Montreal

Montreal Montréal ( City
Ville de Montréal
From top, left to right: Downtown Montreal skyline, Old Montreal, Notre-Dame Basilica, Old Port of Montreal, Saint Joseph's Oratory, Olympic Stadium
Montreal
Urban agglomeration	Montreal
Founded	May 17, 1642
Incorporated	1832
Constituted	January 1, 2002
Named for	Mount Royal
Boroughs	List Saint-Léonard Verdun Ville-Marie Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension
Government Federal riding		List Lac-Saint-Louis LaSalle—Émard—Verdun Laurier—Sainte-Marie Mount Royal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount Outremont Papineau Pierrefonds—Dollard Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie Saint-Laurent Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs
• Provincial riding	List Westmount–Saint-Louis
• MPs	List of MPs Pablo Rodríguez Francis Scarpaleggia Justin Trudeau Rachel Bendayan
Area Postal codes		H H1A, H1C-H3N, H3S-H3W, H4A-H4T, H4Z-H5B, H8R-H8Z, H9C-H9E, H9H, H9K
GDP (Montreal CMA)	C$221.9 billion (2018)[13]
GDP per capita (Montreal CMA)	C$48,289 (2022)[14]
Website	montreal.ca/en/

Montreal (CA: /ˌmʌntriˈɔːl/ ^ⓘ MUN-tree-AWL; French: Montréal [mɔ̃ʁeal] ^ⓘ) is the second most populous city in Canada, the tenth most populous city in North America, and the most populous city in the province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary",^[15] it is named after Mount Royal,^[16] the triple-peaked hill around which the early city of Ville-Marie was built.^[17] The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which obtained its name from the same origin as the city,^[18][19] and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is 196 km (122 mi) east of the national capital, Ottawa, and 258 km (160 mi) southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City.

As of 2021,^[update] the city has a population of 1,762,949,

Historically the commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s.^[27] Montreal remains an important centre of art, culture, literature, film and television, music, commerce, aerospace, transport, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, tourism, food, fashion, video game development, and world affairs. Montreal is the location of the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2006.^[28][29] In 2017, Montreal was ranked the 12th-most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Global Liveability Ranking,^[30] although it slipped to rank 40 in the 2021 index, primarily due to stress on the healthcare system from the COVID-19 pandemic.^[31] It is regularly ranked as a top ten city in the world to be a university student in the QS World University Rankings.^[32]

Montreal has hosted multiple international conferences and events, including the 1967 International and Universal Exposition and the 1976 Summer Olympics.^[33][34] It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics. In 2018, Montreal was ranked as a global city.^[35] The city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One;^[36] the Montreal International Jazz Festival,^[37] the largest jazz festival in the world;^[38] the Just for Laughs festival, the largest comedy festival in the world;^[39] and Les Francos de Montréal, the largest French-language music festival in the world.^[40] In sports, it is home to the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League, who have won the Stanley Cup 24 times, more than any other team.

Etymology and original names

In the Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang^[41] which was "the first stopping place" in the Ojibwe migration story as related in the seven fires prophecy.

In the Mohawk language, the land is called Tiohtià:ke.^{[42][43][44][45]} This is an abbreviation of Teionihtiohtiá:kon, which loosely translates as "where the group divided/parted ways."^[44][46]

French settlers from

The current form of the name, Montréal, is generally thought to be derived from Mount Royal (Mont Royal in French),[16]^[48] the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. There are multiple explanations for how Mont Royal became Montréal. In 16th century French, the forms réal and royal were used interchangeably, so Montréal could simply be a variant of Mont Royal.^[49][50][51] In the second explanation, the name came from an Italian translation. Venetian geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio used the name Monte Real to designate Mount Royal in his 1556 map of the region.^[48] However, the Commission de toponymie du Québec disputes this explanation.^[50]

Historiographer François de Belleforest was the first to use the form Montréal with reference to the entire region in 1575.^[48]

History

Pre-European contact

The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand people".[54] Evidence of earlier occupation of the island, such as those uncovered in 1642 during the construction of Fort Ville-Marie, have effectively been removed.

Early European settlement (1600–1760)

In 1603, French explorer

natives.

. Before these 100 arrived in the fall of 1653, the population of Montreal was barely 50 people.

By 1685, Ville-Marie was home to some 600 colonists, most of them living in modest wooden houses. Ville-Marie became a centre for the

Ville-Marie was the name for the settlement that appeared in all official documents until 1705, when Montreal appeared for the first time, although people referred to the "Island of Montreal" long before then.[62]

American occupation (1775–1776)

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As part of the American Revolution, the invasion of Quebec resulted after Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga in present-day upstate New York in May 1775 as a launching point to Arnold's invasion of Quebec in September. While Arnold approached the Plains of Abraham, Montreal fell to American forces led by Richard Montgomery on November 13, 1775, after it was abandoned by Guy Carleton. After Arnold withdrew from Quebec City to Pointe-aux-Trembles on November 19, Montgomery's forces left Montreal on December 1 and arrived there on December 3 to plot to attack Quebec City, with Montgomery leaving David Wooster in charge of the city. Montgomery was killed in the failed attack and Arnold, who had taken command, sent Brigadier General Moses Hazen to inform Wooster of the defeat.

Wooster left Hazen in command on March 20, 1776, as he left to replace Arnold in leading further attacks on Quebec City. On April 19, Arnold arrived in Montreal to take over command from Hazen, who remained as his second-in-command. Hazen sent Colonel Timothy Bedel to form a garrison of 390 men 40 miles upriver in a garrison at Les Cèdres, Quebec, to defend Montreal against the British army. In the Battle of the Cedars, Bedel's lieutenant Isaac Butterfield surrendered to George Forster.

Forster advanced to

, ("Fort Anne") on May 30 (delayed two days by wind).

Arnold eventually withdrew his forces back to the New York fort of Ticonderoga by the summer. On June 15, Arnold's messenger approaching Sorel spotted Carleton returning with a fleet of ships and notified him. Arnold's forces abandoned Montreal (attempting to burn it down in the process) prior to the June 17 arrival of Carleton's fleet.

The Americans did not return British prisoners in exchange, as previously agreed, due to accusations of abuse, with Congress repudiating the agreement at the protest of George Washington. Arnold blamed Colonel Timothy Bedel for the defeat, removing him and Lieutenant Butterfield from command and sending them to Sorel for court-martial. The retreat of the American army delayed their court martial until August 1, 1776, when they were convicted and

.

Modern history as city (1832–present)

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.^[63] The opening of the Lachine Canal permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids,^[64] while the construction of the Victoria Bridge established Montreal as a major railway hub. The leaders of Montreal's business community had started to build their homes in the Golden Square Mile from about 1850. By 1860, it was the largest municipality in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.^[65][66]

In the 19th century, maintaining Montreal's drinking water became increasingly difficult with the rapid increase in population. A majority of the drinking water was still coming from the city's harbour, which was busy and heavily trafficked, leading to the deterioration of the water within. In the mid-1840s, the City of Montreal installed a water system that would pump water from the St. Lawrence and into cisterns. The cisterns would then be transported to the desired location. This was not the first water system of its type in Montreal, as there had been one in private ownership since 1801. In the middle of the 19th century, water distribution was carried out by "fontainiers". The fountainiers^{[clarification needed]} would open and close water valves outside of buildings, as directed, all over the city. As they lacked modern plumbing systems it was impossible to connect all buildings at once and it also acted as a conservation method. However, the population was not finished rising — it rose from 58,000 in 1852 to 267,000 by 1901.^[67][68][69]

Tories led to the burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal

in 1849.

Montreal was the capital of the

]

An

After

World Wars

, the city saw protest against the implementation of conscription.

During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to disobey the federal government's registry of all men and women.^[74] The federal government, part of the Allied forces, was furious over Houde's stand and held him in a prison camp until 1944.^[75] That year, the government decided to institute conscription to expand the armed forces and fight the Axis powers. (See Conscription Crisis of 1944.)^[74]

Montreal was the official residence of the Luxembourg royal family in exile during World War II.^[76]

By 1951, Montreal's population had surpassed one million.

.

Olympic Torch inside Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The city hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics

.

The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming largely from the concerns of the French-speaking majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English Canadian minority in the business arena.^[80] The October Crisis and the 1976 election of the Parti Québécois, which supported sovereign status for Quebec, resulted in the departure of many businesses and people from the city.^[81] In 1976, Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics. While the event brought the city international prestige and attention, the Olympic Stadium built for the event resulted in massive debt for the city.^[82] During the 1980s and early 1990s, Montreal experienced a slower rate of economic growth than many other major Canadian cities. Montreal was the site of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, one of Canada's worst mass shootings, where 25-year-old Marc Lépine shot and killed 14 people, all of them women, and wounded 14 other people before shooting himself at École Polytechnique.

Montreal was

in 1982.

The 21st century has brought with it a revival of the city's economic and cultural landscape. The construction of new residential skyscrapers, two super-hospitals (the

]

Geography

Saint Lawrence and Ottawa

rivers.

Montreal is in the southwest of the province of Quebec. The city covers most of the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the river gateway that stretches from the

Montreal is at the centre of the

Climate

Montreal is classified as a

Summers are warm to hot and humid with a daily maximum average of 26 to 27 °C (79 to 81 °F) in July; temperatures in excess of 30 °C (86 °F) are common. Conversely, cold fronts can bring crisp, drier and windy weather in the early and later parts of summer.

Winter brings cold, snowy, windy, and, at times, icy weather, with a daily average ranging from −10.5 to −9 °C (13.1 to 15.8 °F) in January. However, some winter days rise above freezing, allowing for rain on an average of 4 days in January and February each. Usually, snow covering some or all bare ground lasts on average from the first or second week of December until the last week of March.^[89] While the air temperature does not fall below −30 °C (−22 °F) every year,^[90] the wind chill often makes the temperature feel this low to exposed skin.

Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but prone to drastic temperature changes; spring even more so than fall.^[91] Late season heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are possible. Early and late season snow storms can occur in November and March, and more rarely in April. Montreal is generally snow free from late April to late October. However, snow can fall in early to mid-October as well as early to mid-May on rare occasions.

The lowest temperature in Environment Canada's books was −37.8 °C (−36 °F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C (99.7 °F) on August 1, 1975, both at

Before modern weather record keeping (which dates back to 1871 for McGill),[93] a minimum temperature almost 5 degrees lower was recorded at 7 a.m. on January 10, 1859, where it registered at −42 °C (−44 °F).^[94]

Annual precipitation is around 1,000 mm (39 in), including an average of about 210 cm (83 in) of snowfall, which occurs from November through March. Thunderstorms are common in the period beginning in late spring through summer to early fall; additionally, tropical storms or their remnants can cause heavy rains and gales. Montreal averages 2,050 hours of sunshine annually, with summer being the sunniest season, though slightly wetter than the others in terms of total precipitation—mostly from thunderstorms.^[95]

Architecture

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For over a century and a half, Montreal was the industrial and financial centre of Canada.

Some of the city's earliest still-standing buildings date back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Although most are clustered around the Old Montreal area, such as the Sulpician Seminary adjacent to Notre Dame Basilica that dates back to 1687, and Château Ramezay, which was built in 1705, examples of early colonial architecture are dotted throughout the city. Situated in Lachine, the Le Ber-Le Moyne House is the oldest complete building in the city, built between 1669 and 1671. In Point St. Charles visitors can see the Maison Saint-Gabriel, which can trace its history back to 1698.

World Fair

.

Saint Joseph's Oratory, completed in 1967, Ernest Cormier's Art Deco Université de Montréal main building, the landmark Place Ville Marie office tower, the controversial Olympic Stadium and surrounding structures, are but a few notable examples of the city's 20th-century architecture. Pavilions designed for the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, popularly known as Expo 67, featured a wide range of architectural designs. Though most pavilions were temporary structures, several have become landmarks, including Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome U.S. Pavilion, now the Montreal Biosphere, and Moshe Safdie's striking Habitat 67 apartment complex.^{[citation needed]}

The Montreal Metro has public artwork by some of the biggest names in Quebec culture.^[106]

In 2006 Montreal was named a UNESCO City of Design, one of only three design capitals of the world (the others being

The Underground City (officially RÉSO), an important tourist attraction, is an underground network connecting shopping centres, pedestrian thoroughfares, universities, hotels, restaurants, bistros, subway stations and more, in and around downtown with 32 km (20 mi) of tunnels over 12 km² (4.6 sq mi) in the most densely populated part of Montreal.^{[citation needed]}

Neighbourhoods

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The city is composed of 19 large boroughs, subdivided into neighbourhoods.^[109] The boroughs are:

]

Many of these boroughs were independent cities that were forced to merge with Montreal in January 2002 following the

2002 municipal reorganization of Montreal

.

Mont Royal. Many neighbourhoods, including downtown, are in the borough of Ville-Marie

.

The borough with the most neighbourhoods is Ville Marie, which includes downtown, the historical district of Old Montreal,

]

The

]

The South West borough was home to much of the city's industry during the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th century. The borough included

]

Other notable neighbourhoods include the multicultural areas of

]

Old Montreal

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public square and attraction in Old Montreal

.

Old Montreal is a historic area southeast of downtown containing many attractions such as 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.^{[citation needed]}

Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored. Old Montreal is accessible from the downtown core via the

]

The riverside area adjacent to Old Montreal is known as the Old Port. The Old Port was the site of the Port of Montreal, but its shipping operations have been moved to a larger site downstream, leaving the former location as a recreational and historical area maintained by Parks Canada. The new Port of Montreal is Canada's largest container port and the largest inland port on Earth.^[112]

Mount Royal

The mountain is the site of Mount Royal Park, one of Montreal's largest greenspaces. The park, most of which is wooded, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York's Central Park, and was inaugurated in 1876.^[113]

Mont-Royal's eastern slope from the George-Étienne Cartier Monument. The park is one of Montreal's largest open space reserves

.

The park contains two

. The park hosts athletic, tourist and cultural activities.

The mountain is home to two major cemeteries, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (founded in 1854) and Mount Royal (1852). Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165 acres (67 ha) terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont. Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery is much larger, predominantly French-Canadian and officially Catholic.^[114] More than 900,000 people are buried there.^[115]

Mount Royal Cemetery contains more than 162,000 graves and is the final resting place for a number of notable Canadians. It includes a veterans section with several soldiers who were awarded the British Empire's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross. In 1901, the Mount Royal Cemetery Company established the first crematorium in Canada.^[116]

The first

Demographics

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2023)

Population history of Montreal

Year	Pop.	±%
1665	625	—
1667	760	+21.6%
1681	1,418	+86.6%
1685	724	−48.9%
1688	1,360	+87.8%
1692	801	−41.1%
1695	1,468	+83.3%
1698	1,185	−19.3%
1706	2,025	+70.9%
1739	4,210	+107.9%
1754	4,000	−5.0%
1765	5,733	+43.3%
1790	18,000	+214.0%
1825	31,516	+75.1%
1831	27,297	−13.4%
1841	40,356	+47.8%
1851	57,715	+43.0%
1861	90,323	+56.5%
1871	130,022	+44.0%
1881	176,263	+35.6%
1891	254,278	+44.3%
1901	325,653	+28.1%
1911	490,504	+50.6%
1921	618,506	+26.1%
1931	818,577	+32.3%
1941	903,007	+10.3%
1951	1,021,520	+13.1%
1961	1,201,559	+17.6%
1971	1,214,352	+1.1%
1976	1,080,545	−11.0%
1981	1,018,609	−5.7%
1986	1,015,420	−0.3%
1991	1,017,666	+0.2%
2002 municipal reorganization of Montreal. Source: [118]

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Montréal had a population of 1,762,949 living in 816,338 of its 878,542 total private dwellings, a change of 3.4% from its 2016 population of 1,704,694. With a land area of 364.74 km² (140.83 sq mi), it had a population density of 4,833.4/km² (12,518.6/sq mi) in 2021.^[119]

According to

In the 2016 census, children under 14 years of age (691,345) constituted 16.9%, while inhabitants over 65 years of age (671,690) numbered 16.4% of the total population of the CMA.[121]

Ethnicity

People of

The

City of Montreal

(2001−2021)

Panethnicgroup	2021[130]		2016		2011		2006		2001
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
European	1,038,940	60.29%	1,082,620	65.09%	1,092,465	67.74%	1,171,295	73.49%	784,420	76.92%
African	198,610	11.53%	171,385	10.3%	147,100	9.12%	122,880	7.71%	68,245	6.69%
Middle Eastern	159,435	9.25%	137,525	8.27%	114,780	7.12%	76,910	4.83%	34,035	3.34%
South Asian	79,670	4.62%	55,595	3.34%	53,515	3.32%	51,255	3.22%	33,310	3.27%
Latin American	78,150	4.54%	67,525	4.06%	67,160	4.16%	53,970	3.39%	31,190	3.06%
Southeast Asian	65,260	3.79%	58,315	3.51%	61,320	3.8%	47,950	3.01%	33,505	3.29%
East Asian	64,825	3.76%	61,400	3.69%	52,195	3.24%	52,650	3.3%	25,810	2.53%
Indigenous	15,315	0.89%	12,035	0.72%	9,510	0.59%	7,600	0.48%	3,555	0.35%
Other	23,010	1.34%	16,835	1.01%	14,585	0.9%	9,205	0.58%	5,675	0.56%
Total responses	1,723,230	97.75%	1,663,225	97.57%	1,612,640	97.76%	1,593,725	98.34%	1,019,735	98.1%
Total population	1,762,949	100%	1,704,694	100%	1,649,519	100%	1,620,693	100%	1,039,534	100%

Language

As of the 2021 Census,[126] 47.0% of Montreal residents spoke French alone as a first language, while 13.0% spoke English alone. 2% spoke both English and French as first languages, 2.6% spoke both French and a non-official language and 1.5% spoke both English and a non-official language. 0.8% of residents spoke English, French and a non-official language as first languages. 32.8% of residents had a non-official language as a mother tongue. The most common 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

The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 576,125 persons or 33.4% of the total population of Montreal. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were Haiti (47,550 residents or 8.3% of the population), Algeria (43,840; 7.6%), France (39,275; 6.8%), Morocco (33,005; 5.7%), Italy (30,215; 5.2%), China (26,335; 4.6%), the Philippines (20,475; 3.6%), Lebanon (17,455; 3.0%), Vietnam (16,395; 2.8%), and India (13,575; 2.4%).^[131]

Religion

The Greater Montreal Area is predominantly

.

Some 49.5% of the total population is Christian,

Orthodox Christians

, fuelled by a large Greek population. There is also a number of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox parishes.

Islam is the largest non-Christian religious group, with 218,395 members,^[134] the second-largest concentration of Muslims in Canada at 12.7%. The Jewish community in Montreal has a population of 90,780.^[135] In cities such as Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead, Jewish people constitute the majority, or a substantial part of the population. In 1971 the Jewish community in Greater Montreal numbered 109,480.^[136] Political and economic uncertainties led many to leave Montreal and the province of Quebec.^[137]

Economy

Montreal has the second-largest economy of Canadian cities based on GDP^[138] and the largest in Quebec. In 2019, Metropolitan Montreal was responsible for CA$234.0 billion of Quebec's CA$425.3 billion GDP.^[139] The city is today an important centre of commerce, finance, industry, technology, culture, world affairs and is the headquarters of the Montreal Exchange. In recent decades, the city was widely seen as weaker than that of Toronto and other major Canadian cities, but it has recently experienced a revival.^[140]

Industries include

The Port of Montreal is one of the largest inland ports in the world handling 26 million tonnes of cargo annually.[142] As one of the most important ports in Canada, it remains a transshipment point for grain, sugar, petroleum products, machinery, and consumer goods. For this reason, Montreal is the railway hub of Canada and has always been an extremely important rail city; it is home to the headquarters of the Canadian National Railway,^[143] and was home to the headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railway until 1995.^[144]

The headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency is in Longueuil, southeast of Montreal.^[145] Montreal also hosts the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, a United Nations body);^[146] the World Anti-Doping Agency (an Olympic body);^[147] the Airports Council International (the association of the world's airports – ACI World);^[148] the International Air Transport Association (IATA),^[149] IATA Operational Safety Audit and the International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (IGLCC),^[150] as well as some other international organizations in various fields.

Montreal is a centre of film and television production. The headquarters of

Montreal is also a global hub for

The video game industry has been booming in Montreal since November 2, 1995, coinciding with the opening of

portfolio. The studio will create 300 jobs.

Montreal plays an important role in the finance industry. The sector employs approximately 100,000 people in the Greater Montreal Area.

Several companies are headquartered in Greater Montreal Area including

.

The

, and more. Shell decided to close the refining centre in 2010, throwing hundreds out of work and causing an increased dependence on foreign refineries for eastern Canada.

Culture

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Montreal was referred to as "Canada's Cultural Capital" by

Being at the confluence of the French and the English traditions, Montreal has developed a unique and distinguished cultural face. The city has produced much talent in the fields of visual arts, theatre, dance, and music, with a tradition of producing both jazz and rock music. Another distinctive characteristic of cultural life is the vibrancy of its downtown, particularly during summer, prompted by cultural and social events, including its

, Black and Blue, and many smaller festivals. The city of Montreal is also widely recognized for its diverse and vibrant night life, which is considered a vital part of the local cultural ecosystem.

A cultural heart of classical art and the venue for many summer festivals, the

] have toured the world and worked with international popular artists on videos and concerts. The unique choreography of these troupes has paved the way for the success of the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil.

Nicknamed la ville aux cent clochers (the city of a hundred steeples), Montreal is renowned for its churches. There are an estimated 650 churches on the island, with 450 of them dating back to the 1800s or earlier.

Beginning in the 1940s, Quebec literature began to shift from pastoral tales romanticising the

.

Sports

The most popular sport is ice hockey. The professional hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, is one of the Original Six teams of the National Hockey League (NHL), and has won an NHL-record 24 Stanley Cup championships. The Canadiens' most recent Stanley Cup victory came in 1993. They have major rivalries with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, both of which are also Original Six teams, and with the Ottawa Senators, the closest team geographically. The Canadiens have played at the Bell Centre since 1996. Prior to that they played at the Montreal Forum.

The

league.

Montreal has a storied baseball history. The city was the home of the minor-league

auto race

.

CF Montréal (formerly known as the Montreal Impact) are the city's professional soccer team. They play at a soccer-specific stadium called Saputo Stadium. They joined North America's biggest soccer league, Major League Soccer, in 2012. The Montreal games of the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup^[199] and 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup^[200] were held at Olympic Stadium, and the venue hosted Montreal games in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.^[201]

Montreal is the site of a high-profile

race.

Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The stadium cost $1.5 billion;^[204] with interest that figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion, and was paid off in December 2006.^[205] Montreal also hosted the first ever World Outgames in the summer of 2006, attracting over 16,000 participants engaged in 35 sporting activities.

Montreal was the host city for the 17th unicycling world championship and convention (

) in August 2014.

Active professional sports teams in Montreal

Club	League	Sport	Venue	Established	Championships
Montreal Canadiens	NHL	Ice hockey	Bell Centre	1909	24
PWHL Montreal	PWHL	Ice hockey	Verdun Auditorium	2023	0
Montréal Alouettes	CFL	Canadian football	Percival Molson Memorial Stadium Olympic Stadium	1946	8
CF Montréal	MLS	Soccer	Saputo Stadium	2012	0
Montreal Alliance	CEBL	Basketball	Verdun Auditorium	2022	0

Media

Montreal is Canada's second-largest media market, and the centre of Canada's francophone media industry.

There are four over-the-air English-language television stations: CBMT-DT (CBC Television), CFCF-DT (CTV), CKMI-DT (Global) and CJNT-DT (Citytv). There are also five over-the-air French-language television 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, the English-language

. Montreal has numerous weekly tabloids and community newspapers serving various neighbourhoods, ethnic groups and schools.

Government

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The head of the

in the city council.

The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the final decision-making authority in the city, although much power is centralized in the executive committee. The council consists of 65 members from all boroughs.^[206] 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 council is required to supervise, standardize or approve certain decisions made by the borough councils.^{[citation needed]}

Reporting directly to the council, the executive committee exercises decision-making powers similar to those of the cabinet in a parliamentary system and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets and by-laws, submitted to the 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.^{[citation needed]}

Standing committees are the prime instruments for public consultation. 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 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.^{[citation needed]}

The city is only one component of the larger Montreal Metropolitan Community (Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal, CMM), which is in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection and waste management, etc., across the metropolitan area. The president of the CMM is the mayor of Montreal. The CMM covers 4,360 km² (1,680 sq mi), with 3.6 million inhabitants in 2006.^[207]

Montreal is the seat of the judicial district of Montreal, which includes the city and the other communities on the island.^[208]

Policing

Law enforcement on the island itself is provided by the

, or the SPVM for short.

Crime

Since 1975, when Montreal's homicide rate peaked at around 10.3 per 100,000 people with a total of 112 murders, the overall crime rate in Montreal has declined, with a few notable exceptions, reaching a minimum in 2016 with 23 murders.^[211][212] Sex crimes have increased 14.5 per cent between 2015 and 2016 and fraud cases have increased by 13 per cent over the same period.^[212] The major criminal organizations active in Montreal are the Rizzuto crime family, Hells Angels and West End Gang. However, in the 2020s, the city has seen an increase in overall crime, with a notable increase in homicides. 25 homicides were reported in 2020 which matched the number reported in 2019. The next year saw a 48% increase in murders with a total of 37 in 2021, giving the city a homicide rate of around 2.1 per 100,000 people. The Montreal Police Annual Report for 2021 showed that there were 144 shootings across the city, or an average of one shooting every 2.5 days. In comparison, there were 71 shootings recorded the year before.^[213] 2022 saw another 10.8% increase in homicides, with a total of 41 being reported (giving a slightly higher homicide rate of 2.3 per 100,000 people), the highest number since 2007, when there were 42.^[214]

Education

The

offer courses in French and five in English.

French-language elementary and secondary public schools in Montreal are operated by the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM),^[215] Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys^[216] and the Centre de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l'Île.^[217]

English-language elementary and secondary public schools on Montreal Island are operated by the English Montreal School Board and the Lester B. Pearson School Board.^[218][219]

With four universities, ten other degree-awarding institutions, and 12 CEGEPs in an 8 km (5.0 mi) radius, Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America (4.38 students per 100 residents, followed by Boston at 4.37 students per 100 residents).^[220]

Higher education (English)

• McGill University is one of Canada's leading post-secondary institutions and is widely regarded as a world-class institution. In 2021, McGill was ranked as the top medical-doctoral university in Canada for the seventeenth consecutive year by Maclean's^[221] and second in Canada and the 27th best university in the world by the QS World University Rankings.^[222]
• Loyola College in 1974.^[223] The university has been ranked as one of the top comprehensive universities in Canada by Macleans.^[224]

Higher education (French)

• École Polytechnique de Montréal (School of Engineering) and HEC Montréal (School of Business). HEC Montreal was founded in 1907 and is considered one of the best business schools in Canada.^[225]
• Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is the Montreal campus of Université du Québec. UQAM generally specializes in liberal-arts, although many programs related to the sciences are available.
  • The Université du Québec network also has three separately run schools in Montreal, notably the École de technologie supérieure (ETS), the École nationale d'administration publique (ÉNAP) and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS).
• L'Institut de formation théologique de Montréal des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice (IFTM) specializes in theology and philosophy.
• Institut d'hôtellerie et de tourisme du Québec (IHTQ) offers an Applied Bachelor in Hospitality and Hotel Management.
• Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal offers both a Bachelor and a Master program in classical music.

Additionally, two French-language universities,

Montreal based serving French Protestant community in Canada by offering both a Bachelor and a Master program in theology

Transportation

Like many major cities, Montreal has a problem with vehicular traffic congestion. Commuting traffic from the cities and towns in the West Island (such as

and South Shores. The width of the Saint Lawrence River has made the construction of fixed links to the south shore expensive and difficult. There are presently four road bridges (including two of the country's busiest) along with one bridge-tunnel, two railway bridges, and a metro line. The far narrower Rivière des Prairies to the city's north, separating Montreal from Laval, is spanned by nine road bridges (seven to the city of Laval and two that span directly to the north shore) and a Metro line.

The island of Montreal is a hub for the Quebec

Société de transport de Montréal

Public local transport is served by a network of buses, subways, and commuter trains that extend across and off the island. The subway and bus system are operated by STM (Société de transport de Montréal, “Montreal Transit Company”). The

The STM won the award of Outstanding Public Transit System in North America by the APTA in 2010. It was the first time a Canadian company won this prize.

The Metro was inaugurated in 1966 and has 68 stations on four lines.

Air

Montreal has two international airports, one for passengers only, the other for cargo.

It is one of Air Canada's major

continents

.

Airlines servicing Trudeau offer year-round non-stop flights to five continents, namely Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.^{[245][246][247]} It is one of only two airports in Canada with direct flights to five continents or more.

Rail

Montreal-based Via Rail Canada provides rail service to other cities in Canada, particularly to Quebec City and Toronto along the

.

Central Station is a major inter-city and commuter rail

hub for the city.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was founded here in 1881.

, but in 1978 all passenger services were transferred to Via. Since 1990, The Canadian has terminated in Toronto instead of in Montreal.

Montreal-based CN was formed in 1919 by the Canadian government following a series of country-wide rail bankruptcies. It was formed from the Grand Trunk, Midland and Canadian Northern Railways, and has risen to become CPR's chief rival in freight carriage in Canada.^[250] Like the CPR, CN divested itself of passenger services in favour of Via.^[251] CN's flagship train, the Super Continental, ran daily from Central Station to Vancouver and subsequently became a Via train in 1978. It was eliminated in 1990 in favour of rerouting The Canadian.

The commuter rail system is managed and operated by Exo, and reaches the outlying areas of Greater Montreal with six lines. It carried an average of 79,000 daily passengers in 2014, making it the seventh busiest in North America following New York, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, and Mexico City.^[252]

On April 22, 2016, the forthcoming automated rapid transit system, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), was unveiled. Groundbreaking occurred April 12, 2018, and construction of the 67-kilometre-long (42 mi) network – consisting of three branches, 26 stations, and the conversion of the region's busiest commuter railway – commenced the following month. To be opened in three phases as of 2022, the REM will be completed by mid-2024, becoming the fourth largest automated rapid transit network after the Dubai Metro, the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, and the Vancouver SkyTrain. Most of it will be financed by pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ Infra).^[253]

Bike Share Program

The city of Montreal is world-renowned for being in the top 20 most cyclist-friendly cities around the globe.^[254] It follows that they have one of the world's most successful bike share systems in BIXI. First launched in 2009^[255] with Montreal-based PBSC Urban Solutions ICONIC bikes, the bicycle-sharing scheme has since grown its fleet to include 750 docking and charging stations across the different neighbourhoods with 9000 bikes available for users.^[256] In what the STM states is a mission to combine different forms of mobility, transit card holders can now take advantage of their membership to also rent bicycles at select stations.

Notable people

International relations

Sister cities

Friendship cities

• Paris, France – 2006^[268]

See also

• List of anglophone communities in Quebec
• List of mayors of Montreal
• List of Montreal music venues
• List of shopping malls in Montreal
• List of tallest buildings in Montreal
• Montreal International Games Summit
• Order of Montreal
• Royal eponyms in Canada

Notes

References

Further reading

• Collard, Edgar A. (1976). Montréal: The Days That Are No More, in series, Totem Book[s]. This ed. slightly edited [anew]. Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday Canada, [1978], cop. 1976. x, 140, [4] p., ill. in b&w with maps and numerous sketches.
  ISBN 0-00-216686-0
  .
• Gagnon, Robert (1996). Anglophones at the C.E.C.M.: a Reflection of the Linguistic Duality of Montréal. Trans. by Peter Keating. Montréal: Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal. 124 p., ill. with b&w photos.
  ISBN 2-920855-98-0
  .
• Harris, David; Lyon, Patricia (2004). Montréal. Fodor's.
  ISBN 978-1-4000-1315-9. Archived
  from the original on October 18, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
• Heritage Montréal (1992). Steps in Time = Patrimoine en marche. Montréal: Québécor. 4 vol. of 20, 20 p. each. Text printed "tête-bêche" in English and in French. On title covers: "Montréal, fête, 350 ans".
• Marsan, Jean-Claude (1990). Montreal in evolution. McGill-Queen's University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7735-0798-2
  .
• Tomàs, Mariona. "Exploring the metropolitan trap: the case of Montreal." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2012) 36#3 pp: 554–567.
  doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01066.x
  .
• "2006 Census of Canada". Statistics Canada. 2008. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2008.
• "Montreal". 2006 Census of Canada: Community Profiles. Statistics Canada. 2008. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2008.
• Natural Resources Canada (2005). Canadian Geographical Names: Island of Montreal. Retrieved August 29, 2005.
• Michael Sletcher, "Montréal", in James Ciment, ed., Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History (5 vols., N.Y., 2005).

External links

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