in International French, and in Montreal French) is the second largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. It is the francophone Metropolis of North America and also nicknamed The City Of Saints, due to the many streets starting with the name "Saint". At the 2001 Canadian Census, there were 1,583,590 people living on the current territory of the city of Montreal proper (new 2006 demerged territory). The population of the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (also known as Greater Montreal Area) is estimated at 3,635,700 in 2005 [1], making it one of the largest French-speaking metropolitan areas in the world. Montreal is ranked as the 15th-largest metropolitan area in Northern America ([2] & [3]) and 77th in the world. In 2006, according to Traveler's Digest and AskMen.com, Montreal is ranked as the Number #1 city in the world to live in for its culture, architecture, history and ambience.[4][5]
Montreal is situated in the southwestern corner of the province of Quebec, approximately 270 kilometres (168 miles) southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital, and 190 kilometres (118 mi) east of Ottawa, the federal capital, 539 kilometres (335 mi) northeast of Toronto, 610 kilometres (380mi) north of New York City.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. Montreal is bordered by the St. Lawrence river on its south side, and by the Rivière des Prairies on the north.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 will be contested in the Olympic Stadium (Montreal). This championship will be the 16th contested.
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 François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal surrendered it to the British army under Jeffrey Amherst. Fire destroyed one quarter of the town on May 18, 1765.
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 bypass 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 the two linguistic groups roughly equal in size. The resulting increased Anglophone community built one of Canada's first universities, McGill, and the wealthy merchant classes began building large mansions at the foot of Mont Royal.
After Confederation — 1867
In 1852 Montreal had 58,000 inhabitants; by 1860 it 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 as much as "Wall Street" is used in the United States, or Toronto's "Bay Street" is used in Canada 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 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.
Currently, Montreal's favourable economic conditions allow further improvements in infrastructure, with the expansion of the metro system , construction of new skyscrapers and the development of a ring road around the island. Neighbourhood gentrification is also occurring at a rapid rate. Montreal now constitutes its own region of Quebec.
Borough divisions and demerged municipalities after 1 January 2006; The City of Montreal is demarcated by the bold outline.
Montreal was merged with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal on 1 January2002. The merger created a unified city of Montreal which covered the entire Island of Montreal. This move proved to be unpopular, and several former municipalities totalling 13% of the population of the Island of Montreal voted to leave the newly unified city in separate referendums which took place on 20 June2004. The demerger took place on 1 January2006, leaving 16 municipalities on the Island of Montreal: the city of Montreal proper plus 15 much smaller municipalities.
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.
Winter in Montreal sometimes brings large amounts of snow.
Montreal lies at the confluence of several climactic regions and thus the climate in Montreal varies greatly, both by season and day to day, and is considered a part of the culture of the city by Montrealers.
McTavish Street on a foggy day
Precipitation is abundant with an average snowfall of 2.14 metres (7.0 ft) per year in the winter and regular rainfall throughout the year averaging 897 millimetres (35.3 in). Each year the city government spends more than C$50 million on snow removal. Summer is the wettest season statistically, but it is also the sunniest.
The coldest month of the year is January, which has a daily average temperature of âˆ'10.4 °C (13 °F) â€" averaging a daily low of âˆ'14.9 °C (5.2 °F). Due to wind chill, the perceived temperature can be much lower than the actual temperature and wind chill factor is often included in Montreal weather forecasts. The warmest month is July which has a daily average temperature of 20.9 °C (69.6 °F) â€" averaging a daily high of 26.3 °C (79.3 °F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was âˆ'37.8 °C (âˆ'36.0 °F) on 15 January1957 and the highest temperature ever was 37.6 °C (99.7 °F) on 1 August1975[6]. Moderate to high humidity is common in the summer. In spring and autumn, rainfall averages between 55 and 94 millimetres (2.2 and 3.7 in) a month. Some snow in spring and autumn is normal. Similarly, late heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are a regular feature of the climate[7].
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.
About 67.8% of the population of Montreal area is composed of francophones, 18.4% have neither French nor English as their first language and are called allophones, and 13.8% are anglophones. On the island of Montreal itself, these numbers change and francophones constitute only 53% of the population, allophones 29%, and anglophones 18%. However, the majority of residents have at least a working knowledge[9] of both French and English, and a majority of allophones speak either English or French as a second language. This trend has increased after the French language legislation of the 1970s. Armenian, Italian, Chinese, Romanian, Arabic, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Hindi are also commonly spoken.
The information at left is from the 2001 Canadian Census.The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g. "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category "French" and the category "Canadian".) Groups with greater than 30,000 responses are included.
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 along the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a deep-draft inland waterway which links it to the industrial centres of the Great Lakes. It's the largest inland port in the world and is one of the most important. 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 is also a vibrant centre of Canadian film and television production. The operational headquarters and five studios of the Academy Award-winning documentary producer the National Film Board of Canada can be found here, as well as the head offices of Telefilm Canada, the national feature-length film and television funding agency. Given its eclectic architecture and broad availability of film services and crew members, Montreal is a popular filming location for feature-length films, and sometimes stands in for European locations. The city is also home to several distinct film festivals which contribute significantly to its economy.
Place Ville-Marie, an I. M. Pei-designed cruciform office tower built in 1962, sits atop an underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, one of the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, businesses, museums and universities, as well as metro stations, train stations, bus terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street.
Montreal was host to 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 site was built 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from downtown in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district. Montreal's Olympic Stadium has the world's tallest inclined tower at 175 metres (575 ft) high and leaning at 45 degree. Until the end of the 2004 season, the stadium was the home of the Montreal Exposbaseball team. The Olympic complex also includes the Montreal Biodome, Montreal Insectarium, and the Montreal Botanical Garden, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world, second only to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England. Two pyramidal towers, known as the Olympic Village, were built to house athletes. They now serve as apartments and offices.Today, the CFL's Montreal Alouettes play the last game of each season and playoff games in the Olympic Stadium. English speaking Montrealers nicknamed it the "Big O" because of its oval shaped roof. It has a capacity of up to 56,040 fans for a football game (45,000 for baseball) and it may hold more in the future when temporary overflow stands are added to the dugout pits and centre field for football. Locals also sometimes refer to the stadium as the "Big Owe" — a reference to its exorbitant total cost, which was only recently completely paid off. Also called the "big uh-oh" because the roof, which was supposed to be controlled to close and open, did not work.
Other well-known churches include the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, which is sometimes called the Sailors' Church, and the AnglicanChrist 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.
Chinatown
Chinatown in Montreal
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 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and can be quite crowded, especially on Sundays. The principal axes of Chinatown are Saint Laurent Boulevard and La Gauchetière Street.
Typical residential street in Plateau-Mont-Royal, June 2005
Montreal's trendy and colourful Plateau Mont Royal neighbourhood is located on the twin North-South axes of Saint Laurent Boulevard and Saint Denis Street, and East-West axes of Mount Royal Avenue and Sherbrooke Street. The cobbled, 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.It boasts the highest population density of all Montreal and the greatest number of creative people in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. The same source also states that it is the urban place where the most people travel mainly by foot, bicycle or public transport. The Plateau Mont-Royal has been dubbed the "coolest neighbourhood in North America" by Wallpaper* magazine . The exterior staircase is a distinctive feature of the city's architecture.
Mount Royal is Montreal's outstanding urban park, designed in 1876 by Frederick Law Olmsted, best known as the designer of New York's Central Park. Mount Royal's features include the Chalet and the Kondiaronk Belvedere overlooking downtown Montreal (the most famous view of the city), and man-made Beaver Lake (Lac aux Castors) with its recently renovated pavilion. Mount Royal is topped by an illuminated cross that has become a Montreal landmark.
Observant hikers on the park's many trails will find an abundance of small wildlife. In the winter, the park is the site of numerous cross-country ski trails and a new, refrigerated skating rink near Beaver Lake.
Once, a funicular railroad brought sightseers to its peak. Unfortunately, that attraction has long since vanished. A tramway also went up the mountain on the north side, replaced in the late 1950's by the Camillien Houde Parkway, which now bisects the mountain (the parkway is named for long-time but controversial former mayor, jailed during World War II for his opposition to conscription in Canada). The "11-Montagne" bus line perpetuates the route of the tram.
Every Sunday in the summer, hundreds of people gather at the statue of Confederation co-founder George-Étienne Cartier 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, it remains a popular event. The statue is currently undergoing extensive and long-needed renovations but the partying continues all around the construction area.
The intersection of Park and Pine Avenues (in French : Avenue du Parc, Avenue des Pins), just to the south, formerly a winding urban interchange (inspired by the New York parkways of Robert Moses), is also undergoing a major transformation to become more pedestrian-friendly.
The magnificent Floralies gardens, a preferred spot for flower and plant lovers, are located at the centre of the island. ÃŽle Notre-Dame also offers pedal boat rides on its network of canals, or, further west at the lake, a beach and other water sports. The Montreal Grand Prix takes place here in June, while the Montreal Casino is open year round.
During the period of Prohibition in the United States, Montreal became well-known as one of North America's "sin cities" with unparalleled nightlife, a reputation it still holds today. In part, its bustling nightlife is attributed to its relatively late "last call" (3 a.m.), and its many restaurants and afterhours clubs that stay open well on into the morning.
CrescentCrescent Street is "party central" for Montreal's anglophone population, lying at the edge of the Concordia University campus. Throughout the summer, it features street fairs and festivals. The Formula 1Canadian Grand Prix unofficially starts off Montreal's non-stop festival season in the summer. Crescent Street also features many clubs and bars. The clientele of Crescent nightclubs and bars are mostly students, tourists and in general a younger crowd looking for exhilaration and excitement. Most venues will play Top 40, rap and hip hop music. The nearest subway stops are Peel and Guy-Concordia.
Saint-DenisSaint Denis Street is the heart of the Latin Quarter of Montreal (Quartier latin), 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 Saint Denis Street as its north-south axis. The mood is bohemian.
The MainBoulevard Saint-Laurent (Saint Laurent Boulevard, known locally as "The Main") is one of the best places to find nightlife, with many bars and nightclubs and a wide range of restaurants. Saint-Laurent street night spots are often less mainstream than those on Crescent street, with a great variety; from Top 40 and urban music to electronica and techno, from underground and alternative rock to live bands. South of Prince Arthur Street, towards Sherbrooke Street, one is likely to encounter a "posher" clientele. From Prince Arthur Street north (to Mount Royal avenue & beyond), one should expect to rub shoulders with an "edgier" crowd. The nearest subway stop is Saint-Laurent.
Sainte-CatherineAnother notable night life spot is Ste-Catherine Street between St-Hubert and Papineau, where many gay nightclubs are concentrated.
Afterhour clubs
Montreal nightlife is also rated fourth in the world at www.askmen.com for its after-hours (3 to 11 a.m.). One can often see world-famous deejays such as Tiësto, Deep Dish and Armin van Buuren featured in Montreal's clubs and after-hours.
Strip-clubsMontreal is known in some circles as the strip club capital of Canada. The city has over 30 male and female strip clubs in the downtown area alone. Strip clubs in Montreal are unique in that the majority offer full-contact lap dances. Full-contact lap dances have been legal in the province of Quebec as of 2001. Strip clubs in Montreal are either categorized as full-contact or non-contact.
Strip clubs in Montreal operate differently from U.S. strip clubs. In Montreal exotic dancers are mostly independent workers, not house dancers. Dancers are thus free to work at a variety of strip clubs, and often do. Unlike U.S. exotic dancers, those working in Montreal retain all of the revenues from their performances; gratuity is not expected.
Montreal is also the site of two high-profile racing events each year: the Canadian Grand Prix, and the Molson Indy Montreal of the Champcars Series. Both races take place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on ÃŽle Notre-Dame. As of 2006, NASCAR is also rumoured to be in talks with city officials and the track promoter about a possible racedate, most likely for the Busch Series at first and possibly the Nextel Cup down the road.
The Montreal Alouettes of the CFL draw packed crowds at the small but picturesque Molson Stadium. With football's new-found popularity "en français", the University of Montreal's Carabins draw enthusiastic crowds as well.
In 2006, Montreal was expected to attract some 16,000 LGBT athletes, who will participate in the first-everGLISAWorld Outgames. The Outgames are being hailed as the largest international event in the city of Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.
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.
Construction of the metro was initiated by Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau who also brought the Olympics to Montreal in 1976. Each station of the Montreal Metro was designed by different architects with individual themes, and the trains themselves run on rubber tires, making the system quieter than most.
The metro system is currently being extended into Laval, north of Montreal. The 3 new stations are scheduled to be opened in 2007, several months late and several hundred million dollars over the initial, drastically lowballed, budget.
VIA Rail, which is headquartered in Montreal, provides several rail services to other cities in Canada, particularly to Quebec City and Toronto, of which it has several trains daily.
Amtrak, the U.S. national passenger rail system, provides service to Montreal, operating its Adirondack daily between Montreal and New York City.
Montreal-Trudeau is one of the few airports in the world that is prepared to handle the new Airbus A380, which is expected to begin service in 2007. Montreal is expecting to handle two of Air France's A380's and a Air FranceBoeing 747 every day. The A380 will initially be used on North Atlantic route services from Paris to Montreal. Lufthansa will use their Airbus A380 on a North Atlantic route services from Munich to Montreal.
The island of Montreal is a hub for the Quebec Autoroute system, and is served by Quebec Autoroutes A-10 (aka the Bonaventure Expressway on the island of Montreal), A-15 (aka the Decarie Expressway south of the A-40 and the Laurentian Autoroute to the north of it), A-13 (aka Mirabel Autoroute), A-20, A-25, A-40 (part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, and known as "The Metropolitan" or simply "The Met" in its elevated mid-town section), A-520, and A-720 (aka the Ville-Marie Autoroute). Many of these Autoroutes are frequently congested at rush hour.
Street grid system
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 Laurent Boulevard, also known as "The Main," divides Montreal into east and west sectors. Streets that lie on both sides of Saint Laurent 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 do not generally contain a direction in their names. Address numbering begins at one at Saint Laurent Boulevard. The numbers increase as you move away from the boulevard. On north-south streets, house numbers begin at the Saint Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal 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.
Montreal is the cultural centre of Quebec, French-speaking Canada and French-speaking North America as a whole. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the largest French speaking city in all of North America, the second in the world after Paris when counting the number of native francophones or the third (after Paris and Kinshasa) when counting second language speakers. The city is hub for French language television productions, radio, theatre, circuses, performing arts, film, multimedia and print publishing.
The degree to which Montrealers and Quebec residents support local output is impressive, considering the influence of nearby American and English Canadian culture. The cultural divide between Montreal's and Canada's Francophone and Anglophone culture is strong and is was famously referred to as the Two Solitudes by Canadian writer Hugh MacLennan. The Solitudes were historically strongly entrenched in Montreal, splitting the city geographically at St-Laurent Boulevard.
Anglophone
Montreal is also the cultural capital for English Quebec. The Montreal Gazette newspaper, McGill University, and the Centaur Theatre are traditional hubs of Anglo culture. Notable English-speaking Montrealers such as Leonard Cohen, Oscar Peterson, Nick Auf Der Maur and Mordecai Richler have been influential. Anglophones from the Eastern Townships, Ottawa Valley and Northern Quebec enjoy radio and television that is produced in English in Montreal.
English is well-represented and widely understood on the island of Montreal. Though anglophones only account for approximately 18% of the population, the majority of non-native English speakers are bilingual : some 57% of francophones and 70% of allophones claim to be able to carry a conversation in English.
While tensions can occur between anglophones and francophones, contemporary Montreal is home to a diverse collection of cultures and peoples who generally live together amicably.
Jewish
Montreal's Jewish community is historically one of the oldest in Canada and one of the most populous in the country, second to Toronto and numbering about 93,000 according to the 2001 census. The community is quite diverse, and is composed of many different Jewish ethnic divisions that arrived in Canada at different periond of time and under differing circumstances. Included among Montreal's diverse Jewish community are the European Jews (Ashkenazim) who arrived mostly prior to and following the Holocaust; the Middle Eastern and North African Jews (Mizrahim) who were already French-speaking having come mostly from former French colonies; and Spanish Jews (Sephardim) and again Ashkenazim who had previously settled in Britain and from there moved to Canada as far back as the 18th century. More recent arrivals include significant numbers of Russian, Argentinian, and French Jews as well as some individual Indian Jews, Ethiopian Jews and others. Close to 25% of Montreal's Jewish population have French as their mother-tongue.
Montreal's Jewish community is very active in business sectors such as fabrics, alcohol, real estate, finance, and the fine arts. Demographically smaller than other ethnic groups, Montreal's Jewish community has nevertheless been a leading contributor to Montreal's cultural landscape and is renowned for its level of charitable giving and its plethora of cultural and social service community institutions. Among these are the world renowned Jewish Public Library of Montreal, Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, and Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.
Jewish culinary contributions have also been a source of pride for Montrealers; two world-renowned contributions are Montreal's smoked meat sandwiches and Montreal style bagels. There are many private Jewish schools in Montreal, partly funded by the Quebec government (like most denominational schools in Quebec). Approximately 7,000 children attend Jewish day schools, over 50% of the total Jewish school age population, an extremely high percentage for North American cities.
Montreal's music scene has always garnered much attention in popular media (The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine, BBC, NPR...). The growing success of the current "scene" owes much to a couple of bold local record labels (Alien8 Recordings & Constellation Records), as well as the edgy Pop Montreal Music Festival.
Montreal is considered to be one of the cities with the most restaurants in the world (based on the ratio of restaurants to population), serving a wide variety of cuisines. *Poutine *Montreal-style bagel *Smoked meat *Montreal hot dog
