Montreal

Montreal (French: Montréal) is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the eighth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, meaning "City of Mary". The city is named after Mount Royal, a mountain with three peaks where the city began. Montreal is on the Island of Montreal and some smaller nearby islands, including Île Bizard. It is 196 kilometres (122 mi) east of Ottawa, the national capital, and 258 kilometres (160 mi) southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital.

As of the 2021 Canadian census, Montreal had a population of 1,762,949 and a metropolitan population of 4,291,732, making it the second-largest metropolitan area in Canada after Toronto. French is the city's official language. Most people in Montreal can speak French, and many can speak both French and English, making it one of the most bilingual cities in Canada. Montreal is the largest city where French is the main language in the Americas.

Montreal is an important centre for art, culture, music, business, and many other activities. It is home to the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2006.

Montreal has hosted many big events, such as the 1967 International and Universal Exposition. It is the only Canadian city to have hosted the Summer Olympics, which it did in 1976. The city holds the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the largest jazz festival in the world, the Just for Laughs festival, the largest comedy festival in the world, and Les Francos de Montréal, the largest French-language music festival in the world. In sports, it is home to the Canadiens of the National Hockey League, who have won the Stanley Cup many times.

Etymology and original names

See also: Name of Montreal

In the Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang or Moon’yaang, meaning "the first stopping place."

French settlers first named their town, founded in 1642, Ville Marie, named for the Virgin Mary.

The current name, Montréal, comes from Mount Royal, the hill in the city center. There are different ideas about how the name developed from Mont Royal.

History

Main article: History of Montreal

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Montreal history.

Pre-European contact

Archaeological findings show that Indigenous people lived on the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By AD 1000, they began to grow maize. Over the next few hundred years, they built fortified villages. The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, a group different from the Iroquois nations, created the village of Hochelaga near Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived. French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga in 1535 and thought the population was over a thousand.

Early European settlement (1600–1760)

In 1603, French explorer Samuel de Champlain found that the St Lawrence Iroquoians and their settlements were gone from the St Lawrence valley. In 1611, Champlain set up a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal. In 1639, a mission began there to share beliefs with local people. In 1642, Ville-Marie was founded on the southern shore of Montreal island. By 1685, about 600 colonists lived in Ville-Marie. Ville-Marie became a key place for the fur trade and for further exploration. Montreal was a French colony until 1760, when British forces took control during the Seven Years' War.

American occupation (1775–1776)

During the American Revolution, American forces took Montreal in 1775. After one leader left, another leader was killed in a failed attack. The Americans later left Montreal. There were battles and movements of troops, but eventually, the American forces withdrew back to a fort in New York by summer.

Modern history as city (1832–present)

Montreal became an official city in 1832. The Lachine Canal allowed ships to pass the Lachine Rapids, and the Victoria Bridge helped make Montreal a major railway center. By 1860, it was the largest city in British North America. In the 19th century, a water system was added to supply drinking water as the population grew.

Montreal was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, but lost this role when a mob destroyed the Parliament building. After that, the capital moved between Quebec City and Toronto until Ottawa became the capital in 1857.

During World War II, the mayor spoke out against requiring people to serve in the army. Montreal was where the Luxembourg royal family lived while their country was not free. By 1951, Montreal's population had passed one million, but Toronto was growing faster.

In the 1970s, there were changes because the French-speaking majority wanted to protect their culture and language. Some businesses and people left the city. Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics in 1976. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the city's economy grew more slowly than other big Canadian cities.

Since the 2000s, Montreal has seen new buildings, hospitals, and transportation projects, helping the city to keep growing.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Montreal

Montreal is in the southwest part of Quebec. The city covers most of the Island of Montreal, where the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers meet. The city's port is part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a waterway connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Montreal is named after Mount Royal, a three-peaked mountain.

Montreal is surrounded by several towns and cities, including Laval to the north, Longueuil, Saint-Lambert, and Brossard to the south, Repentigny to the east, and the West Island to the west.

Climate

Montreal has warm summers and cold winters. Summer temperatures often reach around 26 to 27 °C, and winter temperatures usually drop to between −10.5 to −9 °C, with plenty of snow. Spring and fall are mild but can have sudden temperature changes.

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Montreal

Montreal has many interesting buildings from different times. The city used to be an important place for business and industry. You can see factories, elevators, warehouses, and refineries that tell us about its past. There are 50 special places in Montreal that are recognized as National Historic Sites of Canada, more than any other city.

Some of Montreal’s oldest buildings are from the late 1600s and early 1700s. You can find them in the Old Montreal area, like the Sulpician Seminary next to Notre-Dame Basilica and Château Ramezay. Other old buildings are spread across the city, such as Le Ber-Le Moyne House in Lachine, which is the city’s oldest complete building.

Montreal also has famous buildings from the 1900s, like Saint Joseph's Oratory, the Art Deco main building of Université de Montréal, and the tall Place Ville Marie tower. Expo 67 brought many exciting designs, including the Montreal Biosphere and Habitat 67. The Montreal Metro has public art by well-known Quebec artists.

Montreal became a UNESCO City of Design in 2006, showing its strong design community. The Underground City is a big network of tunnels connecting shops, universities, hotels, and more.

Neighbourhoods

Main article: List of neighbourhoods in Montreal

See also: Boroughs of Montreal

Montreal has 19 large areas called boroughs. Each borough has many smaller neighbourhoods. Some central boroughs are Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Outremont, and Ville-Marie. In the east, you can find Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. In the northeast, there are Anjou, Montréal-Nord, Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, and Saint-Léonard. In the northwest, the boroughs include Ahuntsic-Cartierville, L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, and Saint-Laurent. In the south, the boroughs are Lachine, LaSalle, Le Sud-Ouest, and Verdun.

Many of these boroughs used to be their own cities. They all joined together with Montreal in January 2002.

Ville-Marie has the most neighbourhoods. It includes downtown, Old Montreal, Chinatown, the Gay Village, the Latin Quarter, and the Quartier international. It also has the Quartier des spectacles, which is still being developed. Other parts of Ville-Marie are the Golden Square Mile and Shaughnessy Village, which has many students from Concordia University. This borough also includes most of Mount Royal Park, Saint Helen's Island, and Notre-Dame Island.

The Plateau Mount Royal was once a working-class area where many French-speaking people lived. The largest neighbourhood here is called the Plateau, and it has many artists. Mile End is another neighbourhood in this borough, known for its many different cultures and famous bagel shops like St-Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel. The McGill Ghetto is home to many students and faculty from McGill University.

The Southwest borough used to have many factories. It included places like Goose Village and neighbourhoods such as Griffintown, Point Saint Charles, Saint Henri, and Little Burgundy.

Other interesting neighbourhoods are the multicultural areas of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Côte-des-Neiges, and Little Italy in Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is where you can find the Olympic Stadium.

Old Montreal

Main article: Old Montreal

Old Montreal is a historic area southeast of downtown. It has many attractions like the Old Port of Montreal, Place Jacques-Cartier, Montreal City Hall, the Bonsecours Market, Place d'Armes, Pointe-à-Callière Museum, the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, and the Montreal Science Centre. The architecture and cobblestone streets have been kept or restored. You can get to Old Montreal from downtown through the underground city, and it has bus routes, Metro stations, ferries, and bike paths.

The area next to Old Montreal by the river is called the Old Port. It used to be where ships loaded and unloaded goods, but now it is a place for fun and history maintained by Parks Canada. The new Port of Montreal is now Canada’s biggest container port and the largest inland port in the world.

Mount Royal

Main article: Mount Royal

The mountain has Mount Royal Park, one of Montreal’s biggest green spaces. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York’s Central Park, and it opened in 1876.

The park has two lookouts, with the Kondiaronk Belvedere being the most famous. It has a small plaza with a chalet that looks out over downtown Montreal. Other things in the park include Beaver Lake, a small ski slope, a sculpture garden, Smith House, an interpretive centre, and a monument to Sir George-Étienne Cartier. The park is used for sports, tourism, and cultural events.

Mount Royal has two big cemeteries: Notre-Dame-des-Neiges and Mount Royal. Mount Royal Cemetery is a large cemetery on the north slope of the mountain in the borough of Outremont. Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery is much bigger and mostly for French-Canadian people. Over 900,000 people are buried there.

In 2024, Elie-Wiesel Park opened on de Courtrai Avenue near Décarie Boulevard and Westbury Avenue in the Snowdon district in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The park is named after Elie Wiesel, a writer, teacher, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The park has a playground, places to relax, walking paths, furniture, green spaces, and special water features.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Montreal

In the 2021 Canadian census, Montreal had a population of 1,762,949 people. The city covers an area of 364.74 km².

The census also showed that the area around Montreal had a population of 4,291,732. In 2021, there were 270,430 children aged between 0 and 14.

Ethnicity

People of European ethnicities made up the largest group. In 2021, the breakdown of people in Montreal by their background was European (60.3%), African (11.5%), Middle Eastern (9.3%), South Asian (4.6%), Latin American (4.5%), Southeast Asian (3.8%), East Asian (3.8%), Indigenous (0.9%), and other or mixed backgrounds (1.3%).

Visible minorities made up 38.8% of Montreal’s population in 2021. The largest groups were Black Canadians (11.5%), Arab Canadians (8.2%), South Asian Canadians (4.6%), Latin Americans (4.5%), and Chinese Canadians (3.3%).

Language

In 2021, 47.0% of Montreal residents spoke French as their first language, while 13.0% spoke English. Some people spoke both languages or other languages as well. The most common non-official languages were Arabic (5.7%), Spanish (4.6%), Italian (3.3%), Chinese languages (2.7%), Haitian Creole (1.6%), Vietnamese (1.1%), and Portuguese (1.0%).

Immigration

See also: Haitians in Montreal

In 2021, immigrants made up 33.4% of Montreal’s population. The top countries where these immigrants came from were Haiti, Algeria, France, Morocco, Italy, China, the Philippines, Lebanon, Vietnam, and India.

Religion

Montreal has historically been a centre of Roman Catholicism.

In 2021, 49.5% of people in Montreal were Christian, mostly Roman Catholic (35.0%). Islam was the largest non-Christian religion. The Jewish community in Montreal had 90,780 members.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Montreal

Montreal has the second-largest economy of Canadian cities and the largest in Quebec. In 2019, the area around Montreal created almost a quarter of Quebec’s total economy. Today, Montreal is a key place for business, making things, technology, culture, and important world issues. It is home to the Montreal Exchange.

The city makes many different products, such as aerospace parts, electronic goods, medicines, books, computer programs, phone services, clothes, and many other items. Services like engineering, money work, schools, and finding new ideas are also very important. The Port of Montreal is one of the biggest ports far from the ocean, moving lots of goods every year.

Montreal is also famous for making movies and TV shows. Because of its different styles of buildings and many workers, it is a popular place to film. The city holds big parties for jazz music, which help its economy. It is also a leader in learning about artificial intelligence, with many companies and experts working there.

The city has grown a lot in making video games since 1995, with many famous game makers choosing to work there. Montreal is also important for money work, with many banks and financial companies based there.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Montreal

Montreal is called Canada's Cultural Capital. It is a big center for French-language television, radio, theatre, film, and publishing. The city has many cultural groups that give it a special local flavor. In 2005, Montreal was named the World Book Capital by UNESCO.

Montreal mixes French and English traditions, creating a unique cultural scene. The city is famous for its visual arts, theatre, dance, and music, especially jazz and rock. The downtown area comes alive in the summer with many festivals. The biggest is the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the largest jazz festival in the world. Other popular events include the Just for Laughs comedy festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, and many more.

Place des Arts is a key spot for classical music and summer festivals. It is home to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and other famous music groups. The city is also known for its churches, with many on the island. Montreal has many talented writers who have described life in the city in their stories.

Sports

Main article: Sports in Montreal

The most popular sport in Montreal is ice hockey. The city's team is the Montreal Canadiens. They are one of the Original Six teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). They have won many Stanley Cup championships. They play at the Bell Centre.

Montreal also has a team in the Canadian Football League (CFL) called the Montreal Alouettes. They play at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on the McGill University campus. Montreal has a history with baseball, too. The city had a team called the Montreal Royals until 1960. Later, the Montreal Expos played there until they moved in 2005.

Montreal hosts many sports events. It has a soccer team, CF Montréal, which plays at Saputo Stadium. The city also holds a big car race each year called the Canadian Grand Prix on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games and many other events.

Media

Main article: Media in Montreal

Montreal is Canada’s second-largest media market and the center of French-speaking media in the country.

The city has four English-language TV stations: CBMT-DT (CBC Television), CFCF-DT (CTV), CKMI-DT (Global), and CJNT-DT (Citytv). It also has five French-language TV stations: CBFT-DT (Ici Radio-Canada), CFTM-DT (TVA), CFJP-DT (Noovo), CIVM-DT (Télé-Québec), and CFTU-DT (Canal Savoir).

Montreal has three daily newspapers, including the English-language Montreal Gazette and two French-language papers, Le Journal de Montréal and Le Devoir. Another French-language paper, La Presse, switched to being online-only in 2018. There are also two free French dailies, Métro and 24 Heures, along with many weekly papers for different neighborhoods and groups.

Government

The leader of Montreal’s government is the mayor, who works with the city council. The mayor is Soraya Martinez Ferrada. The council has 65 members who help make important decisions for the city.

The council talks about many topics, like keeping the city safe, planning where new buildings can go, and taking care of the environment. There is also an executive committee that helps prepare budgets and other important papers for the council to approve.

Policing

Main article: Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

Law enforcement on the island is handled by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal. People often call this SPVM for short.

Crime

Since 1975, crime in Montreal has mostly gone down. But in recent years, there has been more crime, including some homicides. There have also been many shootings in the city.

The city has some groups that do illegal things, such as the Rizzuto crime family, Hells Angels and West End Gang. It is important to stay safe and follow the rules to help keep the community secure.

Education

Main article: Education in Montreal

In Quebec, kids go to school a little differently than in other parts of North America. After high school ends in grade 11, students go to a special school called CEGEP before university. CEGEP has two kinds of programs: one that prepares students for university (takes two years) and another that teaches useful job skills (takes three years). In Montreal, there are seventeen CEGEPs where students can learn in French, and five where they can learn in English.

Montreal has many places for higher learning, including four big universities and twelve CEGEPs close together. This makes it a top spot for students in North America.

Higher education in English

• McGill University is one of Canada's best schools and is known around the world, especially for its medical programs.
• Concordia University was formed by joining two older schools in 1974 and is one of Canada’s top all-around universities.

Higher education in French

• Université de Montréal (UdeM) is one of Canada’s biggest and best research universities. It has two special schools attached to it: the École Polytechnique Montréal for engineering and HEC Montréal for business.
• Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is part of the Université du Québec network and focuses mostly on liberal arts, but also offers science programs.
  • The Université du Québec also runs three other schools in Montreal, including the École de technologie supérieure for technology and the École nationale d'administration publique for public service.
• Other schools in Montreal include the L'Institut de formation théologique de Montréal des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice for theology and philosophy, and the Institut d'hôtellerie et de tourisme du Québec for hospitality and tourism management.
• The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal offers degrees in classical music.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Montreal

Montreal is a big city with lots of traffic, especially when people are going to work or school. Many roads cross the Saint Lawrence River, which can make travel tricky. The city has many highways that get very busy during rush hour. The government is trying to find ways to make travel easier.

Montreal has a good public transportation system. Buses, subways, and trains help people get around the city and nearby areas. The subway opened in 1966 and has many stations with quiet trains that run on rubber tires. There are two airports: Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport for passengers and Montreal Mirabel International Airport for cargo and some special flights. Montreal’s Central Station connects the city to other places in Canada and the United States.

Montreal is a great city for cyclists. It has a popular bike-sharing program with many stations and bikes for people to use.

Société de transport de Montréal

Air

Rail

Bike Share Program

Main articles: BIXI Montréal and PBSC Urban Solutions

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Montreal

Montreal has been home to many famous people over the years. The city has produced lots of well-known individuals, and there are many more you can learn about if you're interested!

International relations

Sister cities

Montreal has many sister cities around the world, including:

• Algiers, Algeria – 1999
• Barcelona, Spain
• Brussels, Belgium
• Bucharest, Romania
• Busan, South Korea – 2000
• Boston, United States – 1995
• Guadalajara, Mexico – 2004
• Hanoi, Vietnam – 1997
• Hiroshima, Japan – 1998
• Lyon, France – 1979
• Manila, Philippines – 2005
• Melbourne, Australia – 2007
• Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 1995
• Quito, Ecuador – 1997
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 1998
• San Salvador, El Salvador – 2001
• Shanghai, China – 1985
• Tunis, Tunisia – 1999
• Yerevan, Armenia – 1998

Friendship cities

Montreal also has a friendship city:

• Paris, France – 2006