Montrealers positive energy community 2025

Montrealers putting the focus on community and positive energy for 2025

“Eight Montreal artists, community organizers and entrepreneurs shared what they were most excited about for 2025, and how best to tackle what’s almost certain to be a complicated year.”

The world feels a little messed up these days. Geopolitical tensions, financial uncertainty, a man-baby south of the border threatening to annex Canada. It all feels like a lot.

With a new year upon us, sometimes it helps to look away from global crises and just focus on what’s closer to home. While there’s obviously a lot to rant about, what if we spent a little more time fostering a sense of community and focusing on the positive? Sharing with each other and gathering the emotional tools to fight back.

I asked a few Montreal artists, community organizers and entrepreneurs what kind of energy they were going into 2025 with. Some shared what they were most excited about. Others offered up unique viewpoints on how to best tackle what’s almost certain to be a complicated year. Despite their differences, they’re all — without exception — a big part of what makes this city tick. Maybe something they said will resonate with you, too.

Holly Friesen: ‘What happens to one of us affects all of us’

Holly Friesen

This Saskatchewan transplant and long-time Montrealer is a landscape artist whose work has long paid tribute to the natural world around us. From her Saint-Henri art studio, Friesen paints gorgeous landscapes that urge us to “listen, breathe and pay attention.”

“I choose to embrace 2025 with hope. While I remain deeply aware of the challenges and heart-wrenching events happening around the world, I believe that what happens to one of us affects us all. This interconnectedness extends not only to humans but to all living beings — animals, plants, trees and rivers. We are all part of the same web of life. As the poet Mary Oliver says, ‘We are each other’s destiny.’

“When the world feels chaotic and disconnected, we must create coherence from within. Every day, I bring my angst and anxiety to the canvas, where they transform into something meaningful — an image of inspired beauty. The process never fails to amaze me. I begin thinking I know what I’m doing, but along the way, the artwork takes on a life of its own, like an alchemical transformation. Raw ideas and emotions become something entirely new and beautiful. 

“With each piece, I learn not through thought, but by letting the painting guide me. It’s a journey of discovery, one that fills me with gratitude and wonder each time I step into the studio. This helps me to make sense of our ever-changing world and reminds me of our profound entanglement with all living beings.”

Thom Seivewright: ‘Locals often become blind to the positive’

Thom Seivewright

Unabashedly pro-Montreal, professional tour guide and founder of Tours Montreal, Thom Seivewright is better known as Montreal Expert on Instagram, where I’ve long followed him. What I most appreciate about him is his enthusiasm for and knowledge of this city. His Instagram reels always conclude with his trademark signature “Voila!” and are not only informative but casually remind me of why Montreal is forever cool.

“I often joke that the streets are my office, but it’s not much of a joke. As a guide, I spend my days with visitors and it often becomes a game of comparing Montreal to wherever they’re from, or to other places around the world. I’m not going to lie — Montreal often comes out looking pretty damn good. 

“Of course, [Montreal’s] more negative aspects don’t seem to hit people who are only here for a short time, but the reality is that there are so many outstanding and positively enviable aspects of this city. Locals often become blind to the positive and tend to focus on the negative. It’s important for locals to complain about the negative things. But it’s equally important to be reminded of the good.

“For 2025, I want to help shine a positive light and show off the great sides of Montreal.  I’ll continue to make short videos for social media, showcasing different aspects of the city’s history, fun facts, cultures and peoples. In an upcoming project I’ll ask locals to share something negative about Montreal and I’ll spin it into a positive and try to make them see it differently. I’m not sure how easy this will be, or if it’ll always be possible to do, but I’ll try!

“Another upcoming project: I’ll walk around with a local celebrity and as we share our versions of Montreal with each other, we discover places and fun facts about the city.

“I hope that 2025 becomes the year that Montrealers of all backgrounds can connect in their shared pride for this city. 

“Voila!”

Elisabeth Vallet: ‘We need to focus on what we can do’

Elisabeth Vallet

When Professor Elisabeth Vallet isn’t teaching at the Université de Quebec à Montréal (UQAM) or at the Royal Military College of Saint-Jean, she’s busy writing opinion columns for Le Devoir or appearing on media panels. Vallet is an expert on U.S. politics, geopolitics and borders, and with Trump back in the White House, 2025 should be a busy year for her. While keeping a close eye on global crises, Vallet believes that many solutions can be found right here at home.

“2025 is shaping up to be a challenging year on a global scale. We can’t ignore the global challenges we’re about to face, whether it’s the climate crisis, economic uncertainty or the deep divisions we see in so many societies. But heavy as it may seem, I believe that these global problems have local answers.

“If we focus on what’s within our control — building stronger neighbourhoods, supporting local initiatives and maintaining a humane approach to big issues — I think we’ll discover that hope isn’t just something abstract. 

“Whether it’s through supporting local initiatives or simply listening to each other, continuing to stop to help someone who’s slipped on a sidewalk or talking to strangers on the street, being outraged that people have to sleep in encampments or welcoming with dignity those fleeing violence (internationally or internally), saying more words of kindness than of exasperation (not an easy task sometimes!), keeping ourselves informed or keeping our governments in check in voting, I think we can face this year with hope. 

“If we can’t stop what seems to be a race to the precipice, I think we need to focus on what we can do. To continue to be indignant, to hope and to act, at least that’s what I’m going to do.”

Dina Souleiman: ‘We can turn challenges into opportunities’

Dina Souleiman welcome collective

As the Executive Director of Welcome Collective, a nonprofit that works directly with the most vulnerable refugee claimants in the city — primarily families and single moms with young children — Souleiman has worked and volunteered in the non-profit sector for over 20 years. She believes in the collaborative process to create change and empower individuals. 

“At Welcome Collective, we believe in the power of community to make a real difference in the lives of refugee claimants. With the right support, given at the right time, and a compassionate approach, we can have a lasting impact on how people settle into our city. Every day, we see the positive outcomes when refugee claimants are welcomed with care — families being supported as they settle into their first apartment, individuals being provided with winter clothing and people receiving assistance with their asylum claims. Short-term and essential support like this can go a long way in creating long-term successes.

“It’s a reminder that when we come together as a community, we can turn challenges into opportunities. By showing kindness, understanding and a willingness to help, we create a ripple effect of positivity that benefits everyone. This is the heart of what we do at Welcome Collective, and it’s proof that even in difficult times, there is so much good to celebrate and build on.”

Mohamed Hage: ‘Fresh, local, responsible food is a viable solution’

Mohamed Hage LUFA farms

In 2009 — inspired by Lebanon’s rooftop gardens — Mohamed Hage established the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse. Fifteen years later, the founder of Lufa Farms is a true Montreal success story. The company focuses on responsible agriculture by using no new land and recirculating water. With 600+ employees, 400+ sustainable partners and thousands of lufavores receiving their weekly baskets of fresh produce, Hage’s success bases its existence on the belief that people want local, responsible, sustainably grown food. That belief is taking Hage and his projects into 2025.

“I try to stay optimistic and truly believe in the work we do at Lufa Farms. Over the past 15 years, we’ve set high standards and reached remarkable milestones — growing from delivering 200 baskets a week to 30,000 and expanding from one 30,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse to over half a million square feet of growing space. Today, we feed 2% of Montreal families with fresh, local, responsible food, showing that sustainable urban farming isn’t just an idea but a viable solution. 

“Montrealers’ engagement and concern for where their food comes from has been a constant source of motivation to me. It’s inspiring to see how much this city values local and sustainable practices, and that support drives us to keep improving and innovating. This year, we’re pushing ourselves with new goals to build on what we’ve accomplished. I’m grateful to have started Lufa Farms in such a forward-thinking community, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve next together.”

Catherine Ocelot: ‘Take care of your garden’ 

Catherine Ocelot

Catherine Ocelot is a Montreal-based illustrator and cartoonist originally from Quebec City. Not only are her award-winning comic strips gorgeous to look at, but Ocelot’s introspective writing — melancholic and poetic — asks important existential questions about life. I recently read Symptômes and was utterly charmed with her interconnecting stories pointing to the ties that bind and heal us — or can sometimes become toxic. 

“Daily exposure to images of war and natural disaster give me a feeling of profound helplessness. I ask myself how I can move forward and cultivate hope without ignoring the world or being naive? I am fortunate to do a job that forces me to use my imagination and explore my anxieties. 

“Through my stories and drawings, I hope, very humbly, to bring a soft light to the world I experience. The more I see catastrophe, the more I want to protect and nourish things that are alive. If you take care of your garden, you’re not destroying something, you’re creating something, and that can be beautiful.”

Eda Holmes: ‘Bridge-building is the best vision for all of us’

Eda Holmes

Texas-born former ballerina Eda Holmes has been the Artistic and Executive Director at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre Company since 2017. She once referred to Montreal as “an island of wonders” and loves fostering and celebrating the city’s linguistic diversity and its francophone soul. 

“We are about to open a beautiful new show at the Centaur Theatre, a musical adaptation in English of a Quebec play called Les fraises en Janvier by Evelyne de la Chenelière on January 24. The English premiere at Centaur in 2003 was a hit with our audience. This production is directed by one of Quebec’s most exciting directors, Frédéric Belanger. What makes this doubly thrilling is that Fred is making his debut at Centaur at the exact same moment that I’m making my own debut at Théâtre du Rideau Vert directing a French translation of Kate Hennig’s beautiful and provocative play about Catherine Parr and Henry VIII called The Last Wife (Sa dernière femme).

“The General Director of Théâtre du Rideau Vert, Celine Marcotte, saw the production we did at Centaur in 2018 and fell in love with the play. She commissioned an incredible translation by Maryse Warda and invited me to direct it. This is why I live in Montreal – I have the chance to collaborate with artists in both French and English and explore all the things that we share as Montrealers. 

“I’m so inspired by the artists in this city who are all looking for ways to build bridges between the French and English communities. I’m hoping to make Centaur Theatre a hub for that kind of bridge-building because it’s the best vision for the future for all of us who live in this fantastic city.”

Heather O’Neill: ‘I want to engage with the world’

Heather O’Neill

Award-winning, best-selling Montreal author Heather O’Neill needs little introduction. The writer of six books, including her latest, The Capital of Dreams, O’Neill and her dreamy writing — sometimes dark, sometimes playful, but always magical — is very Montreal.

“I refuse to feel like a cog in a machine. I refuse to spend the year, holed up in my room, looking at the internet. I want to engage with the world, and be out and about in Montreal, the way I used to be as a teenager in the ’90s.

“I want to be more present in the art of the everyday.

“In Edwardian times, the art of conversation was a lauded skill. There were witty people, who travelled from one castle to the another. They were invited and fed because they were able to make everyone laugh at dinner time. I want to have people over and we will talk until our conversations can be considered great one-act satirical plays.

“I will travel the city in search of apartment theatres: Teenage girls who decide to read a page from their journal out loud at the dinner table, a grandfather singing opera as he shaves in the mirror, a woman knitting an incredible hat covered in rabbits for a baby.

“Art does not have to be good or bad, it has to be filled with love.”

Most importantly, I will continue to read books. Books are these odd objects that defy the passage of time. They have been in the same form for hundreds of years, and nothing about them can improve them. And they will save us from the Robots.”


Read more weekly editorial columns by Toula Drimonis.