Montreal

For other uses of "Montreal", see Montreal (disambiguation).

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Image:Montrealflag2.jpg Image:Montrealcoa.jpg (In detail) (In detail)
City motto: Concordia Salus (Latin: Well-being through harmony)
Image:Quemtl3.PNG
Province	Quebec
Mayor	Gérald Tremblay
MPs	Vivian Barbot, Bernard Bigras, Denis Coderre, Irwin Cotler, Stéphane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, Marlene Jennings, Francine Lalonde, Jean Lapierre, Paul Martin, Réal Ménard, Serge Ménard, Maria Mourani, Massimo Pacetti, Bernard Patry, Lucienne Robillard, Pablo Rodriguez, Francis Scarpaleggia, Thierry St-Cyr
MNAs	Raymond Bachand, Line Beauchamp, Lawrence Bergman, Michel Bissonet, Yvan Bordeleau, Jacques Chagnon, Russell Copeman, Philippe Couillard, William Cusano, Rita Dionne-Marsoliar, Jacques P. Dupuis, Henri-François Gautrin, Nicolas Girard, Louise Harel, Yolande James, Monique Jérôme-Forget, Geoffrey Kelley, Michèle Lamquin-Éthier, Elsie Lefebvre, Nicole Léger, Diane Lemieux, Nicole Loiselle, Pierre Marsan, François Ouimet, Lise Thériault, Tony Tomassi, Daniel Turp
Area  - % water	366.02 km² 1 Unknown
Population  - Total (2001 census)  - Metropolitan (2005)	Ranked 2nd 1,583,5901 3,635,700 (source)
Population density	4,326.5/km² (2001)
Established	1832
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
Postal code span	H
Area code	514, 438 (November 2005)
45°30′N 73°40′W
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1 New 2006 demerged city territory

Montreal or Montréal¹ (pronounced Image:Ltspkr.png/ˌmʌn.tɹiˈɒːl/ in Canadian English and Image:Ltspkr.png/mɒ̃.ɾe.al/ in Quebec French) is the second largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. 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 (Statistics Canada), making it one of the largest French-speaking metropolitan areas in the world. Montreal is ranked as the 30th largest metropolitan area in the Americas and 77th in the world. The city is the largest part of the Quebec region of Montréal. In 2006, Montreal tied with Vancouver to be named the most expensive Canadian cities to live in. Together, they placed 43rd worldwide (source: Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living survey).

As in most parts of Quebec, French is the most common spoken language in the city. Nevertheless, Montreal has a substantial anglophone population and many of the residents are bilingual. Montreal is a "Gamma" global city, hosting a multitude of international festivals and events including the XXI Summer Olympiad, Juste pour Rire (Just for Laughs), the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, The Montreal World Film Festival, and many others. 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 2005, only 35 homicides were committed in the city, one of the lowest numbers in its history. Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America. The city is a centre of health and aerospace science. In 2005, it won the distinction of being chosen UNESCO's “World Book Capital City 2005–2006” due to its vibrant literary scene.

Montreal is situated in the south western corner of Quebec approximately 270 kilometres (168 miles) southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital, and 190 kilometres (118 miles) east of Ottawa, the federal capital, and 539 kilometres from Toronto, the largest city in Canada. 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.

Contents 1 History 2 City government 3 Climate 4 Demographics 5 Religion 6 Economy 7 Places in Montreal 7.1 Downtown Montreal 7.2 Old Montreal 7.3 Griffintown 7.4 Olympic Village 7.5 Museums and Cultural Centres 7.6 Religious Sanctuaries 7.7 Chinatown 7.8 The Gay Village 7.9 The Plateau 7.10 Mile End 7.11 Mount Royal 8 Night Life 9 Sports 9.1 Major Sports Venues 9.2 Current professional franchises 9.3 Former professional franchises 10 Transportation 10.1 Public Transit 10.2 Airports 10.3 Roads 11 Culture 11.1 English-language Music 11.1.1 Indie 12 Education 12.1 Universities 13 Neighbouring Municipalities 14 See also 15 Notes 16 References 17 External links

History

Main article: History of Montreal

Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois have inhabited the Montreal area for some eight thousand years. The first European to reach the area was Jacques Cartier, when, on October 2, 1535, he entered the village of Hochelega, on the Island of Montreal.

Seventy years later, Samuel de Champlain arrived on the island, but the village of Hochelaga no longer existed. In 1611, he established La Place Royale, a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, but the local Iroquois successfully defended their land. The first permanent European settlement on the Island of Montreal was created in 1639 by a French tax collector named Jérôme Le Royer. Missionaries Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and a few French colonists set up a mission named Ville Marie on May 17, 1642.

Image:Old montreal.jpgVille 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.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the Seven Years' War and ceded New France to the Kingdom of Great Britain. American Revolutionists briefly held the city in 1775 but soon left. By this time, the city had gained its present name of Montreal, and it started to grow from British immigration. The golden era of fur trading began in the city with the advent of the locally owned North West Company, the main rival to the primarily British Hudson's Bay Company.

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The city's growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal, which permitted ships to pass by the unnavigable Lachine Rapids south of the island. Montreal was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, bringing more English-speakers to the city, making it roughly bilingual. The now large Anglophone community built one of Canada's first universities, McGill, and the wealthy began building large mansions at the foot of Mont Royal.

In 1852, Montreal had 58,000 inhabitants and by 1860, 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 much as "Wall Street" is used in the United States, or "Bay Street" is used today. With the annexation of neighbouring towns between 1883 and 1918, Montreal became a mostly Francophone city again. The tradition to alternate between a francophone and an Anglophone mayor thus began and lasted until 1914.

Image:Palais1880.jpgAfter World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States turned Montreal into a haven for Americans looking for alcohol. Despite the increase in tourism, unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. However, Canada began to recover from the Great Depression in the mid-1930s, and skyscrapers, such as the Sun Life Building, began appearing.

During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to ignore the federal government's registry of all men and women. Ottawa was furious over Houde's insubordination and put him in a prison camp until 1944, when the government was forced to institute conscription (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

After Montreal's population surpassed one million in the early 1950s, Mayor Jean Drapeau laid down plans for the future development of the city. These plans included a new metro system and an underground city, the expansion of Montreal's harbour, and the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. New buildings were built on top of old ones in this time period, including Montreal's two tallest skyscrapers up to then: the 43-storey Place Ville-Marie and the 47-storey Tour de la Bourse. Two new museums were also built, and finally in 1966, the metro opened, along with several new expressways.

The city's international status was cemented by Expo '67 and the Summer Olympics in 1976. A major league baseball team, called the Montreal Expos, was named after the Expo and started playing in Montreal in 1969. The team however moved to Washington, DC in 2005, and became the Washington Nationals.

Montreal celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1992, prompting the construction of two of Montreal's tallest skyscrapers: 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque. Currently, Montreal's favourable economic conditions allow further improvements in infrastructure, with the expansion of the metro system and the development of a ring road around the island. Neighbourhood gentrification is also occurring. Montreal now constitutes its own region of Quebec.Image:1545montreal-07.jpg

In late 2005, Montreal hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the first meeting joint meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol and to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

City government

For the recent city merger and demerger, see Montréal merger and demerger.

Image:Montreal2006.png Montreal was merged with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal on 1 January 2002. 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 June 2004. The demerger took place on 1 January 2006, leaving 16 municipalities on the Island of Montreal: the city of Montreal proper plus 15 much smaller municipalities.

The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. The current mayor is Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l'Île de Montréal (English: Montreal Island Citizens Union). The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the primary decision-making authority in the city. It currently consists of 73 members from all boroughs of the city. The Council has jurisdiction over many matters, including public security, agreements with other governments, subsidy programs, the environment, urban planning, and a three-year capital expenditure program. The City Council is also required to supervise, standardise or approve certain decisions made by the borough councils.

Reporting directly to the City Council, the executive committee exercises the decision-making powers appropriate to it and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets and by-laws, submitted by the City Council for approval. The decision-making powers of the executive committee cover, in particular, the awarding of contracts or grants, the management of human and financial resources, supplies and buildings. It may also be assigned further powers by the City Council.

Image:UCM.png 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.

The city of Montreal is only one component of the larger Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal (English: Metropolitan Community of Montreal or CMM), which is in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection, etc., across the metropolitan area of Montreal. The president of the CMM is the mayor of Montreal. The CMM covers 3,839 km² (1,482 mi²), with 3,431,551 inhabitants in 2002; it is thus larger in area and population than the city of Toronto, even after its 1998 merger. However, the city of Toronto is larger than the city of Montreal proper, and the Greater Toronto Area (a statistical area, and not an administrative entity like the CMM) is larger than the CMM, with 7,000 km² (2,700mi²); of area and over 5.2 million people.

Montreal boroughs	Image:Montrealflag2.jpg
Ahuntsic-Cartierville - Anjou - Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce - L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève - Lachine - LaSalle - Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Montréal-Nord - Outremont - Pierrefonds-Roxboro - Le Plateau-Mont-Royal - Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles - Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie - Le Sud-Ouest - Saint-Laurent - Saint-Léonard - Verdun - Ville-Marie - Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension

Climate

Image:Montreal - Plateau, day of snow - 200312.jpg Montreal lies at the confluence of several climactic regions and thus the climate in Montreal varies greatly, both by season and by day to day, and is considered a part of the culture of the city by Montrealers.

Precipitation is abundant with an average snowfall of 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) per year in the winter and regular rainfall throughout the year. Each year the city government spends more than C$50 million on snow removal. Frequent thunderstorms make summer 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 −10.4 °C (13 °F) — averaging a daily low of −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) — averaging a daily high of 26.3 °C (79.3 °F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was −37.8 °C (−36.0 °F) on 15 January 1957 and the highest temperature ever was 37.6 °C (99.7 °F) on 1 August 1975[1]. Moderate to high humidity is common in the summer. In spring and autumn, rainfall averages between 55 and 94 mm (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[2].

Despite its widely varying climate, the Montreal region supports a diverse array of plants and wildlife. The maple is one of the most common trees and the sugar maple in particular is an enduring symbol of Montreal and Quebec, thanks to the production of maple syrup.

Demographics

See also: List of famous Montrealers

The Census Metropolitan Area of Montreal (also known as Greater Montreal Area) has a population of 3,635,700 in 2005 according to Statistics Canada ([3]). This total includes the neighbouring cities of Laval and Longueuil, as well as other smaller cities. Montreal proper, in its new city borders following the January 1, 2006 demerger, has a population of 1,583,590 (according to 2001 census figures). A resident of Montreal is known as a Montrealer in English and a Montréalais(e) in French. Residents sometimes refer to the city by the shorthand of MTL, or occasionally by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport designation of YUL. The large population of Montreal justifies it having its own postal district, H span, together with Laval.

Most Montrealers speak French[4] as their first language while a minority speaks English as their first language. 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[5] of both languages, and a majority of allophones speak either English or French as a second language. This trend has increased after the French language supremacy proscriptions of the 1970s. Italian, Arabic, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Hindi are also very popular languages.

The Caucasian population is vastly decended from people of French, Irish, and Italian origin[6]. According to Statistics Canada 2001, the top four ethnic groups in the city are Canadian at 55.7% (1,885,085), French at 26.6% (900,485), Italian at 6.6% (224,460), and Irish at 4.7% (161,235). Statistics Canada concludes that those who identified themselves as Canadian are most likely of British, French or Irish origin whose families have been in Canada for many generations.

During the winter Montreal hosts Les Fete Des Neige from the end of January to the frist week of Febuary.

Montreal is a multi-ethnic city. Caucasians are the majority in the city but there are substantial groups of minorities.[7]

• White: 2,886,400 or 86.8%
• Blacks: 129,705 or 3.9%
• Arab: 67,830 or 2.0%
• Asian: 56,655 or 1.7%
• Chinese: 50,115 or 1.5%
• mixed race: 46,900 or 1.4%,

Religion

For a major North American city of its size, the Catholic population is visibly high as hundreds of churches dot the streets of Montreal. Over 84% of the population identify with the Christian heritage, the vast majority of them being of Roman Catholic heritage mostly due to the heavy numbers of French, Italian, Irish, and Portuguese inhabitants in the city. The Protestant and Orthodox presence which is much smaller are chiefly those of English, Greek, and Lebanese peoples. However, since Quebec's Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, very few francophone Quebecers practice their religion. The proportion of practicing Christians (especially Catholics) in Quebec is now significantly lower than the proportion of practicing Christians in the rest of Canada, or even North America.

Non-Christian religions are very large as well. The largest non-Christian group is now Muslim and is mostly composed of fairly recent arrivals. Montreal's Jewish community, while in decline, has had a huge impact on the cultural, artistic, economic and gastronomic life of the city, dating back to the mid-18th century. There are also small Buddhist, Sikh, Bahá'í and Hindu communities.

Economy

Image:Montrealskyline4.jpg Once the largest city in Canada, Montreal remains a vibrant major centre of commerce, industry, culture, finance, and world affairs. Montreal is a major port city, being at the start of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a deep-draft inland waterway which links it to the industrial centres of the Great Lakes. 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 industries include pharmaceuticals, high technology, textile and clothing manufacturing (the schamata industry), higher education, electronic goods, software engineering, building and city engineering, transportation devices, printed goods, fabric, and tobacco.

Montreal is one of the world's top aerospace industry centres. It is often said that Montreal is the only city in the world where an entire airplane can be built, from the start of engine crafting to the last paint drop. The leading wagon of the industry is unquestionably Bombardier, a manufacturer best known for medium-sized aircraft.

The headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency are located in Longueuil, southeast of Montreal. Montreal also hosts the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, a United Nations body); the World Anti-Doping Agency (an Olympic body); and the International Air Transport Association (IATA); as well as some 60 other international organizations in various fields. It is also home to the operational headquarters and five studios of the Academy Award-winning National Film Board of Canada.

Places in Montreal

Downtown Montreal

Image:Montreal skyline 7.jpg Downtown Montreal lies at the foot of Mount Royal, which is designated as a major urban park. The Downtown area contains dozens of notable skyscrapers — which, by law, cannot be higher than Mount Royal — including the aforementioned 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, as well as Ieoh Ming Pei's Place Ville-Marie. The Tour de la bourse is also a significant building in Montreal, as it's where all stock and derivative trades take place (Montreal World trade centre), and is also home to a successful program to encourage nesting peregrine falcons.

This cruciform office tower (Place Ville-Marie), 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, and businesses, as well as metro stations, transportation terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street. Other streets like Peel, de la Montagne, de Maisonneuve and Crescent are very popular as well. Downtown Montreal is located between the mountain Mount Royal and the river St Lawrence River. Image:Montreal Twilight Panorama 2007.jpg Two man-made islands are located in front of the Montreal Skyline panorama, Île Sainte-Hélène, and Île Notre-Dame. Île Notre-Dame hosts the Canadian Grand Prix and Formula One car races, as well as the Champ Car tournament. La Ronde (now owned by American company Six Flags) is the biggest amusement park in Montreal and is located on Île Sainte-Hélène. The International Fireworks Festival is held there every summer. The basic Skyline view may be seen from one of two lookouts on Mount Royal. The lookout at the Belevedere takes in downtown, the river, and the Montérégien Hills, and on clear days the Green Mountains of Vermont are visible. The view of eastern lookout on Remembrance Rd. sweeps out toward the Olympic Stadium, and beyond. Many tourists visit these lookouts. Montreal is known for the contrast between old and new. The Maison des Cooperants (a 146 m / 479 ft tall building) is right in front of an old church. Much of Old Montreal has been kept the way it was back in the day Montreal was first established. Old Montreal was a worldwide port, but shipping has been moved further east to the Port de Montreal site, leaving the Old Port/Vieux-Port as an historical area. The most recent trip to the North Pole departed from that specific port. The Montreal Skyline is ranked eighth in the Emporis in skyline views, a focal point in Montreal's recognition. The reason the Olympic Stadium was built 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) from downtown is that the owners thought that Montreal's downtown would expand to where the Olympic Stadium now stands.But never did.

Old Montreal

Southeast of downtown is Old Montreal (Vieux-Montréal), an historic centre with such attractions as the Old Port, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall, Place d'Armes, Pointe-à-Callière Museum, and the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica. Buildings and roads in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored to keep the look of the city in its earliest days as a settlement. Old Montreal was a worldwide port, but shipping has been moved further east to the Port de Montreal site, leaving the Old Port/Vieux-Port as an historical area. The most recent trip to the North Pole departed from that specific port. Downtown and Old Montreal are connected by the recent Quartier international de Montréal development.

Griffintown

Griffintown is the old name for a section of the city that spans from the borough of Point St. Charles to the Old Port, and north to Notre-Dame street. It was first settled by mostly Irish immigrants during the late 1800's. The population consisted mostly of labourers for the industries in the area. It was marked by poverty and cramped living conditions. Currently, it holds the stables for the horses that provide tours in carriages (calèche) around the Old Port. Many technological companies built office space in the area, and École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) built its residence there. Much of the original architechture remains, however, and the locals who grew up in the area keep old ghost stories alive.

Olympic Village

Image:Olympiastadion Montreal.jpg 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. Montreal's Olympic Stadium has the world's tallest inclined tower at 175 meters high and leaning at 45 degree. Until the end of the 2004 season, the stadium was the home of the Montreal Expos baseball 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.

Today, the CFL's Montreal Alouettes play their last game of their season and playoff games in the Olympic Stadium. It is nicknamed the "Big O" because of its oval shaped roof. It holds 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. It is also sometimes called the "Big Owe" due to the outrageous total cost of the stadium which is still being paid by taxpayers to this day.

Museums and Cultural Centres

Montreal is the centre of Quebec culture and a major centre of Canadian culture in general. It has many specialized museums such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the Musée d'art contemporain (MAC), the Redpath Museum, the McCord Museum of Canadian History, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The Place des Arts cultural complex houses the MAC and several theatres, and is the seat of the Montreal Opera and for the moment the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which is slated to receive a new concert hall adjacent to Place des Arts.

Religious Sanctuaries

Image:Niagara-Canada 714.jpg

Nicknamed "the city of saints," or "la ville aux cent clochers" (the city of a hundred belltowers), Montreal is renowned for its churches. As described by Mark Twain, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." The city has four Roman Catholic basilicas: Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, the aforementioned Notre-Dame Basilica, St. Patrick's Basilica, and Saint Joseph's Oratory. The Oratory is the largest church in Canada, with the largest dome of its kind in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Other well-known churches include the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, which is sometimes called the Sailors' Church, and the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, which was completely excavated and suspended in mid-air during the construction of part of the Underground City. All of the above are major tourist destinations, particularly Notre-Dame and the Oratory.

An impressive number of other churches can be found, as such that a five-minute walk is usually enough to find another one. A common expression of Montrealers is that we stumble into them walking.

Chinatown

Image:Chinatown-gate.thumb2.jpg 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 Lawrence Boulevard and La Gauchetière Street.

The Gay Village

Montreal is known as a Queer or Gay-friendly city. Its pride festival, Divers/Cité, is claimed to be the largest in North America; organizers estimate that it drew 1.4 million people in 2002. It benefits from financial support from all three levels of government. Montreal is home to one of the largest gay villages in North America, centred around the downtown Beaudry metro station (known in French as le Village gai). Montreal is an epicentre of Queer life and culture in Canada and hosts several circuit parties every year. The 2006 World Outgames are to be held in Montreal.

The Plateau

Montreal's trendy and colourful Plateau neighbourhood is located on the twin North-South axes of Saint Laurent Boulevard and Saint Denis Street, and East-West axis of Mount Royal Avenue. The 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 Montréal and the has 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.

Mile End

Not generally considered part of the Plateau, the tiny "Mile End" district is home to many Montreal artists and filmmakers. The city's two famous bagel emporia, the Fairmount[8] and St-Viateur bakeries, are located on the streets of the same names. Fairmount Street is also home to Wilensky's, immortalized in Mordecai Richler's novel "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" and Saint-Viateur is the site of several hipster cafés of note. The area has become noticeably more cash-rich in recent years, due in part to the presence of the Ubisoft studios in the district, on Saint Lawrence Boulevard.

Mount Royal

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 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 longtime 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 contruction 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.

Night Life

Saint Denis Street is also 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.

Crescent 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 1 Canadian 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 college 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.

Boulevard Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence 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.

Another notable night life spot is Ste-Catherine Street between St-Hubert and Papineau, where many gay night clubs are concentrated.

Montreal's bustling nightlife is enabled in part by its relatively late "last call" (3 a.m.), and the many restaurants and fast food joints that are open late into the night. Some bars and nightclubs charge a cover charge varying from 5 to 15$ CAD. You are expected to tip 1$ per drink. Popular late-night fare includes 99-cent pizza slices, Lebanese-style falafel sandwiches, shish taouk, and the local favourite, poutine.

Montreal nightlife is also rated fourth in the world at www.askmen.com for its afterhours (3 to 11 a.m.). Stereo, Aria and Circus are amongst the most notable places for ravers and late night people to gather. One can often see world-famous deejays such as Tiësto, Deep Dish and Armin Van Buren featured in Montreal's clubs.

Montreal 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.

Sports

Image:Montreal Canadiens.gif Montreal is famous for its hockey-hungry fans. The Montreal Canadiens is one of the oldest teams of the NHL, a member of the 'Original Six' and boasts the greatest number of Stanley Cup championships.

Montreal is also the site of two high-profile racing events each year: the aforementioned Canadian Grand Prix, and the Molson Indy Montreal of the Champcars Series. Both races take place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Île Notre-Dame. On July 13, 1982, Montreal hosted the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game outside the United States. The most important sporting event in Montreal's history, however, was when Montreal played host to the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Once the favored sport mainly of Montreal anglophones, football fever has spread across Quebec, with the pro football Montreal Alouettes of the CFL drawing packed crowds at the small but picturesque Molson Stadium, part of McGill University and nestled against the slopes of Mt-Royal. As noted above, the Alouettes play their last regular season game and post season games at the much-larger and enclosed Olympic Stadium, which has also been home to a number of Grey Cups, the CFL's championship game.

With football's new-found popularity "en français", the Université de Montréal's "Carabins" draw enthusiastic crowds at its mountainside Outremont stadium rivaling that of English universities Concordia and McGill. McGill itself was rocked by a hazing scandal in 2005 and shut down its program for the remainder of the season.

Montreal has an all-sports radio station, CKGM (The Team 990).

In July 2005 Montreal hosted the 11th FINA World Aquatics Championships.

In 2006 Montreal will attract some 16,000 LGBT athletes, who will participate in the first-ever World Outgames. The Outgames are being hailed as the largest international event in the city of Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.

Major Sports Venues

Venue	Capacity	Team/Tournament/Attraction
Gilles Villeneuve Circuit	100,000	Canadian Grand Prix and Molson Indy
Olympic Stadium	56 040	Montreal Expos until 2004 Montreal Alouettes (playoff games)
Hippodrome of Montreal	25,000	Horse Racing
Bell Centre	21,273	Montreal Canadiens
Molson Stadium	20,200	Montreal Alouettes
Île Sainte-Hélène Aquatic Complex	13,000	XI Fina World Championships
Stade Uniprix	12,000	Rogers Cup
Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard	9,500	Montreal Impact Montreal Impact plan to move to new 13,000 seat stadium by 2007.

Current professional franchises

Logo	Club	League	Venue	Established	Championships
Image:Montrealcanadienslogo.gif	Montreal Canadiens	NHL Hockey	Bell Centre	1909	24
Image:Alouettes.png	Montreal Alouettes	CFL Football	Molson stadium Olympic Stadium	1996	6
Image:MontrealImpactLogo.GIF	Montreal Impact	USL Soccer	Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard	1993	2
Image:Matrix 150.png	Montreal Matrix	ABA Basketball	Centre Pierre Charbonneau	2005	0

Former professional franchises

Logo	Club	League	Venue	Years	Championships
Image:MontrealExpos 100.png	Montréal Expos	Major League Baseball	Olympic Stadium	1969–2004	0
Image:MontrealExpress2.GIF	Montreal Express	National Lacrosse League	Bell Centre	2001–2004	0
	Montreal Rocket	Quebec Major Junior Hockey League	Bell Centre/ Maurice Richard Arena	–2003	0
Image:Montreal Roadrunners logo small.gif	Montreal Roadrunners	Roller Hockey International	Montreal Forum	1994–1995	0
			Molson Centre	1996–1997
Image:Montreal Supra logo small.jpg	Montreal Supra	Canadian Soccer League		1988–1992	0
	Montreal Manic	NASL	Olympic Stadium	1981-1983	0
Image:Montreal Machine logo.GIF	Montreal Machine	World League of American Football		1991–1992	0
Image:Montreal Concordes logo small.jpg	Montreal Concordes	Canadian Football League		1982–1985	0
Image:American Hockey League logo.png	Montreal Voyageurs	American Hockey League		1969–1971	0
Image:Montrealmaroonslogo.gif	Montreal Maroons	National Hockey League	Montreal Forum	1924–1938	2
Image:Montrealwandererslogo.gif	Montreal Wanderers	National Hockey League		1903–1917	7
	Montreal Shamrocks	Amateur Hockey Association		1896–1898	0
		Canadian Amateur Hockey League		1898–1905
		Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association		1905–1909
		Canadian Hockey Association		1909–1910
		National Hockey Association		1909–1910
	Montreal Royals	International League	Stade Hector Racine	1939–1960	2

Transportation

Montreal is a transportation hub for eastern Canada, with well-developed air, road, rail, and maritime links to the rest of Canada, as well as the United States and Europe.

Public Transit

Image:Montréal - Métro McGill - 20050310.jpg The Montreal Metro was inaugurated in 1966 in time for the Expo 67 World's Fair held in the city the following year. Montreal is also served by a commuter rail system, which is managed and operated by the Agence métropolitaine de transport.The Montréal metro is made up of 65 stations spread out along four lines.

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, a year late and several hundred million dollars over budget.

The current metro and buses within Montreal are operated by Société de transport de Montréal. In Laval, the buses are operated by Société de transport de Laval. The STM bus network consists of 169 daytime and 20 nighttime service routes.

Airports

Montreal has two big international airports, although only one is currently open for passenger flights. Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (formerly Dorval Airport, the name still used by locals) in the City of Dorval serves all commercial passenger traffic. To the north of the city is Montréal-Mirabel International Airport in Mirabel, which was envisioned as Montreal's primary airport but which now serves only cargo flights. In terms of land area, Mirabel is the world's second largest airport. It was built to handle over 50 million passengers a year, and by 2010 it was expected to handle over 120 million making it the busiest airport in the world. The New York boroughs of Manhattan and Queens can fit inside of Mirabel's borders. However, Trudeau is the only airport currently in operation in Montreal. In 2005, Montreal-Trudeau handled 10.9 million passengers and will handle 11.2 million in 2006. Trudeau airport serves 114 destinations worldwide making it one of the most connected airports in North America.

Roads

Image:Jacques Cartier Bridge.jpg Like many major cities, Montreal has a problem with vehicular traffic congestion, especially from off-island suburbs such as Laval on Île Jésus, and Longueuil on the southeastern shore. The width of the Saint Lawrence River has made the construction of fixed links to the southeastern shore expensive and difficult. Accordingly, there are only four road bridges (plus one road tunnel, two railway bridges, and a metro line), whereas the far narrower Rivière des Prairies is spanned by eight road bridges (six to Laval and two to the north shore).

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.

Since Montreal is on an island, the directions used in the city plan do not precisely correspond with compass directions, as they are oriented to the geography of the island. North and south are defined on an axis roughly perpendicular to the St. Lawrence River and the Rivière des Prairies: North is towards the Rivière des Prairies, and south is towards the St. Lawrence. East and west directions are defined as roughly parallel to the St. Lawrence River (which flows southwest to northeast) and the Rivière des Prairies. East is downstream, and west is upstream.

Saint Lawrence Boulevard divides Montreal into east and west sectors. Streets that lie on both sides of Saint Lawrence Boulevard are divided into two parts, which have Est (East) or Ouest (West) appended to their names. Streets that lie on only one side of The Main (Saint Lawrence Boulevard) do not generally contain a direction in their names. Address numbering begins at one at Saint Lawrence Boulevard. East of it, numbers increase to the east, while west of it, numbers increase to the west. On north-south streets, house numbers begin at the 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.

Moreover, the addresses are on a grid-axis system, as in many North American cities. Streets generally retain their grid position throughout their course, even if they are slightly diagonal. For example:

• Sherbrooke Street, which runs "east-west" is 3400 (north of the Saint Lawrence), so a house on the north-east corner of Sherbrooke St. would theoretically be numbered 3401, and on the north-west 3400.
• Saint Hubert Street, which runs "north-south" is 800 East, so a house on the north-east corner of St-Hubert St, would be 801 (or 801 East if the street crosses Saint Lawrence Boulevard), and a house on the south-east corner would be 800 East.
• Peel Street, which runs "north-south" is 1100 West, so a house on the north-west corner of Peel St, would be 1101 (or 1101 West if the street crosses Saint Lawrence Boulevard), and a house on the south-west corner would be 1100 West.

An anomaly is that zero is the Saint Lawrence River AND the Lachine Canal, so address numbers south of the Canal begin at zero at the river, then increase toward the canal, and the canal resets the address grid back to zero. There are only two streets (Atwater and Cherlevoix) that cross the canal without changing names, so that addresses south of the canal add a 0 (zero) before the number to act as a "negative" (though they still increase northward and respect the grid of the streets parallel to them). Therefore, 0400 Charlevoix St. is south of the canal, and 400 north of it.

Other grid axes:

• North-south streets, east side: St-Denis 600, Amherst/Christophe-Colomb 1100, Papineau 1800, De Lorimier 2100, Pie-IX Blvd 4100, Honoré-Beaugrand 8000, St-Jean-Baptiste Blvd 12000, Rousselière 14000.
• North-south streets, west side: Park Avenue 300, Peel 1100, Décarie 5300, Cavendish 6500.
• East-west streets: Notre-Dame 500, René-Lévesque Blvd 1150, Sainte-Catherine 1400, Ontario 2000, Sherbrooke 3400, Mont-Royal Avenue 4500, St-Joseph Blvd 5000, Beaubien 6500, Jean-Talon 7200, Jarry 8100, Henri-Bourassa 10700, De Salaberry 12000. Gouin Blvd, which follows the shore of Rivière des Prairies, is too crooked to have a constant grid reference.

Most on-island suburbs or boroughs merged recently on the west side of the island still have separate numbering systems, though most streets that start in the original 9 boroughs continue the Montreal numbering. The highest address in Montreal is 23000 Gouin Boulevard West in the borough of Pierrefonds.

Most streets in Montreal do not change name throughout their course, respecting their grid axis. Streets such as Saint Lawrence Boulevard, Papineau Ave., De Lorimier Ave. and Pie-IX Blvd. have a foot in both rivers, and some streets re-commence despite gaps or interruptions. There are a few notable exceptions which continue for historical reasons. A few north-south streets which begin in Old Montreal change name at Saint-Antoine Street, site of the former city wall (Saint-Pierre > Bleury, Bonsecours > Saint-Denis). Only one street changes name many times: McGill Street > Square-Vicoria Street > Beaver Hall Hill > Frère-André Place > Phillips Place > Phillips Square > Aylmer St.

According to the rules of the Commission de toponymie du Québec, the French-language form of street names is the only official one, and is to be used in all languages: e.g. chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges; rue Sainte-Catherine; côte du Beaver Hall. Most English speakers, however, use English generic equivalents such as "street" or "road", as do English-language media such as the Montreal Gazette. Officially bilingual boroughs have the right to use such names in official contexts, such as on street signs. In the past, a number of streets had both English and French names, such as "avenue du Parc" or "Park Avenue", "rue de la Montagne" or "Mountain Street", "rue Saint-Jacques" or "Saint James Street". Some of these names are still in common colloquial use in English, and perpetuated by the tourism industry. Many streets incorporate an English specific name into French, such as "chemin Queen Mary", "rue University", "avenue McGill College". There are also a few cases where two names are official, such as "chemin du Bord-du-Lac/Lakeshore Road".

In English, the pre-Francization names are still commonly used, thus, although only the French is 'official', in English one often hears names such as Park Avenue, Mountain Street, Saint Lawrence Boulevard, Pine Avenue, Saint John's Boulevard etc. Canada Post accepts the French specific with English generic, as in "de la Montagne Street" or "du Parc Avenue", although many such forms are never used in speaking. Another anomaly that typifies this kind of mixed heritage and history is René Lévesque Boulevard. Once called "Dorchester Boulevard" in its entirety, this long east-west street was renamed for Quebec nationalist René Lévesque, except for sections that run through the very Anglophone town of Westmount. However, the entire street is still sometimes referred to as "Dorchester."

It is useful to note that, in Montreal as in other cities, the generic is usually omitted in either language, so one would simply talk of Park (or Du Parc), Mountain (or Montagne), Saint Lawrence (or Saint Laurent), University, McGill College, Doctor Penfield, or Fairmount. This is mainly because a specific is almost never given to two streets. If duplication exists, they are always in different boroughs or towns and are retained for historial reasons. For example, Montreal's present 19 boroughs have 6 streets named "Victoria" (2 streets, 2 avenues, one court, and one square), and 9 more in on- or off-island suburbs. In recent years Montréal and most of its suburbs have dispensed entirely with such generic and linguistically fraught terms on their street signage.

Culture

English-language Music

• Bell Orchestre
• Leonard Cohen
• Rufus Wainwright
• Sam Roberts
• The Arcade Fire
• The Dears
• The Stills
• The Unicorns
• Simple Plan
• Wolf Parade

Indie

• L'Hémisphère Gauche likes to consider itself one of Montréal's best kept secrets, but it seems the cat's out of the bag. The bar's full slate of live independent and underground music makes it an increasingly popular hangout.

• Casa Del Popolo, La Sala Rossa and El Salon are three of the city's hottest stages, managed together to provide different sized venues. All play host to eclectic variety of local acts and touring buzz bands.

• Mile End Cultural Centre and The Green Room also work in tandem to get music to the people. The Mile End Cultural Centre stage is referred to as “Main” Hall, echoing the moniker of its home on St. Laurent Boulevard, Montréal's main drag and busiest artery. The Green Room is part hangout and part live music venue, while “Main” Hall is a performance space, not only for music, but for fashion, film, dance and theatre.

Source: "Indie nation", Canadian Geographic Online

Education

Image:Mcgill-u.jpg

Universities

As noted above, Montreal has a large population of post-secondary students. Its four urban universities are:

• McGill University:
  • Macdonald College
• Concordia University
• Université de Montréal:
  • École Polytechnique de Montréal
  • École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal
• Université du Québec:
  • Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
  • École de technologie supérieure (ETS)
  • École nationale d'administration publique(ENAP)
  • Institut nationale de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

A fifth one, Université de Sherbrooke, has a large campus in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal.

Image:Montreal-boroughs-post-demerger.png

Neighbouring Municipalities

	North: Laval, Lachenaie, Repentigny
West: Vaudreuil-Dorion, L'Île-Perrot	Montreal Demerged municipalities	East: Longueuil, Saint Lambert
	South: Kahnawake

See also

• [[wikitravel:{{{1|Montreal}}}|Travel guide to {{{1|Montreal}}}]] from Wikitravel
• List of communities in Quebec
• List of Quebec regions
• List of Montreal boroughs
• List of Montreal media outlets
• List of Montreal metro stations
• List of Montreal bridges
• List of Montreal mayors
• List of malls in Montreal
• List of Montreal's 10 tallest skyscrapers

Notes

1. It is most common to omit the accent in English-language usage (Montreal), unless one is using a proper name where the context requires the use of the accent (e.g. Le Journal de Montréal, as compared to Montreal Gazette), and to keep the accent in French-language usage (Montréal). This is also the approach favoured by The Canadian Press Style Book (ISBN 0-920009-32-8, at p. 234) and the Globe and Mail Style Book (ISBN 0-7710-5685-0, at p. 249). According to The Canadian Style (ISBN 1-55002-276-8, at p. 263-4), the official style guide of the federal government, the name of the city is to be written with an accent in all government materials.

References

• Statistics Canada (2004). 2001 Census of Canada. Retrieved Aug. 29, 2005.
• Natural Resources Canada (2005). Canadian Geographical Names: Island of Montreal. Retrieved Aug. 29, 2005.

External links