I think Europe is a pretty good use (40,000 miles is a great deal), but I may have a much higher pain tolerance for crappy routings, being a cheap student. I also like the 40,000 miles to South America, but the routes are also going to be awful.
Alaska is pretty frustrating to work with from Montreal. People who live on the west coast or closer to an American airport have way more options. If you have some avios to spare, you can get a positioning flight to JFK which improves your options tremendously. You can get a fancy Emirates flight to Milan from there.
If you're willing to fly out of Toronto, Cathay flies out of there.