Montreal was once capital of what became Canada. It would have remained so if not for an unfortunate episode which saw rowdy English-speakers burn down Parliament.
The rioters were angry at what they considered light punishment meted out to those involved in the 1837 Rebellion.
Some rue the loss and speculate that Quebec separatism would never taken root had Montreal, remained capital of Canada.
Quebec wouldn't dream of separating from the country it controls, according to that logic.
Quebec would never want to lose those 145,000 Montreal-based federal government jobs.
Montreal was never the capital of Quebec, however.
Quebec City became the provincial capital at a time when it was the most important city in New France.
Quebec City's importance declined after Montreal built superior port infrastructure, leading to Montreal's dominance.
Indeed few state and provincial capitals are located in their largest cities, mostly for similar reasons.
Canadian exceptions include Toronto and Winnipeg.
There might be more to the story, however.
Countries and states likely have an unspoken reason for wanting their capitals to be based in more remote areas.
This is demonstrated in Brazil, which relatively recently placed its capital in Brasilia rather than Rio or Sao Paolo, the largest city in South America.
The unpspoken logic behind the preference to base a capital in a smaller city is that a city with a rocking nightlife is not considered conducive to affairs of state.
In other words, smaller towns offer fewer dangerous distractions.
The chance of a politician being seduced and then blackmailed in a honeypot scenario would be considerably larger in a city like Rio than in a sleepy town like Brasilia and considerably larger in Montreal than sleepy old Ottawa.
Montreal grew as a nightclub city because it had no particular reason to remain respectable.
So it became known for booze, gambling and commercialized sexual encounters.
Naughtiness became a major economic driver for Montreal and became its bedrock tradition and identity.
Moral rectitude, meanwhile, was considered more important in places like Ottawa, Quebec City and Toronto, partly because their official status required these places to be a little more serious.
Montreal surely lost much by not being capital of either Canada or Quebec.
But it also gained by losing the shackles of respectability and becoming an interesting and fun town to enjoy.