Montreal, Quebec (part 1)

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Ville de Montréal
File:VuedeMontreal.jpg
File:Flag of Montreal.svg
Flag		 File:Montreal city coa.png
Coat of arms
Motto: Concordia Salus ("well-being through harmony")
Location of Montreal in Quebec
Coordinates: 45°30′N 73°40′W / 45.5, -73.667
Country  Canada
Province Template:QC
Region Montréal
Founded 1642
Established 1832
Government
 - Mayor Gérald Tremblay
 - Language French (official)
Area [1][2][3]
 - City 365.13 km² (140.98 sq mi)
 - Urban 1,677 km² (647 sq mi)
 - Metro 4,259 km² (1,644 sq mi)
Highest elevation 233 m (764 ft)
Lowest elevation 6 m (20 ft)
Population (2006)[1][2][3]
 - City 1,620,693 (Ranked 2nd)
 - Density 4,439/km² (11,496/sq mi)
 - Urban 3,316,615
 - Metro 3,635,571
 - Demonym Montrealer (English), Montréalais / Montréalaise (French)
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code span H
Area code(s) (514) and (438)
Website Ville de Montréal
See also the second part. For other uses, see Montreal (disambiguation) and Quebec (disambiguation). Also see Criticism of Montreal, Quebec, and Montreal, Quebec.

Montreal, or Montréal,[4] (pronounced Montreal1.ogg [mɔ̃ʁeˈal] (help·info) in French, Montreal-english-pronunciation.ogg /ˌmʌntriˈɑːl/ (help·info) in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-largest city in Canada. Montreal was the largest city in Canada up until the 1970s, when it was surpassed in size by Toronto. Originally called Ville-Marie ('City of Mary'), some historians think the city takes its present name from Mount Royal, the three-headed hill at the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located,[5][6] or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French,[7] (Mont Royal / in present French).

The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city's charter.[8][9] Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.[10]. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, 1,620,693 people resided in the city of Montreal proper.[1] The population of the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (also known as Greater Montreal) was 3,635,571 at the same 2006 census. In the census metropolitan area, French is the language most spoken at home by 70.5% of the population (as of 2006 census).[11] In 2007, Forbes Magazine ranked Montreal as the 10th cleanest city in the world.[12] In the June 19th, 2008 edition of London based Monocle Magazine, Montreal was ranked 16th in a list of the world's 25 most liveable cities. Contributing factors included a strong arts community, booming aerospace industry and a vast network of free wireless internet.[13]

Contents

History

Main article: History of Montreal
File:Bird's eye view of Montreal 1889.jpg
The Montreal Harbour in 1889.

There is archaeological evidence of various nomadic native peoples occupying the island of Montreal for at least 2,000 years before the arrival of Europeans.[14] The St. Lawrence Iroquoians established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal.[15] The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, claiming the St. Lawrence Valley for France.[16] He estimated the population to be "over a thousand".[15]

Seventy years later, French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and their settlements had disappeared altogether from the St. Lawrence valley, likely due to inter-tribal wars, European diseases and out-migration.[15] Champlain established in 1611 a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, on a site initially named La Place Royale, at the confluence of Saint-Pierre river and St-Lawrence river, where present-day Pointe-à-Callière stands.[17]. In 1639, Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière obtained the Seigneurial title to the Island of Montreal in the name of the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal to establish a Roman Catholic mission for evangelizing natives. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve was the governor of the colony.

Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further French exploration in North America. It remained a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great Britain.

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The opening of the Lachine Canal permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids, while the construction of the Victoria Bridge established Montreal as a major railway hub. By 1860, it was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.

Montreal was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, but lost its status when a Tory mob burnt down the Parliament building to protest passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill.[18]

File:St.JamesSt.-Montreal -1910.jpg
Rue Saint-Jacques (former St. James Street) in 1910.

After World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States turned Montreal into a haven for Americans looking for alcohol. Unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Canada began to recover from the Great Depression in the mid-1930s, when skyscrapers such as the Sun Life Building began to appear.

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. Ottawa was furious over Houde's insubordination and held him in a prison camp until 1944, when the government was forced to institute conscription (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

Montreal's population surpassed one million in the early 1950s. The Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, allowing vessels to bypass Montreal: a development that would in time help to spell the end of the city's economic dominance. However, the 1960s saw continued growth, including Expo 67, the construction of Canada's tallest skyscrapers, new expressways and the Montreal Metro system.

The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming in large part from the concerns of the French-Canadian majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English-Canadian minority in the business arena. The October Crisis and the election of the separatist political party, the Parti Québécois, resulted in major political and linguistic shifts. Many companies and people left the city. In 1976, Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympics.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Montreal experienced a slower rate of economic growth than many other major Canadian cities. By the late 1990s, however, Montreal's economic climate had improved, as new firms and institutions began to fill the traditional business and financial niches.

Montreal was merged with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal on January 1, 2002. The merger created a unified city of Montreal which covered the entire island of Montreal. This move proved unpopular, and several former municipalities, totalling 13% of the population of the island, voted to leave the newly unified city in separate referendums in June 2004. The demerger took place on January 1, 2006, leaving 15 municipalities on the island, including Montreal.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Montreal
File:Marché Bonsecours and Foliage.jpg
Many people visit the city in the autumn for its foliage.

Montreal is located in the southwest of the province of Quebec, approximately 275 kilometres (168 miles) southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital, and 167 kilometres (104 mi) east of Ottawa, the federal capital. It also lies 502 kilometres (312 mi) northeast of Toronto, 407 kilometres (253 mi) northwest of Boston and 530 kilometres (329 mi) directly north of New York City.[19]

The city is located on the central and eastern portions 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, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean.[20] Montreal is defined by its location in between the St. Lawrence river on its south, and by the Rivière des Prairies on its north. The city is named after the most prominent geographical feature on the island, a three-head hill called Mount Royal.[21]

Montreal is at the centre of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, and is bordered by the city of Laval to the north, Longueuil, St. Lambert, Brossard, and other municipalities to the south, Repentigny to the east and the West Island municipalities to the west. The anglophone enclaves of Westmount, Montreal West, Hampstead, Côte Saint-Luc, the Town of Mount Royal and the francophone enclave Montreal East are all entirely surrounded by the city of Montreal.[22]

Climate

Template:Climate chart

Montreal lies at the confluence of several climatic regions. Usually, the climate is classified as humid continental or hemiboreal (Köppen climate classification Dfb).[23]

Precipitation is abundant with an average snowfall of 2.25 metres (84 in) per year in the winter. Regular rainfall throughout the year averages 900 mm (35.3 in). Summer is the wettest season statistically, but it is also the sunniest.

The coldest month of the year is January which has a daily average temperature of −10.4 °C (13 °F) — averaging a daily low of −14.9 °C (5.2 °F), colder than either Moscow (-10 °C) or Saint Petersburg (-6 °C). 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 an average daily high of 26.3 °C (79.3 °F); lower nighttime temperatures make an average of 20.9 °C (69.6 °F) thus air exchangers often achieve the same result as air conditioners. The lowest temperature ever recorded was −37.8 °C (−36.0 °F) on January 15, 1957 and the highest temperature ever was 37.6 °C (99.7 °F) on August 1, 1975.[24] High humidity is common in the summer which makes the perceived temperature higher than the actual temperature. In spring and autumn, rainfall averages between 55 and 94 millimetres (2.2 and 3.7 in) a month. Some snow in spring and autumn is normal. Similarly, late heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are a regular feature of the climate.[25]

2006 was noted as the only year in the history of Montreal when there were more inches of rain than of snow. There were 122.3 cm (48.1 in) of snow, and there were 122.5 cm (48.2 in) of rain. That year, Montreal received more rain than Vancouver, British Columbia.[26][27]


Cityscape

File:Montreal PlaceDArmes Panoramique.jpeg
A panorama of Place d'Armes in Old Montreal
File:Montreal Twilight Panorama 2006.jpg
A panorama taken from the Chalet du Mont Royal at the top of Mount Royal

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Montreal
File:Montreal City Hall Jan 2006.jpg
Montreal City Hall
File:StLouissquarehomes.jpg
Victorian homes on Saint Louis Square

For over a century and a half, Montreal was the industrial and financial centre of Canada. The variety of buildings included factories, elevators, warehouses, mills, and refineries which today provide a legacy of historic and architectural interest, especially in the downtown area and the Old Port area.

Today there are also many historical buildings in Old Montreal still in their original form: Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Bonsecours Market, and the impressive 19th-century headquarters of all major Canadian banks on St. James Street (French: Rue Saint Jacques). Saint Joseph's Oratory, completed in 1934, 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 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 remaining structures have become Montreal landmarks, including the geodesic dome US Pavilion, now the Montreal Biosphere, as well as Moshe Safdie's striking Habitat 67 apartment complex.

The Montreal Metro is filled with a profusion of public artwork by some of the biggest names in Quebec culture. The design and ornamentation of each station in the Metro system is unique.

In 2006, the city was recognized by the international design community as a UNESCO City of Design, one of the three world design capitals.[28]

Neighbourhoods

File:QuartierChinoisMontreal.JPG
Chinatown in Montreal
Main article: List of neighbourhoods in Montreal

Downtown Montreal

Main article: Downtown Montreal
File:Montreal night.jpg
Evening skyline

Downtown Montreal lies at the foot of Mount Royal, most of which is a major urban park, and extends toward the St Lawrence River. It is located entirely within the Ville Marie borough. The Downtown area contains dozens of notable skyscrapers — which bylaws restrict to the height of Mount Royal — including the aforementioned 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque.[29] The Tour de la Bourse (Stock Exchange Tower) is also another significant building in Montreal, and is home to the Montreal Exchange, which trades in derivatives such as futures contracts and options. The Montreal Exchange was the first stock exchange in Canada.[30] In 1999 all stock trades were transferred to Toronto in exchange for exclusivity in derivatives trading.[31]

Place Ville-Marie, an I. M. Pei-designed cruciform office tower built in 1962, sits atop an underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city the world's largest at 32 kilometres (20 miles) in length.[32] The underground city gives its 500,000 daily visitors indoor access to 2,000 stores, 200 restaurants, 1,200 offices, 1,600 housing units, 10 metro stations, train stations, bus terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown.[32] The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street, the city's busiest commercial artery.[33] Other major streets include Sherbrooke, René Lévesque Boulevard, Peel, Mountain Street, De Maisonneuve Boulevard and Crescent Street.

The downtown Ville-Marie borough includes two islands. The man-made Île Notre-Dame hosts the Canadian Grand Prix Formula One auto race, as well as the NAPA Auto Parts 200 NASCAR race.[34] The other island, Île Ste. Hélène is home to La Ronde, the sole amusement park in the Montreal area, as well as a historic British fort with the purposing of defending Montreal from American invasion in the early 19th century. Île Ste. Hélène also hosts the Montreal International Fireworks Festival during the summer months.

Old Montreal

Main article: Old Montreal
File:Montreal NDame1 tango7174.jpg
The Notre Dame Basilica viewed from Place d'Armes.

Old Montreal (French: Vieux-Montréal) is a historic area located southeast of downtown containing many different 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.

Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored and are frequented by horse-drawn calèches carrying tourists. Old Montreal is accessible from the downtown core via the underground city and is served by several STM bus routes and metro stations, ferries to the South Shore and a network of bicycle paths.

The riverside area adjacent to Old Montreal is known as the Old Port. The Old Port was the former site of the worldwide Port of Montreal, but its shipping operations have been moved further east to its current larger site, leaving the former location as a recreational and historical area maintained by Parks Canada. The new Port of Montreal is now Canada's largest container port and the largest inland port on Earth.[35]

Mount Royal

Main article: Mount Royal
File:Lac-aux-castors.jpg
Beaver Lake on Mount Royal.

The mountain is the site of Mount Royal Park (French: Parc du Mont-Royal), 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 inaugurated in 1876.

The park contains two belvederes, the more prominent of which is the Kondiaronk Belvedere, a semicircular plaza with a chalet, overlooking downtown Montreal. Other features of the park are Beaver Lake, a small man-made lake; a short ski slope; a sculpture garden; Smith House, an interpretive centre; and a well-known monument to Sir George-Étienne Cartier. The park hosts athletic, tourist, and cultural activities.

The mountain is also 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. Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is much larger, predominantly French-Canadian and officially Catholic[36]. More than 900,000 people are buried there.

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.

As previously mentioned, the city's name derives from that of the mountain, Mont Réal, the name in Middle French. The denomination had been unofficially applied to the city, formerly Ville-Marie, by the 18th century.

The first cross on the mountain was placed there in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city, in fulfilment of a vow he made to the Virgin Mary when praying to her to stop a disastrous flood. Today, the mountain is crowned by a 31.4 m-high (103 ft) illuminated cross, installed in 1924 by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and now owned by the city. It was converted to fibre-optic light in 1992. The new system can turn the lights red, blue, or purple, the last of which is used as a sign of mourning between the death of the Pope and the election of the next.


Culture

Main article: Culture of Montreal
File:St catherine street.jpg
A view of Saint Catherine Street.

Montreal was referred to as "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle Magazine.[13] The city is Canada's centre for French language television productions, radio, theatre, film, multimedia and print publishing. The Quartier Latin is a neighbourhood crowded with cafés animated by this literary and musical activity. Montreal's many cultural communities have given it a distinct local culture.

As a North American city, Montreal shares many cultural characteristics with the rest of the continent. It has a tradition of producing both jazz and rock music. The city has also produced much talent in the fields of visual arts, theater, music, and dance. Yet, being at the confluence of the French and the English traditions, Montreal has developed a unique and distinguished cultural face. Another distinctive characteristic of Montreal culture life is to be found in the animation of its downtown, particularly during summer, prompted by cultural and social events, particularly festivals. The city's largest festival is the Just for Laughs comedy festival, which is the largest in the world of its kind. Other popular festivals include the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Francofolies and the Montreal Fireworks Festival.

A cultural heart of classical art and the venue for many summer festivals, the Place des Arts is a complex of different concert and theatre halls surrounding a large square in the eastern portion of downtown. Place des Arts harbours the headquarters of one of the world's foremost orchestras, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. L'orchestre métropolitain and the chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal are two other well-regarded Montreal orchestras. Also performing at Place des Arts is the Opéra de Montréal and the city’s chief ballet company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In contemporary dance, Montreal has been active, particularly since the 1980s. Internationally recognized avant-garde dance troupes such as La La La Human Steps, O Vertigo, and the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault have toured the world and worked with international popular artists on videos and concerts. The intelligent integration of multi-discipline arts in choreography of these troupes has paved the way for the success of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil.

File:Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal 2.jpg
Saint Joseph's Oratory is the largest church in Canada.

Nicknamed la ville aux cent clochers ("the city of a hundred belltowers"), Montreal is renowned for its churches. Indeed, as Mark Twain once noted, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window."[37] 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.

Sports

Main article: Sport in Montreal
See also: List of Montreal parks
File:BellCenter.jpg
A Montreal Canadiens home game at the Bell Centre.

The most popular sport in Montreal is Ice hockey. The city's professional hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, are one of the Original Six NHL teams, and boast an NHL-record 24 Stanley Cup championships. The New York Yankees are the only other team in North American sports to have more championship titles with 26.

Montreal has a storied baseball history. The city was the home of the Montreal Royals until 1960 and Jackie Robinson broke the baseball colour barrier with the Royals in 1946 in an emotionally difficult year where Robinson was forever grateful for the local fans' fervent support[38] Major League Baseball came to town in the form of the Montreal Expos in 1969. They played their games at Jarry Park until moving into Olympic Stadium in 1977. After 37 years in Montreal, the team relocated to Washington, DC in 2005 and re-branded themselves as the Washington Nationals.[39] Various groups are trying to bring a Can-Am League team to the city to fill the void created by the departure of the Expos.

The Montreal Alouettes of the CFL draw packed crowds at the small but picturesque Molson Stadium for their regular season games. Late season and playoff games are played at the much larger, enclosed Olympic Stadium, which will also play host to the 2008 Grey Cup. The McGill Redmen, Concordia Stingers, and Université de Montréal Carabins play in the CIS university football league.

The city's USL First Division soccer team is called the Montreal Impact. They play at a soccer-specific stadium called Saputo Stadium. The Montreal games of the FIFA 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup were held at Olympic Stadium.[40]

Montreal was formerly the site of a high-profile racing event each year: the Canadian Grand Prix of F1 racing, and during a one time event, a NASCAR race in the Nationwide Series. These races took place on the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Île Notre-Dame, where the Champ Car series also raced from 2002 until 2006.. In 2008, after 29 years on the same circuit, the Grand Prix left Montreal, with the event moved to other cities (the 2009 calendar has Abu Dhabi scheduled).

Uniprix Stadium was built in 1993 and is used for the annual Rogers Cup Tennis Masters tournament. The ATP men's tennis tour and the Sony Ericsson WTA women's tennis tour switch between Montreal and Toronto every year.

File:Olympiastadion Montreal.jpg
Olympic Stadium, in the city's eastern section.

Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympics. Until eclipsed by the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Montreal Games were the most expensive in Olympic history, costing over $5 billion (equivalent to $20 billion in 2006). Montreal hosted the first ever World Outgames in the summer of 2006, attracting over 16,000 participants engaged in 35 sporting activities. They were the biggest sporting event in the city since the Summer Olympics of 1976.

Five beaches around the island, in addition to a network of parks that include one on the Mont Royal, offer a set of recreational activities enjoyed by the local population.

Sports teams of Montreal
Club League Sport Venue Established Championships
Montreal Canadiens NHL Ice hockey Bell Centre 1909 24
Montreal Alouettes CFL Football Percival Molson Memorial Stadium
Olympic Stadium 		1946–87
1996–today 		7
Montreal Impact USL Soccer Saputo Stadium 1993 2
Montreal Junior Hockey Club QMJHL Ice hockey Verdun Auditorium 2008 0
Montreal Matrix ABA Basketball Centre Pierre Charbonneau 2005 0
Montreal Sasquatch PBL Basketball TBA 2008 0
Quebec Caribou RCSL Rugby union Dollard-des-Ormeaux 1998 0

Media

Main article: Media in Montreal

Montreal is well served by a variety of media, including several English and French language television stations, newspapers, radio stations, and magazines. There are four over-the-air English-language television stations: CBC Television, CTV, Global and E! which also airs multicultural programming. There are also five over-the-air French-language television stations: Radio-Canada, TVA, TQS, Télé-Québec, and Canal Savoir.

Montreal has four daily newspapers. The English-language Montreal Gazette and the French-language La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal and Le Devoir. There are also two free French dailies, Métro and 24 Heures. Montreal also has myriad weekly tabloids and community newspapers serving various neighbourhoods, ethnic groups and schools.

There are 11 AM and 23 FM radio stations in Montreal. Of these 14 stations broadcast in English, 17 broadcast in French, 3 broadcast in multiple languages and one station is bilingual.

Economy

Montreal started out as the economic centre and largest city of Canada from the birth of the country up until the early 1970s when it was overtaken by Toronto. The loss of many headquarters and a large anglophone business community lessened Montreal's economic and social importance, and it would never fully recover.[41] In the early 1990s, Montreal's economy began to recover, and the city is today an important centre of commerce, industry, technology, culture, finance, and world affairs.

File:Universiydt.jpg
Looking up University Street
File:Montréal - Tour de La Bourse - 20050310.jpg
Tour de la Bourse (Stock Exchange Tower)
File:CCE Phase I.jpg
Cité du commerce électronique

Montreal industries include aerospace, electronic goods, pharmaceuticals, printed goods, software engineering, telecommunications, textile and apparel manufacturing, tobacco and transportation. The service sector is also strong and includes civil, mechanical and process engineering, finance, higher education, and research and development. In 2002, Montreal ranked as the 4th largest centre in North America in terms of aerospace jobs.[42]

The Port of Montreal is the largest inland port in the world handling 26 million tonnes of cargo annually.[43] As one of the most important ports in Canada, it remains a trans-shipment 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,[44] and was home to the headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railway until 1995.[45]

The headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency are located in Longueuil, southeast of Montreal.[46] Montreal also hosts the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, a United Nations body);[47] the World Anti-Doping Agency (an Olympic body);[48] the International Air Transport Association (IATA);[49] and the International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (IGLCC),[50] as well as some 60 other international organizations in various fields.

In 2006 Montreal was named a UNESCO City of Design, only one of three design capitals of the world (with the others being Berlin and Buenos Aires).[51] This distinguished title recognizes Montreal's design community. Since 2005 the city has also been home for the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda);[52] the International Design Alliance (IDA).[53]

File:Placevillemariedw.jpg
Place Ville-Marie

Montreal is also a centre of film and television production. The headquarters of Alliance Films and five studios of the Academy Award-winning documentary producer National Film Board of Canada can be found here, as well as the head offices of Telefilm Canada, the national feature-length film and television funding agency. Given its eclectic architecture and broad availability of film services and crew members, Montreal is a popular filming location for feature-length films, and sometimes stands in for European locations. The city is also home to many recognized cultural, film and music festivals (Just For Laughs, Montreal Jazz Festival, and others), which contribute significantly to its economy. It is also home to one of the world's largest cultural enterprises, the Cirque du Soleil.

The video game industry is also booming in Montreal since 1997, coinciding with the opening of Ubisoft Montreal. Recently, the city has attracted world leading game developers and publishers studios such as Ubisoft, EA, Eidos Interactive, Artificial Mind and Movement, Strategy First, mainly because video games jobs have been heavily subsidized by the provincial government. Every year, this industry generates billions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the Montreal area.

A diverse range of companies are headquartered in the Greater Montreal Area including Rio Tinto Alcan, Desjardins Group, Bombardier, Canadian National Railway, CGI Group, Air Canada, Air Transat, CAE, Saputo, Cirque du Soleil, Quebecor, Power Corporation, Bell Canada, SNC-Lavalin, Hydro-Québec, AbitibiBowater, Laurentian Bank, Pratt and Whitney Canada, Molson, Tembec, Alimentation Couche-Tard MEGA Brands, National Bank of Canada, VIA Rail, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

The Greater Montreal Area had a GDP of $120 billion in 2005, placing it 39th in the world.[54] It is expected to grow to almost $126 billion in 2008 and $140 billion by 2012.[55]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses - 100% data". Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population. 2007-03-13. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=302&SR=1&S=3&O=D&RPP=25&PR=24. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 
  2. ^ a b "Population and dwelling counts, for urban areas, 2006 and 2001 censuses - 100% data". Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population. 2007-03-13. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=801&PR=0&SR=1&S=3&O=D. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 
  3. ^ a b "Population and dwelling counts, for census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, 2006 and 2001 censuses - 100% data". Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population. 2007-03-13. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=201&S=3&O=D&RPP=150. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 
  4. ^ It is most common to omit the acute 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 the 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 pp. 263–4), the official style guide of the Government of Canada, the name of the city is to be written with an accent in all government materials.
  5. ^ "Island of Montreal" (in English) (HTML). Natural Resoruces Canada. http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/education/montreal_e.php. Retrieved on 07-02-2008. 
  6. ^ Poirier, Jean (1979), "Commission de toponymie du Québec", Island of Montréal, 5, Quebec: Canoma, pp. 6–8 
  7. ^ "real". Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law. 2007-10-10. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/real. 
  8. ^ Chapter 1, article 1, "Chartre de la Ville de Montréal" (in French) (HTML). 2008. http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=2&file=/C_11_4/C11_4.htm. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. 
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  10. ^ Participatory Democracy: Prospects for Democratizing Democracy‎, Dimitrios I. Roussopoulos, C. George Benello, p.292. "It [Montreal] is second only to Paris as the largest primarily French-speaking city in the world."
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Coordinates: 45°30′32″N 73°33′15″W / 45.50889, -73.55417

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