Toronto Star - How to sell a Toronto bank in Montreal; TD expands in Quebec as historic rivalries from culture to hockey fade

The rivalry between Montreal and Toronto over fur pelts, hockey, business, culture, language and size has slacked off, which is good news for banks like TD, Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

There has been a long-standing stereotyping between the two cities, said William Straw, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada: Montrealers work to live, Torontonians work to the bone. The stereotypes are ridiculous today, he added. Toronto is no longer a stuffy bastion of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants where the sidewalks are rolled up at 10 p.m. Montreal is more than a big urban party palace. The economic rivalry has dwindled.

"All the companies that are going to leave have left, so there's not the same sense that Toronto is sapping away the vital energy of Montreal. There's more of a peaceful relationship between them," said Straw.