Figure 1: Skyline Montréal sur le fleuve
Montreal(English) is the largest city in the province of Quebec, Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal. This comes from the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located. The city has a population of over 1.9 million in the “agglomeration” of Montreal.
The official language is French spoken by 55.1% of the population, followed by English(25%). It is high ranked by calling it “Canada’s Cultural Capital” and named a UNESCO City of Design.
History
Archaeological evidence demonstrates that various nomadic First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal for at least 2,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. Within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at least the 14th century. The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga in 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand". Seventy years later, French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the settlements had disappeared altogether from the St. Lawrence valley, possibly due to outmigration, epidemic of European diseases, or intertribal wars.
Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further French exploration in North America. To encourage French settlement, they wanted the Mohawk to move away, they persuaded them to make a new settlement at their former hunting grounds which became Kanesatake. The French colony remained until 1760 when it was surrendered to Great Brittain. Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. 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 the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill. For strategic reasons, Ottawa, was then established as the capital.
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 (both of which are the largest in Canada), the creation of the Quartier des Spectacles, re-construction of the Turcot Interchange, reconfiguration of the Decarie and Dorval interchanges, gentrification of Griffintown, metro line extensions and the purchase of new metro-cars, the complete revitalization and expansion of Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, the completion of Quebec Autoroute 30, the construction of a new toll-bridge to Laval are helping bring Montreal into the 21st century.
Climate
Montreal has four distinct seasons and the climate is classified as humid continental. Summers in Montreal have an average temperature of 26°C but frequently exceed 30°C. Winters in Montreal usually brings very cold, snowy, windy, and, at times, icy weather, with an average temperature of -5°C. However, some winter days rise above freezing, even allowing for rain at times, while others dip well below −20 °C. Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but are prone to drastic temperature changes. The lowest temperature ever recorded was −37.8 °C in 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C in 1975.
Old Montreal
Old Montreal or 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. 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.
Figure 2: Notre Dame Basilica
Culture
Montreal was referred to as "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle magazine. Montreal's many cultural communities have given it a distinct local culture. It has a tradition of producing both jazz and rock music. The city has also produced much talent in the fields of visual arts, theatre, 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.
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. Nicknamed la ville aux cent clochers (the city of a hundred steeples), 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." 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 second largest copper dome in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The most popular sport in Montreal is ice hockey. The city's professional hockey team, the Montreal Canadians, is one of the Original Six teams of the National Hockey League (NHL). The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball are the only team in North American sports to have more championship titles, with 27 World Series titles. Montreal also has a storied baseball history. The city was the home of the minor-league Montreal Royals of the International League until 1960.
Industry
Montreal is an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, culture, tourism, film and world affairs. It was even called a hub city, ranked 34th globally out of 289 cities for innovation across multiple sectors of the urban economy. It hostages the Montreal Aerospace Institute created to address Industry's present and future needs for engineering. Engineering students become familiar with the many fascinating challenges that Aeropsace has to offer, and develop their interest in Aerospace as a career path. The list of companies working with pharmaceuticals is like 20, most of them are developing treatments for cancer. Some examples: generic acute-care and oncology injectables, integrated infusion therapy, monoclonal antibodies, peptide-based therapeutics, molecular imaging products.
Montreal is the largest oil refining center in Canada. Many large companies are located near Montreal such as Shell Canada/ Chemical, Coastal Petrochemical, Parachem petrochemical, Basell Polyolefins and Suncor Energy.
Education
With access to nine universities and twelve junior colleges, Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America (4.38 students per 100 residents). There are two Anglophone universities in the city: McGill University is Canada's leading Post-Secondary institution. In 2011, McGill was ranked as the best University in Canada, and 17th best University in the world. Concordia University was created from the merger of Sir George Williams University and Loyola College in 1974. Concordia is also home to the John Molson School of Business which is recognized as one of Canada's top business schools and ranks within the top 100 worldwide. And there are seven Francophone universities located in the city of Montreal:
Université de Montréal (UdeM) is the second largest research university in Canada. Two separate institutions are affiliated to the university: the École Polytechnique de Montréal(School of Engineering) and HEC Montréal (School of Business). Université du Québec also has three separately run schools in Montréal, notably the École de technologie supérieure (ETS), the École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP) and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS).
The education system in the province of Quebec is slightly different from other systems in North America. Between the high school and university levels, there is an additional college level called CEGEP. It is at the same time a preparatory school (preparing students for admission to university) and a technical school (offering courses which lead to technical diplomas and specializations).