon, adapting itself in response to circumstances and environments. Thus, depending on the political, ideological and discursive contexts, this position is Québécois, Anglo-Québécois, Canadian, or English- Canadian. By incorporating the "Québec" variable into its editorial equation, The Gazette captures and presents the issues related to Quebec and Canadian realities with more empathy, accuracy and subtlety than does The Globe and Mail. Without the Quebec "burden", the analyses published by The Globe and Mail are more distanced, and also less insightful, with regard to the Quebec situation, partly because the Toronto newspaper does not include Quebec in its vision of Canada, or only slightly.