Well it always seemed Vito made everyone think they were all equal but everyone knew who the defacto leader was there. Even Nick Sr. seemed to defer everything to Vito at that point.

As for the hits Montagna still thought he ran the Bonanno's at that point I imagine so I doubt they got an OK from anyone. For him to go up there to Montreal and tell Nick Sr. he was finished showed he thought he was the top dog and shows how stupid he was to think Montreal would fall in line behind him. Even though he was a Canadian citizen he was still an outsider to them.