Montreal
Montreal or Montréal1 (pronounced 
[[Media:Montreal-english-pronunciation.ogg |/ˌmʌntɹiˈɒːl/]] in Canadian English, [[Media:Montreal2.ogg |/mɔ̃ʀeal/]] in standard French, and /mɒ̃ɾeal/ in Quebecois French) is the second largest city in Canada. The city itself has 1,812,800 inhabitants, while 3,607,000 people live in the Greater Montreal Area (Statistics Canada 2004), which makes it the largest city and primary economic centre of the province of Quebec, of which it constitutes an administrative region.
Montreal is the city with the second-largest Francophone population in the world, after Paris, but has a substantial anglophone community and an increasing number of allophones, whose first language is neither English nor French. This allophone segment includes communities with long ties to Montreal, as well as recent immigrants, of whom a substantial number are integrated into the French-speaking community.
When French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in 1535, he discovered a Mohawk village called Hochelaga. The original French settlement was named Ville-Marie, but the name Montreal (a contracted spelling of Mount Royal, the name of the tallest peak of the four hills on the island, grouped near the St. Lawrence River) gradually gained official usage in the 18th century ('réal' is a 16th century French variant of 'royal'). Locals refer to it as "The Mountain", and make frequent recreational use of the large park space of Mount Royal Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York City.
Montreal is one of Canada's most important cultural centres, hosting a multitude of international festivals and events, including Juste pour Rire (one of the world's largest comedy festivals), the Montreal Jazz Festival (also the largest in the world), the Montreal F1 Grand Prix, and many others. During the United States' Prohibition period, Montreal, along with Havana, Cuba, became well-known as one of North America's "Sin Cities", with an unparallelled nightlife. With its multitude of festivals, Old Port charm, cosmopolitan population, and architectural history, Montreal is considered North America's "European" city.
Montreal also boasts a very educated population. It is a health sciences and aerospace centre, and also has the highest concentration of post-secondary students by percentage in all of North America as of 2004. It is home to 4 major universities (two English and two French) and dozens of academic and vocational colleges. In 2005, the city won the distinction of being chosen UNESCO's “World Book Capital City 2005–2006”, due to its vibrant literary scene.
Montreal is situated in the southwestern corner of Quebec, approximately 250 kilometres southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital, and 200 kilometres east of Ottawa, the federal capital. The city is located on the Island of Montreal, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes up into the Atlantic Ocean. The Island lies between the Saint Lawrence and the Rivière des Prairies, a 'backriver' which in turn splits the Montreal landmass from that of Île Jésus, where the city of Laval is located. Montreal also includes 74 smaller nearby islands, most of which are uninhabited.
City's logo : File:MontrealLogo.gif
History
Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois have inhabited the Montreal area for some eight thousand years. The first European to reach the area was Jacques Cartier, when, on October 2, 1535, he entered the village of Hochelega, on the Island of Montreal.
Seventy years later, Samuel de Champlain decided to establish a fur trading post at Port Royal on the Island of Montreal, but the local Iroquois successfully defended their land. The first permanent European settlement was created on the Island of Montreal in 1639 by a French tax collector named Jérôme Le Royer. Missionaries Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and a few French colonists set up a mission named Ville Marie on May 17, 1642, as part of a project to create a French colonial empire dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Their Christian utopian imperialist ideology did not proceed smoothly, however; a historical plaque at the Place d'Armes marks where de Maisonneuve himself "...murdered the Iroquois chief with with his own hands" in 1644.
Ville Marie became a centre for the fur trade and the Catholic religion, as well as a base for further exploration into New France. The Iroquois continued their attacks on the settlement until a peace treaty was signed in 1701. The town remained French until 1760, when Pierre de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered it to the British army under Jeffrey Amherst. Fire destroyed one quarter of the town on May 18, 1765.
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the French and Indian War and ceded New France to the Kingdom of Great Britain. American Revolutionists briefly held the city in 1775 but soon left. By this time, the city had gained its present name of Montreal, and it started to grow from British immigration. The golden era of fur trading began in the city with the advent of the locally-owned North West Company, the main rival to the primarily British Hudson's Bay Company.
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The city's growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal, which permitted ships to pass by the unnavigable Lachine Rapids south of the island. Montreal was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, bringing more English-speakers to the city, making it roughly bilingual. The now large Anglophone community built one of Canada's first universities, McGill, and the wealthy began building large mansions at the foot of Mont Royal.
In 1852, Montreal had 58,000 inhabitants and by 1860, Montreal was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway made its headquarters there in 1880, and the Canadian National Railway in 1919. Saint Jacques Street in what is now Old Montreal, then better known as Saint James Street, became the centre of the Canadian financial industry in the late 19th century; the name "Saint James Street" was used as a metonym for Canadian high finance much as "Wall Street" is used in the US, or "Bay Street" is used today. With the annexation of neighbouring towns between 1883 and 1918, Montreal became a mostly Francophone city again. The tradition to alternate between a francophone and an anglophone mayor thus began and lasted until 1914.
After World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States turned Montreal into a haven for Americans looking for alcohol. Despite the increase in tourism, unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression. However, Canada began to recover from the Great Depression in the mid 1930s, and skyscrapers, such as the Sun Life Building, began appearing.
During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to ignore the federal government's registry of all men and women. Ottawa was furious over Houde's insubordination and put him in a prison camp until 1944, when the government was forced to institute conscription (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
After Montreal's population surpassed one million in the early 1950s, Mayor Jean Drapeau laid down plans for the future development of the city. These plans included a new metro system and an underground city, the expansion of Montreal's harbour, and the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. New buildings were built on top of old ones in this time period, including Montreal's two tallest skyscrapers up to then: the 43-storey Place Ville-Marie and the 47-storey Tour de la Bourse. Two new museums were also built, and finally in 1966, the metro opened, along with several new expressways.
The city's international status was cemented by Expo '67 and the Summer Olympics in 1976. A major league baseball team, called the Montreal Expos, was named after the Expo and started playing in Montreal in 1969, but the team moved to Washington, DC in 2005.
Montreal celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1992, prompting the construction of two of Montreal's tallest skyscrapers: 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque. Currently, Montreal's favourable economic conditions allow further improvements in infrastructure, with the expansion of the metro system and the development of a ring road around the island. Neighbourhood gentrification is also occurring. Montreal now constitutes its own region of Quebec.
City government
The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. The current mayor is Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Montreal Island Citizens Union (l’Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l’île de Montréal). The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the primary decision-making authority in the city. It consists of 73 members from all boroughs of the city.
The council has jurisdiction over many matters, including public security, agreements with other governments, subsidy programs, the environment, urban planning, and a three-year capital expenditure program. The city council is also required to supervise, standardise or approve certain decisions made by the borough councils.
Reporting directly to the city council, the executive committee exercises the decision-making powers appropriate to it and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets and by-laws, submitted by the city council for approval.
The decision-making powers of the executive committee cover, in particular, the awarding of contracts or grants, the management of human and financial resources, supplies and buildings. It may also be assigned further powers by the city council.
Standing committees are the council's instruments for public consultations. They are responsible for the public study of pending matters and for making the appropriate recommendations to the council. They also review the annual budget forecasts for departments under their jurisdiction. A public notice of meeting is published in both French and English daily newspapers at least seven days before each meeting. All meetings include a public question period.
The current standing committees, of which there are seven, have terms lasting two years. In addition, the city council may decide to create special committees at any time. Each standing committee is made up of seven to nine members, including a chairman and a vice-chairman. The members are all elected municipal officers, with the exception of a representative of the government of Quebec on the public security committee.
Merger and demerger
Until 2001, the Island of Montreal was divided into 28 municipalities: the city of Montreal proper, and 27 independent municipalities. On January 1, 2002, the 27 independent municipalities of the island of Montreal were merged with the city of Montreal, under the slogan: "Une île, une ville" ("One island, one city"). This merger was part of a larger provincial scheme launched by the Parti Québécois across Quebec, resulting in the mergers of many municipalities. Government claimed that larger municipalities were more efficient, and more able to withstand competition with other cities in Canada which had already expanded their territory in the late 1990s, such as Toronto and Ottawa.
As elsewhere in Canada, city mergers across Quebec were bitterly contested by a significant part of the population, especially on the Island of Montreal. One point of contention was that there was no public consultation. The situation on the island was complicated by the differences between predominantly English-speaking municipalities and the predominantly French-speaking city of Montreal. Many in these suburbs believed a merger would deprive them of their rights and reduce the quality of services, despite claims by the mayor of Montreal that linguistic rights would remain protected in the new city of Montreal. Many street protests were organized, law suits were filed, 15 municipalities appealed to the Court of Appeal of Quebec, but failed to halt the merrger. At the 2001 census, the city of Montreal (185.94 km²/71.8 sq. miles) had 1,039,534 inhabitants. After the merger, the population of the new city of Montreal (500.05 km²/193.1 sq. miles) was 1,812,723 (based on 2001 census figures). For comparison, at the 2001 census the city of Toronto (629.91 km²/243.2 sq. miles) had 2,481,494 inhabitants.
The new city of Montreal is divided into 27 boroughs (known in French as "arrondissements") in charge of local administration, while the city above them is responsible for larger matters such as economic development or transportation issues. It is only a coincidence that there were 27 independent municipalities before 2002, and that there are now 27 boroughs. Although some boroughs correspond to the former municipalities, in many cases smaller municipalities were combined into a single borough.
In the provincial election of April 2003, the Liberal Party of Quebec defeated the Parti Québécois. One central promise during their campaign was that they would allow merged municipalities across the province to organize referendums in order to demerge if they wished to do so. On June 20, 2004, referendums were held throughout Quebec. On the Island of Montreal, referendums were held in 22 of the 27 previously independent municipalities. Following the referendum results, 15 of the previously independent municipalities will recover their independence. These are predominantly English-speaking municipalities, in addition to a few French-speaking municipalities. One of the 15 municipalities to be recreated, L'Île-Dorval, had no permanent inhabitants at the 2001 census.
The demerger will take place on January 1, 2006, after which there will be 16 municipalities on the Island of Montreal (the city of Montreal proper plus 15 independent municipalities). The post-demerger city of Montreal will have a territory of 366.02 km² (141.3 sq. miles) and a population of 1,583,590 inhabitants (based on 2001 census figures). Compared with the pre-merger city of Montreal, this is a net increase of 96.8% in land area, and 52.3% in population.
Corporate lobbies close to the Liberal Party of Quebec say that after the demerger, the city of Montreal will still have almost as many inhabitants as the current unified city of Montreal (the suburban municipalities to be recreated are less densely populated than the core city), and that the overwhelming majority of industrial sites will still be located on the territory of the post-demerger city of Montreal. Nonetheless, the post-demerger city of Montreal will be only about half the size of the post-1998 merger city of Toronto (both in terms of land area and population).
However, it should be noted that the 15 recreated municipalities will not have as many powers as they did before the merger. Many powers will remain with a joint board covering the entire Island of Montreal, in which the city of Montreal will have the upper hand.
Despite the demerger referendums held in 2004,, the controversy continues, with politicians focusing on the cost of demerging. Several studies show that the recreated municipalities will incur substantial financial costs, thus forcing them to increase taxes (which is a startling prospect in the generally wealthier demerging English-speaking municipalities). Proponents of the demergers contest these surveys.
The Island of Montreal is only one component of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal), also known as the Greater Montreal Area, in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection, etc., across the metropolitan area of Montreal. The Metropolitan Community of Montreal covers 3,839 km² (1,482 sq. miles), with 3,431,551 inhabitants living inside its borders in 2002; it is thus larger in area and population than the city of Toronto (even after its 1998 merger). However, the city of Toronto is larger than the city of Montreal proper, and the Greater Toronto Area (although not a legal entity) is larger than the Metropolitan Community of Montreal, with 7,000km² of area and over 5.2 million people, whereas the Metropolitan Community of Montreal has a population of 3.6 million people (as of 2004). The president of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal is the mayor of Montreal.
Climate
Thanks to competing climactic influences, the climate in Montreal varies greatly, both by season and from day to day, and is considered a character of the city by Montrealers.
Precipitation is abundant, with an average snowfall of 2.4 metres per year in the winter and regular rainfall throughout the year. Each year, the city government spends more than $50 million on snow removal. Frequent thunderstorms make summer the wettest season statistically, but it is also the sunniest.
The coldest month is January, with a daily average of −10.4°C (13°F). Due to wind chill, the perceived temperature can be much lower than the actual temperature, and wind chill indices are often included in weather forecasts. The warmest month is July, with a daily average of 20.9°C (70°F). The lowest temperature ever recorded is −37.8°C (−36.0°F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature ever was 37.6°C (99.7°F) on August 1 of 1975.
Moderate to high humidity is common in the summer. In spring and autumn, temperatures and precipitation amounts average between 55 to 94 mm (2.5 to 4 inches) a month. Some snow in spring and autumn is normal. Similarly, late heat waves as well as "Indian summer" are a regular feature of the climate.
Despite its widely varying climate, the Montreal region supports a diverse array of plants and wildlife. The maple is one of the most common trees, and the sugar maple in particular is an enduring symbol of Montreal and Quebec, thanks to the production of maple syrup.
Demographics
See also: List of famous Montrealers
The Greater Montreal area has a population of 3,607,000 people (Statistics Canada 2004), including the neighbouring major cities of Laval and Longueuil, among other smaller cities. Montreal proper will be home to over 1.5 million people after the demerger set for January 1, 2006. A resident of Montreal is known as a Montrealer in English, and a Montréalais(e) in French. Residents sometimes refer to the city by the shorthand name of MTL. The large population of Montreal justifies the city having its own postal district together with Laval; i.e. all postal codes in Montreal and Laval, and only postal codes in Montreal and Laval, begin with H.
Most Montrealers speak French as their first language; a sizeable minority speak English, but a majority of residents have at least a working knowledge of both languages. This trend has increased after the French language reforms of the 1970s.
About 67.8% of the population of the Greater Montreal Area is composed of francophones. 18.4% are allophone (they have neither French nor English as their first language) and 13.8% are native anglophones.
The demographics change on the Island of Montreal island itself, however, with francophones constituting 53% of the population, anglophones 18%, and allophones 29%. A majority of allophones speak French or English as a second language. A May 2004 survey noted that 53% of the people in Montreal speak both French and English, while 37% speak only French and 7% speak only English.
Top Ten Ethnicities
- Canadian - 1,885,085 (mostly those of French/Irish/British origin whose ancestors have lived in Canada for many generations)
- French - 900,490
- Italian - 224,460
- Irish - 161,235
- English - 134,115
- Scottish - 94,710
- Jewish - 80,390
- Haitian - 69,940
- Chinese - 57,655
- Greek - 55,865
Racial Groups
Around 74.5% of the population is Roman Catholic, and other Christian faiths constitute another 10.0% of the population.
While the official language of Montreal is French, services are usually also offered in English in downtown and tourist areas as well as in areas designated as bilingual boroughs. The Irish have been settling in Montreal and the province of Quebec for centuries, as they saw it as a more inviting place than many other parts of the British Empire. The Irish and French shared a common religion, Roman Catholicism. This made it easier for the Irish to be accepted and not discriminated against, as they were in Toronto (York). A large number arrived during the Great Famine of 1845-1852 in Ireland, which resulted in many orphans being adopted by French families. The tide of immigration continued for many years and by some estimates, it is believed that nearly 40% of Francophones in Montreal have a mixture of French and Irish heritage, as suggested by the non-French surnames possessed by a significant number of Montrealers. See also Historica Minute: Orphans.
Each of the many neighbourhoods in the city has a predominant language. The parts of the city that lie to the west of Saint Lawrence Boulevard (boulevard Saint-Laurent) can be said to be predominantly Anglophone, while the neighbourhoods to the east are predominantly Francophone. However there are a handful of predominately French neighbourhoods west of Saint Lawrence, notably Saint-Henri, Lachine and Île-Bizard. Westmount, on the southwestern slopes of Mont Royal, is traditionally the home of wealthy Anglophones, while Outremont, on the opposite side, is the home of wealthy Francophones. However, these distinctions are increasingly becoming obsolete in fact and in the public mind. Speakers of both languages can be found in all parts of the city.
Montreal is the home or former home of many famous people, including two prime ministers, many well-known artists and musicians, and a number of politicians.
Although not as obvious as for Quebec city, rather wide and dispersed green areas can be found in Montreal, most of which appear to be influenced by British green areas. This can also be seen of several buildings. Most people visiting the city from Europe can notice this and many tourists from the UK can easily feel at home.
Economy
Once the largest city in Canada, Montreal remains a vibrant major centre of commerce, industry, culture, finance, and world affairs. Montreal is a major port city, being at the start of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a deep-draft inland waterway which links it to the industrial centres of the Great Lakes. As one of the most important ports in Canada, it is a trans-shipment point for grain, sugar, petroleum products, machinery, and consumer goods. For this reason, it is part of the railway backbone of Canada and has always been an extremely important rail city; it is the eastern terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and home to the headquarters of the Canadian National Railway.
Montreal industries include pharmaceuticals, high technology, textile and clothing manufacturing (the schamata industry), higher education, electronic goods, software engineering, building and city engineering, transportation devices, printed goods, fabric, and tobacco.
Montreal is one of the world's top aerospace industry centres. It is often said that Montreal is the only city in the world where an entire airplane can be built, from the start of engine crafting to the last paint drop. The leading wagon of the industry is unquestionably Bombardier, which is one of the most important aerospace companies in the world, rivalling Boeing and Airbus, particularly in the area of medium-sized aircraft.
The headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency are located in Longueuil, southeast of Montreal. Montreal also hosts the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations body, the World Anti-Doping Agency, an Olympic body and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as well as some 60 other international organizations in various fields.
Places in Montreal
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal is at the foot of Mount Royal, which is designated as a major urban park. The Downtown area contains dozens of notable skyscrapers, including the aforementioned 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, as well as Ieoh Ming Pei's Place Ville-Marie. This cruciform office tower, built in 1962, sits atop an underground shopping mall which forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, one of the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, and businesses, as well as metro stations, transportation termini, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street.
Old Montreal
Southeast of downtown is Old Montreal (Vieux-Montreal), a historic centre with such attractions as the Old Port, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall, Place d'Armes, Pointe-à-Callière Museum, and the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica.
Downtown and Old Montreal are connected by the recent Quartier international de Montréal development.
Olympic Village
Montreal was host of one of the most successful World's Fairs in history, Expo '67. Partially based upon the success of the World's Fair, Montreal was awarded the 1976 Summer Olympics. The Olympic Stadium has the world's tallest inclined tower and, until the end of the 2004 season, was the home of the Montreal Expos baseball team. The Olympic complex also includes a modern ecology museum, an insectarium, and the Montreal Botanical Gardens, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world, second only to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England.
Museums and Cultural Centres
Montreal is the centre of Quebec culture and a major centre of Canadian culture in general. It has many specialised museums such as the Redpath Museum, the McCord Museum of Canadian History, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The Place des Arts cultural complex houses the Museum of Contemporary Art and several theatres, and is the seat of the Montreal Opera and for the moment the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which is slated to receive a new concert hall adjacent to Place des Arts.
Religious Sanctuaries
Nicknamed "the city of saints," or "la ville aux cent clochers" (the city of a hundred belltowers), Montreal is renowned for its churches. As described by Mark Twain, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." The city has four Roman Catholic basilicas: Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, the aforementioned Notre-Dame Basilica, St. Patrick's Basilica, and Saint Joseph's Oratory. The Oratory is the largest church in Canada, with the largest dome of its kind in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Other well-known churches include the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, which is sometimes called the Sailors' Church, and the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, which was completely excavated and suspended in mid-air during the construction of part of the Underground City. All of the above are major tourist destinations, particularly Notre-Dame and the Oratory.
An impressive number of other churches can be found, as such that a five minute walk is usually enough to find another one. A common expression of Montrealers is that we stumble into them walking.
Chinatown
Montreal has a small but active Chinatown (Quartier chinois) just south of downtown, featuring many Chinese shops and restaurants, as well as a number of Vietnamese establishments. Several of these restaurants offer dim sum from as early as seven a.m. to three p.m. and can be quite crowded, especially on Sundays. The principal axes of Chinatown are Saint Lawrence Boulevard and La Gauchetière Street.
The Gay Village
Montreal is known as a Queer or Gay-friendly city. Its pride festival, Divers/Cité, is the second largest in North America after Toronto's; organizers estimate that it drew 1.4 million people in 2002. It benefits from financial support from all three levels of government. Montreal is home to one of the largest gay villages in North America, centred around the downtown Beaudry metro station (known in French as le Village gai). Montreal is an epicentre of Queer life and culture in Canada, and hosts several circuit parties every year. The 2006 World Outgames are to be held in Montreal.
The Plateau
Montreal's trendy Plateau neighbourhood is located on the twin North-South axes of Saint Laurent Boulevard and Saint Denis Street, and East-West axis of Mount Royal Avenue. The pedestrian-only Prince Arthur Street is also located in this neighbourhood. In the summer, night life often seems as active as in the day in this area.
Mount Royal
Every Sunday in the summer, hundreds of people gather at the foot of Mount Royal for several hours of drumming, dancing, and juggling (among many other activities), in an event that has come to be known as the Tam Tams. It is unclear how this event started; but, as it has no formal organization and has carried on both in a lively and peaceful way since at least the late 1980s, remains a popular event.
Night Life
Saint Denis Street is also the heart of the Latin Quarter of Montreal (Quartier latin), which is just south of the Plateau and filled with clubs, bars, and street festivals. The principal east-west axes of this district are Saint Catherine Street and Boulevard de Maisonneuve, with the Saint Denis as its north-south axis. The mood is bohemian.
Crescent Street is "party central" for Montreal's anglophone population, lying at the edge of the Concordia Ghetto (around the Concordia University campus where many students live). Throughout the summer, it features street fairs and festivals. The Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix unofficially starts off Montreal's non-stop festival season in the summer. Crescent Street also features many clubs and bars.
Sports
Montreal is famous for its hockey-hungry fans. The Montreal Canadiens is one of the oldest teams of the NHL, and a member of the 'Original Six'. Montreal is also the site of two high-profile racing events each year: the aforementioned Canadian Grand Prix, and the Molson Indy Montreal of the Champcars Series. Both races take place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile Notre-Dame. On July 13, 1982, Montreal hosted the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game outside the United States. The most important sporting event in Montreal's history, however, was when Montreal played host to the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Major Sports Venues
| Venue | Capacity | Team/Tournament/Attraction |
| Circuit Gilles Villeneuve | 100,000 | Canadian Grand Prix and Molson Indy |
| Olympic Stadium | 58,500 | Montreal Expos until 2005 Montreal Alouettes (playoff games) |
| Hippodrome de Montreal | 25,000 | Horse Racing |
| Bell Centre | 21,273 | Montreal Canadiens |
| Percival Molson Memorial Stadium | 20,202. (25,000 by 2007) | Montreal Alouettes |
| Île Sainte-Hélène Aquatic Complex | 13,000 | XI Fina World Championships |
| Stade Uniprix | 12,000 | Rogers Cup |
| Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard | 9,500 | Montreal Impact Montreal Impact plan to move to new 13,000 seat stadium by 2007. |
Current Professional Franchises
- Montreal Canadiens est. 1909. National Hockey League. Won the Stanley Cup 24 times, with its most recent championship in 1993.
- Montreal Impact, est. 1993. United Soccer Leagues. Two League Championships, with its most recent win in 2004.
- Montreal Alouettes est. 1946. Canadian Football League. 1946-1981 (disbanded); 1986-1987 (relocated); 1996-present. Six Grey Cup titles, its most recent win in 2002.
- Montreal Matrix, est. 2005. American Basketball Association. This team will start playing for the 2005-2006 season.
Past Professional Franchises
- Montreal Expos (baseball), 1969-2005. Awarded the Division Title twice. Relocated to Washington.
- Montreal Express (lacrosse) 2001-2004. Relocated to Minnesota.
- Montreal Roadrunners (Roller Hockey) 1994-1997. Disbanded.
- Montreal Supra (Soccer) 1988-1992. Canadian Soccer League ceased operations in 1992.
- Montreal Concordes (Football) 1982-1985. Renamed Alouettes in 1986 before relocating.
- Montreal Voyageurs (Ice hockey) 1969-1971. Relocated to Halifax.
- Montreal Maroons (Ice hockey) 1924-1938. Awarded the Stanley Cup twice. Disbanded.
- Montreal Wanderers (Ice hockey) 1903-1917. Awarded the Stanley Cup seven times. Disbanded.
- Montreal Shamrocks (Ice hockey) 1896-1910. Awarded the Stanley Cup twice. Disbanded.
Transportation
Montreal is a transportation hub for eastern Canada, with well-developed air, road, rail, and maritime links to the rest of Canada, as well as the United States and Europe.
Mass transit
The Montreal Metro was inaugurated in 1966 in time for the Expo 67 World's Fair held in the city the following year. Montreal is also served by a commuter rail system, which is managed and operated by the Agence métropolitaine de transport.
Airports
Montreal has two international airports, although only one is currently open for passenger flights. Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (formerly Dorval Airport, the name most locals still use) in the City of Dorval serves all commercial passenger traffic. To the north of the city is Montréal-Mirabel International Airport in Mirabel, which was envisioned as Montreal's primary airport but which now serves only cargo flights.
Roads
Like many major cities, Montreal has a problem with vehicular traffic, especially from off-island suburbs such as Laval on Île Jésus, and Longueuil on the southeastern shore. The width of the Saint Lawrence River has made the construction of fixed links to the southeastern shore expensive and difficult. Accordingly, there are only four road bridges (plus one road tunnel, two railway bridges, and a metro line), whereas the Rivière des Prairies is spanned by eight road bridges (six to Laval and two to the north shore).
Since Montreal is on an island, the directions used in the city plan do not precisely correspond with compass directions, as they are oriented to the geography of the island. North and south are defined on an axis roughly perpendicular to the St. Lawrence River and the Rivière des Prairies: North is towards the Rivière des Prairies, and south is towards the St. Lawrence. East and west directions are defined as roughly parallel to the St. Lawrence River (which flows southwest to northeast) and the Rivière des Prairies. East is downstream, and west is upstream.
Saint Lawrence Boulevard divides Montreal into east and west sectors. Streets that lie on both sides of Saint Lawrence Boulevard are divided into two parts, which have Est (East) or Ouest (West) appended to their names. Streets that lie on only one side of The Main (Saint Lawrence Boulevard) do not generally contain a direction in their names. Address numbering begins at one at Saint Lawrence Boulevard. East of it, numbers increase to the east, while west of it, numbers increase to the west. On north-south streets, house numbers begin at the St. Lawrence River and increase to the north. Odd numbers are on the east or north sides of the street, with even numbers on the west or south sides. Numbered streets generally run north and south, and the street numbers increase to the east. The municipalities annexed to Montreal in 2002 do not follow this system, except for Verdun and Montreal North.
According to the rules of the Commission de toponymie du Québec, the French-language form of street names is the only official one, and is to be used in all languages: e.g. chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges; rue Sainte-Catherine; côte du Beaver Hall. Most English speakers, however, use English generic equivalents such as "street" or "road", as do English-language media such as the Montreal Gazette. Officially bilingual boroughs have the right to use such names in official contexts, such as on street signs. In the past, a number of streets had both English and French names, such as "avenue du Parc" or "Park Avenue", "rue de la Montange" or "Mountain Street", "rue Saint-Jacques" or "Saint James Street". Some of these names are still in common colloquial use in English, and perpetuated by the tourism industry. Many streets incorporate an English specific name into French, such as "chemin Queen Mary", "rue University", "avenue McGill College". There are also a few cases where two names are official, such as "chemin du Bord-du-Lac/Lakeshore Road". Ironically many francophones have resisted the change to some French street designations; in the Verdun area, "rue de l'Église" street is referred to as "rue Church".
In English, the pre-Francization names are still commonly used, thus, although only the French is 'official', in English one often hears names such as Park Avenue, Mountain Street, Saint Lawrence Boulevard, Pine Avenue, Saint John's Boulevard etc. Canada Post accepts the French specific with English generic, as in "de la Montagne Street" or "du Parc Avenue", although many such forms are never used in speaking. Another anomaly is René Lévesque Boulevard. Once called "Dorchester", it was renamed for Quebec nationalist René Lévesque. However many Anglophones still refer to it as "Dorchester."
It is useful to note that, in Montreal as in other cities, the generic is usually omitted in either language, so one would simply talk of Park (or Du Parc), Mountain (or Montagne), Saint Lawrence (or Saint Laurent), University, McGill College, Doctor Penfield, or Fairmount.
Education
Universities
Montreal has one of the highest per-capita populations of post-secondary students of any large city in North America, due to its five urban universities within a five kilometre radius:
- McGill University
- Concordia University
- Université de Sherbrooke à Longueuil
- Université de Montréal:
- Université du Québec:
Neighbouring Municipalities
| North: Laval, Lachenaie, Repentigny | ||
| West: Vaudreuil-Dorion, L'Île-Perrot | Montreal | East: Longueuil |
| South: Kahnawake |
See also
- List of communities in Quebec
- List of Quebec regions
- List of Montreal boroughs
- List of Montreal media outlets
- List of Montreal metro stations
- List of Montreal bridges
- List of Montreal mayors
- List of malls in Montreal
- List of Montreal's 10 tallest skyscrapers
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Montreal.ogg|2005]]-[[April 26}}
Notes
- According to The Canadian Style, the official style guide of the federal and provincial governments, the name of the city is to be written with an accent as Montréal in all printed materials in both English and French. However, it is more common to omit the accent in English usage and keep the accent in French usage.
External links
- Template:Wikitravel
- Montreal Restaurant Guide - Greater Montreal City guide to restaurants, cafés and bars. View restaurant profile pages complete with menus, videos, picture galleries and more...
- Official portal of Montreal
- moreMontreal.com - web site directory and services, including an apartment search site, for the greater Montreal area.
- Montreal Travel Guide - GuideRoyal.Com - City guide to Montreal with information on travel, transport, shopping, airports, hotel booking, restaurants, night clubs, bars, events and more.
- Hospitality Club Montreal - stay with friendly Montrealers for free
- Historical maps of Montreal:
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (University of Texas): Montreal 1894 (476K)
- The Atlas of Canada: Montreal, circa 1915
- Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec (Quebec National Library): various very nice high-resolution maps, accessible via "Index des toponymes" / "M" / "Montréal (Québec)"
