I lived in Montreal for a year on a working visa back in 2001 and loved it. But then again my wife is from there ;-)
Seriously, there are some opportunities for creative software development in Montreal. I'm not sure which field you are in? As mentioned earlier, the West Island and areas of the Plateau are pretty Anglophone. My challenge in trying to learn french continues to be that you can get by in english easily so "cheat" and do so. To the chagrin of my wife, a french language teacher
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I currently live in Mississauga, one of the big (~750K) burbs of Toronto. I quite enjoy it as a safe place, but it is pricey to live in. The whole experience is *very* multicultural (the nickname is "Mississaugastan") with many first gen/second gen families. People are here to get away from a lot of the other crap happening in other parts of the world and are here to work. Competition for jobs can often be intense and the skill base is pretty high.
I'm a kiwi and would comment that apart from one other forum member (Alfisti) there is not so much of a Antipodean connection this side of the continent. There are many Aussies and Kiwis living in BC.
In terms of tech employers it is still quite quiet (job marketwise) here with the exception of Blackberry, based in Waterloo (who are hiring at present). That being said, there are ~3Million folks in the GTA, so there is a fair bit going on (and it is starting to heat up again). The house prices here are ridiculous (although not generally as insane as those of Vancouver). The prices didn't get hit to the same extent of the states.
Workopolis.ca and monster.ca are probably the key job websites.
Montreal is generally a lot more compact than Toronto, and unless you are right downtown in TO, the public transit system is miles behind the metro of Montreal (which rocks). You will end up driving in TO. Getting out of the city is easier in Montreal, due to the fact that everyone drives in TO (and that the GTA is just so ridiculously big). However, Montreal drivers have a deserved reputation for being a little crazy, and there is always the chance that a
road will fall on your head....I just let my wife drive there and offer no comment from the passengers seat.
Good luck and let me know if you need any info.