Thuở độ tròn trăng Dáng em thon thả Tóc xõa bờ vai Áo trắng thướt tha Dịu dàng e ấp Đôi mắt mơ huyền Nụ cười hồn nhiên Thoáng chút "lém lỉnh". Chân đi guốc mộc Nhịp nhàng em gõ Tay đánh đồng xa Tay kia xách cặp Đầy vẻ ngây thơ Trong trắng dịu hiền. Ấy thế mỗi khi Các anh nhìn em Sao thấy bồn chồn Chân như “quýu lại” Em mất tự nhiên Ngượng ngùng vụng về Sao lại thế nhỉ ? Tự lòng em hỏi ! Chắc tuổi cập kê Thường hay mắc cỡ Yêu thầm nhớ trộm Một nụ cười tươi Đầy nét hào hùng. Tuổi lãng mạn ấy Hay mơ hay mộng Tài tử giai nhân Cặp kè bát phố Sao vui thế nhỉ Chỉ ánh mắt nhìn Mỉm cười ẩn ý Cũng làm nhớ nhung Đứng ngồi không yên Vui vẻ suốt tuần.
Ở tuổi mộng mơ Thích nghe nhạc tình Xem phim "Si Si" Nhiều lúc lãng mạn Thả hồn theo mây Mơ được "Hoàng tử" Đến rủ đi “bal” Dìu bước nhịp nhàng Sao tình tứ quá Đời đẹp như thơ. Em yêu mông lung Mơ mộng viển vông Tuy không thực tế Luôn cảm thấy vui Chóng qua ngày tháng. Tuổi mộng thoáng trôi Tôi yêu nó lắm Quãng đời tươi đẹp Chan chứa mộng lành
Kim Đoan (Sherbrooke Canada 10-09-2010)
Hình ảnh Nữ sinh áo trắng do Kim Bảo Trần thực hiên
Vào dịp Lễ Tạ ơn bên Canada đầu tháng
10, Hoa Diên, Xuân Thu từ Ottawa đã đến Montreal ghé thăm các bạn và hẹn
nhau đi ăn uống chung, có sự hiện diện của các TV 6370 Hồng Châu, Minh
Thu, Như Mai, Nguyệt Minh, Ngọc San. Hôm ấy Kim Đoan không đến chung vui
với các bạn được vì đang đi học khóa Khí Công dưỡng sinh Hồng Gia được
tổ chức ở làng Cây Phong Bolton, Québec CANADA vào đúng cuối tuần đó. Sau khi ăn uống trò chuyện vui vẻ , vợ
chồng Hoa Diên có đến nhà Như Mai chơi , bạn bè lâu ngày mới gặp lại
có dịp nói chuyện riêng với nhau thời rất quý, tình thân được thắt chặt hơn và các
bạn TV ở Montréal lại hẹn sẽ hội ngộ với Ottawa vào mùa Xuân năm tới khoảng
tháng năm có hội hoa Tulip 2014.
Montreal (i/ˌmʌntriːˈɒl/;[6]French: Montréal ,[7] pronounced: [mɔ̃ʁeal] (listen)) is a city in the Canadianprovince of Quebec. It is the largest city in the province, the second-largest in the country (after Toronto) and the fifteenth-largest in North America. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary",[8] named after Mount Royal,[9] the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French[10] (Mont Royal in present French). The city is located on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city,[11][12] and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard.
As of 2011, the city of Montreal had a population of 1,649,519.[3] Montreal's metropolitan area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi)) had an estimated metropolitan population of 3,824,221[5] and a population of 1,886,481 in the urban agglomeration of Montreal, all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included.[13]
French is the city's official language[14][15]
and is also the language spoken at home by 56.9% of the population in
the city of Montreal proper, followed by English at 18.6% and 19.8%
other languages (as of 2006 census).[16]
In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 67.9% of the
population speaks French at home, compared to 16.5% who speak English.[17] 56% of the population are able to speak both English and French.[18] Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris.[19][20][21][22]
Montreal was called "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle and recently was named a UNESCO City of Design.[23][24] Historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto after 1976. Today it remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, culture, tourism, film and world affairs.[25]
In 2010, Montreal was named a hub city, ranked 34th globally out of
289 cities for innovation across multiple sectors of the urban economy,
in the Innovation Cities Index by[clarification needed] 2thinknow.[26]
In 2009, Montreal was named North America's number one host city for
international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary
rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association
(ICCA).[27] In 2012, QS World University Rankings ranked Montreal the 10th-best place in world to be a university student.[28]
Archaeological evidence demonstrates that various First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago.[29] By the year AD 1000, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages.[30] The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, a people distinct from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee then based in present-day New York, established the village of Hochelaga
at the foot of Mount Royal centuries before the French arrived.
Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other
locations in the valley since at least the 14th century.[31] The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand people".[31]
Seventy years later, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain
reported that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and their settlements had
disappeared altogether from the St. Lawrence valley. This is believed
due to outmigration, epidemic of European diseases, or intertribal wars.[31][32] In 1611 Champlain established a furtrading post on the Island of Montreal, on a site initially named La Place Royale. At the confluence of Petite Rivière and St. Lawrence River, it is where present-day Pointe-à-Callière stands.[33] 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 to evangelize natives. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve was the governor of the colony, which was established on May 17, 1642.[34] In 1689, the English–allied Iroquois attacked Lachine on the Island of Montreal, committing the worst massacre in the history of New France.[35]
Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further French exploration in North America.[34] By the early 18th century, the Sulpician Order
was established there. To encourage French settlement, they wanted the
Mohawk to move away from the fur trading post at Ville-Marie. They had a
mission village, known as Kahnewake,
south of the St. Lawrence River. The fathers persuaded some Mohawk to
make a new settlement at their former hunting grounds north of the
Ottawa River. This became Kanesatake.[36] In 1745 several Mohawk families moved upriver to create another settlement, known as Akwesasne.
All three are now Mohawk reserves in Canada. The Canadian territory was
ruled as a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great
Britain after their victory in the Seven Years War.[37]
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.[38] The opening of the Lachine Canal permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids,[39] while the construction of the Victoria Bridge
established Montreal as a major railway hub. The leaders of Montreal's
business community had started to build their homes in the Golden Square Mile from about 1850. By 1860, it was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.[40][41]
After World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States led to Montreal becoming a destination for Americans looking for alcohol.[43] Unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.[44]
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.[45] The government at Ottawa was furious over Houde's stand and held him at a prison camp until 1944.[46] That year the government decided to institute conscription to be able to expand the armed forces. (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).[45]
By 1951, Montreal's population had surpassed one million people.[47] The Saint Lawrence Seaway
opened in 1959, allowing vessels to bypass Montreal. In time this
development led to the end of the city's economic dominance as
businesses moved to other areas.[48] During the 1960s there was continued growth, including the World's Fair known as Expo 67, and the construction of Canada's tallest skyscrapers, new expressways and the subway system known as the Montreal Metro.
The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming in large part from the concerns of the French-speaking majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English-Canadian minority in the business arena.[49] The October Crisis and the 1976 election of the Parti Québécois, supporting sovereign status for Quebec, resulted in the departure of many businesses and people from the city.[50] In 1976, Montreal was the host of the Olympics.[51] During the 1980s and early 1990s, Montreal experienced a slower rate of economic growth than many other major Canadian cities.
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
covering the entire island. There was great resistance from the suburbs
to the merger, with the perception being that it was forced on the
mostly English suburbs by the Parti Québécois.
As expected, this move proved unpopular and several mergers were later
rescinded. Several former municipalities, totaling 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. De-merged
municipalities remain, however, affiliated with the city through an
agglomeration council that collects taxes from them to pay for numerous
shared services.[52]
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[clarification needed] are the largest in Canada), the creation of the Quartier des Spectacles, reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange, reconfiguration of the Decarie and Dorval interchanges, gentrification of Griffintown, subway line extensions and the purchase of new subway cars, the complete revitalization and expansion of Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, the completion of Quebec Autoroute 30, and the construction of a new toll-bridge to Laval are helping Montreal move into the 21st century.
Montreal's summers are humid, and range from warm to hot, with a
daily average of 21 to 22 °C (70 to 72 °F) in July; temperatures in
excess of 30 °C(86 °F) are not uncommon. Conversely, cold fronts can bring crisp, windy weather in the early and later parts of summer.
Winter in Montreal usually brings cold, snowy, windy, and, at times, icy weather, with a daily average of around −10 °C(14 °F)
in January. However, some winter days rise above freezing, allowing for
rain on an average of 4 days in January and February each. Usually,
snow cover lasts more or less from the first or second week of December
until the last week of March.[citation needed] On average, there are 8.2 nights below −20 °C(−4 °F), but temperatures as cold as −30 °C(−22 °F) do not occur every year,[citation needed] but the wind chill can reach the latter mark with little difficulty.
Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but prone to drastic temperature changes; spring even more so than fall. [57] April tends to be mild and sunny whereas May is rather warm and also quite wet. Late season heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are possible as well as snow storms in November and March.
The lowest temperature in Environment Canada's books was −37.8 °C(−36 °F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C(100 °F) on August 1, 1975, both at Dorval International Airport.[58]
Before modern weather record keeping (which dates back to 1871 for McGill[59]), a minimum temperature almost 5 degrees lower was recorded at 7am on January 10, 1859, where it registered at −43.6 °F(−42 °C). [60]
Annual precipitation is around 980 mm (39 in), including an average
of about200 cm (79 in) of snowfall, which occurs from November through
March. Thunderstorms are common beginning in the late spring through
summer to the early fall period; additionally, tropical storms or their
remnants can cause heavy rains. Montreal averages 2,029 hours of
sunshine annually, with summer being the sunniest season, though
slightly wetter than the others in terms of total precipitation.[61]
For over a century and a half, Montreal was the industrial and financial centre of Canada.[63] 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. There are 50 National Historic Sites of Canada in Montreal, more than any other city in Canada.[64]
Today there are also many historic 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 1967, Ernest Cormier's Art DecoUniversité 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 U.S. 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 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).[23] This distinguished title recognizes Montreal's design community. Since 2005 the city has been home for the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda);[65] the International Design Alliance (IDA).[66]
Montreal's Underground City
(officially RÉSO or La Ville Souterraine in French) is the set of
interconnected complexes (both above and below ground) in and around
Downtown Montreal.
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.[70]
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 was inaugurated in 1876.[71]
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 skislope, 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 home to two major cemeteries, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (founded in 1854) and Mount Royal (1852). Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165 acres (67 ha) terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont. Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery is much larger, predominantly French-Canadian and officially Catholic.[72] More than 900,000 people are buried there.[73]
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.[74]
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.[71] 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.[71] It was converted to fibre-optic light in 1992.[71]
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.[75]
According to Statistics Canada, at the 2006 Canadian census the city of Montreal proper had 1,620,693 inhabitants.[80] A total of 3,635,571 lived in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area
(CMA) at the same 2006 census, up from 3,451,027 at the 2001 census
(within 2006 CMA boundaries), which means a population growth of +1.05%
per year between 2001 and 2006.[81]
In the 2006 census, children under 14 years of age (621,695)
constituted 17.1%, while inhabitants over 65 years of age (495,685)
numbered 13.6% of the total population.[80]
People of European ethnicities
formed the largest cluster of ethnic groups in Montreal. The largest
reported European ethnicities in Montreal according to the 2006 census
were French 23%, Italians 10%, Irish 5%, English 4%, Scottish 3%, and Spanish 2%.[82] Some 26% of the population of Montreal and 16.5% that of Greater Montreal, are members of a visible minority (non-white) group,[83] up from 5.2% in 1981.[84]
The most numerous minorities are Blacks (7.7%), Arabs (4.3%), Latin Americans (3.4%), South Asians (3.2%), and Chinese (3%).[83] Visible minorities are defined by the Canadian Employment Equity Act as "persons, other than Aboriginals, who are non-white in colour."[85]
According to a recently published report by the city of Montreal, the
island is expected to number 1,991,200 by 2012, with 3.9 million in the
Greater Montreal Area, an increase of 15.8% over 2001. However, in
2009, the Greater Montreal Area is estimated to number 3.86 million
people, suggesting that the area surpass the four million threshold by
2012.[86]
According to StatsCan, by 2030, the Greater Montreal Area is expected
to number 5,275,000 with 1,722,000 being visible minorities.[87]
In terms of mother language (first language learned), the 2006 census reported that in the Greater Montreal Area, 66.5% spoke French as a first language, followed by English at 13.2%, while 0.8% spoke both as a first language.[88] The remaining 22.5% of Montreal-area residents are allophones, speaking languages including Italian (3.5%), Arabic (3.1%), Spanish (2.6%), Creole (1.3%), Chinese (1.2%), Greek (1.2%), Portuguese (0.8%), Romanian (0.7%), Vietnamese (0.7%), and Russian (0.5%).[88]
In terms of additional languages spoken, a unique feature of Montreal
among Canadian cities, noted by Statistics Canada, is the working
knowledge of both French and English possessed by most of its residents.
The Greater Montreal Area is predominantly Roman Catholic; however, weekly attendance in Quebec is among the lowest in Canada.[89]
Historically Montreal has been a centre of Catholicism in North America
with its numerous seminaries and churches, including the Notre-Dame Basilica, the Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde, and Saint Joseph's Oratory. Some 84.6% of the total population is Christian,[90]
largely Roman Catholic (74.5%), primarily due to descendants of
original French settlers, and others of Italian and Irish origins.
Protestants which include Anglican, United Church of Canada, Lutheran, owing to British and German immigration, and other denominations number 7.0%, with a further 3.0% consisting mostly of Orthodox Christians, fuelled by a large Greek population. There are also a number of Russian Orthodox parishes.
Islam is the largest non-Christian religious group, with 100,185 members,[90] the second-largest concentration of Muslims in Canada. The Jewish community in Montreal has a population of 88,765.[90] In cities such as Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead, Jewish people constitute the majority,[91][92]
or a substantial part of the population. As recently as 1971 the Jewish
community in Greater Montreal was as high as 109,480. Political and
economic uncertainties led many to leave Montreal and the province of
Quebec[citation needed].
Montreal has the second-largest economy among Canadian cities based on GDP[93] and the largest in Quebec.[94]
The city is today an important centre of commerce, finance, industry,
technology, culture, world affairs and is the headquarters of the Montreal Exchange.
The Montreal World Trade Centre west entrance on Victoria Square.
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 are in the city, as well as the head offices of Telefilm Canada, the national feature-length film and television funding agency and Télévision de Radio-Canada.
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.[105][106] The city is also home to many recognized cultural, film and music festivals (Just For Laughs, Just For Laughs Gags, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Montreal World Film 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.[107]
The video game industry is also booming in Montreal since 1997, coinciding with the opening of Ubisoft Montreal.[108] Recently, the city has attracted world leading game developers and publishers studios such as Ubisoft Montreal, EA, Eidos Interactive, Artificial Mind and Movement, Strategy First, THQ, mainly because of the quality of local specialized labor. Recently, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros., announced that it would open a brand new video game studio in Montreal.[109]
Relatively new to the video game industry, it will be Warner Bros.
first studio opened, not purchased, and will develop games for such
Warner Bros. franchises as Batman and other games from their DC Comics portfolio. The new studio will create 300 jobs for the Montreal economy.
Air Canada Centre (French: Centre Air Canada), the headquarters of Air Canada
Montreal was referred to as "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle magazine.[24]
The city is Canada's centre for French language television productions,
radio, theatre, film, multimedia, and print publishing. 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,
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. 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, Montreal World Film Festival, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, Nuits d'Afrique, Pop Montreal, and the Montreal Fireworks Festival.
Olympic Stadium in Montreal, featuring the tallest leaning tower in the world at 175.5 meters (575.8 ft)
The Montreal Impact are the city's Major League Soccer team. They play at a soccer-specific stadium called Saputo Stadium. The Montreal Impact recently joined North America's biggest soccer league, the MLS in 2012. The Montreal games of the FIFA2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup were held at Olympic Stadium.[140]
Montreal is the site of a high-profile auto racing event each year: the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One (F1) racing. This race takes place on the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Île Notre-Dame. In 2009, the race was dropped from the Formula One calendar, to the chagrin of some fans,[141]
but the Canadian Grand Prix returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2010.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve also hosted a round of the Champ Car World Series from 2002–2007, and was home to the NAPA Auto Parts 200, a NASCAR Nationwide Series race, and the Montréal 200, a Grand AmRolex Sports Car Series race. Uniprix Stadium, built in 1993 on the former site of Jarry Park, is used for the Rogers Cup men's and women's tennis tournaments. The men's tournament is a Masters 1000 event on the ATP Tour, and the women's tournament is a Premier tournament on the WTA Tour. The men's and women's tournaments alternate between Montreal and Toronto every year.[142]
Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The stadium alone cost $1.5 billion;[143] with interest that figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion, and was only paid off in December 2006.[144] Montreal also hosted the first ever World Outgames in the summer of 2006, attracting over 16,000 participants engaged in 35 sporting activities.
Montreal is well served by a variety of media, including several French and English television stations, newspapers, radio stations, and magazines. There are four over-the-air English-language television stations: CBC Television, CTV, Global and CJNT which also airs multicultural programming. There are also five over-the-air French-language television stations: Radio-Canada, TVA, V, 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 numerous weekly tabloids and community newspapers serving various neighbourhoods, ethnic groups and schools.
The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. Incumbent mayor Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Union Montréal party, resigned as mayor on November 5, 2012.[145] The office of acting mayor was held by city councillor Jane Cowell-Poitras[146] until November 16, when Michael Applebaum was selected as the city's new mayor.[147]
The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the
final decision-making authority in the city, although much power is
centralized in the executive committee. The Council consists of 73
members from all boroughs of the city.[148] 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, standardize or approve certain decisions made by
the borough councils.
Reporting directly to the City Council, the executive committee
exercises decision-making powers similar to that of the cabinet in a parliamentary system and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets and by-laws,
submitted to 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.
Standing committees are the council's prime instruments for public
consultation. They are responsible for the public study of pending
matters and for making the appropriate recommendations to the council.
They also review the annual budget forecasts for departments under their
jurisdiction. A public notice of meeting is published in both French
and English daily newspapers at least seven days before each meeting.
All meetings include a public question period. The standing committees,
of which there are seven, have terms lasting two years. In addition, the
City Council may decide to create special committees at any time. Each
standing committee is made up of seven to nine members, including a
chairman and a vice-chairman. The members are all elected municipal
officers, with the exception of a representative of the government of Quebec on the public security committee.
The city of Montreal is only one component of the larger Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal
(English: Montreal Metropolitan Community or MMC), which is in charge
of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public
transportation, garbage collection and waste management,
etc., across the metropolitan area of Montreal. The president of the
CMM is the mayor of Montreal. The CMM covers 4,360 square kilometres
(1,680 sq mi), with 3.6 million inhabitants in 2006.[149]
Montreal is the seat of the judicial district of Montreal, which includes the City of Montreal and the other communities on the island.[150]
With access to four universities, seven other degree-awarding institutions, and twelve CEGEPs
in an 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) radius, Montreal has the highest
concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North
America (4.38 students per 100 residents, followed by Boston at 4.37
students per 100 residents).[151] Higher Education (English)
McGill University
is one of Canada's leading post-secondary institutions, and widely
regarded as a world-class institution. In 2011, McGill was ranked as the
top University in Canada for the sixth consecutive year by Macleans,
and as the best University in Canada, and 17th best University in the
world, by the QS World University Rankings[152]
Like many major cities, Montreal has a problem with vehicular traffic congestion, especially from cities in the west island such as Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield, and off-island suburbs such as Laval on Île Jésus, and Longueuil on the south shore. The width of the Saint Lawrence River
has made the construction of fixed links to the south shore expensive
and difficult. There are only four road bridges along with one road
tunnel, two railway bridges, and a metro line. The far narrower Rivière des Prairies, separating Montreal from Laval, is spanned by eight road bridges (six to Laval and two directly to the north shore) and a metro line.
The island of Montreal is a hub for the Quebec Autoroute system, and is served by Quebec Autoroutes A-10 (known as 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 Chomedey 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.[163]
However, in recent years, the government has acknowledged this problem
and is working on long-term solutions to alleviate the congestion. One
such example is the extension of Quebec Autoroute 30 on Montreal's south shore, which will serve as a bypass.[164]
One of the entrances to the Square-Victoria metro station looks like a Paris Métro station. This original Hector Guimard gate was a gift from the city of Paris.
An STM Novabus operating on Route 33
Public local transport is served by a network of buses, subways, and
commuter trains that extend across and off the island. The subway and
bus system is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). The STM bus network
consists of 197 daytime and 20 nighttime service routes that provide a
vast number of routes for the city of Montreal proper. STM bus routes
serve an average of 1,347,900 daily passengers on an average weekday in
2010.[165] It also provides adapted transport and wheelchair-accessible buses.[166]
The STM won the award of Outstanding Public Transit System in North
America by the APTA in 2010. It was the first time a Canadian company
won this prize.
Montreal's Metro was inaugurated in 1966 and today has 68 stations spread out along its four lines.[167]
Today, the metro system is currently Canada's busiest subway system in
total daily passenger usage, serving an average of 1,050,800 daily
passengers on an average weekday (as of Q1 2010).[165]
Each station was designed by different architects with individual
themes and features original artwork, and the trains themselves run on
rubber tires, making the system quieter than most.[168] The project was initiated by Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau,
who would later bring the Summer Olympic Games to Montreal in 1976. The
metro system has long had a station on the South Shore in Longueuil, and has only recently been extended to the city of Laval, north of Montreal with 3 new stations.[169]
The commuter rail system is managed and operated by the Agence métropolitaine de transport,
and reaches the outlying areas of Greater Montreal. Montreal's commuter
rail network had 15.7 million passengers in 2007, making it the sixth
busiest in North America following New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto.[170]
Montreal has two international airports, one for passenger flights only, and the other for cargo. Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (also known as Dorval Airport) in the City of Dorval serves all commercial passenger traffic and is the headquarters for Air Canada[171] and Air Transat.[172] 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 cargo flights along with MEDEVACs and general aviation as well as some passenger services.[173][174][175][176][177] In 2011, Montreal-Trudeau was the third busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic and fourth by aircraft movements, behind Toronto Pearson, and Vancouver and handled 13.6 million passengers,[178][179] and 207,882 aircraft movements.[180]
With 60.8% of its passengers being on non-domestic flights it has the
largest percentage of international flights of any Canadian airport.[181] Trudeau airport is served by 40 carriers to over 100 destinations worldwide.[182]
Airlines servicing Trudeau offer flights to Europe, the United States,
Western Asia, the Middle East, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa,
Mexico and other destinations within Canada. It is the only Canadian
airport that offers non-stop service to Africa and it also contains the
largest duty free shop in North America.[183]
Montreal-based Via Rail provides rail service to other cities in Canada, particularly to Quebec City and Toronto along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. Amtrak, the U.S. national passenger rail system, also provides service to Montreal, operating its Adirondack daily between Montreal and New York City. All intercity trains and most commuter trains operate out of Central Station. Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which is now headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, was founded here in 1881.[184] Its corporate headquarters occupied Windsor Station at 910 Peel Street until 1995.[98] With the Port of Montreal
kept open year round by icebreakers, lines to Eastern Canada became
surplus, and now Montreal is the railway's eastern and intermodal
freight terminus.[185] CPR connects at Montreal with the Port of Montreal, the Delaware and Hudson Railway to New York, the Quebec Gatineau Railway to Quebec City and Buckingham, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway to Halifax, and CN Rail. The CPR's flagship train, The Canadian, once ran daily from Windsor Station to Vancouver, but all passenger services have since been transferred to Via Rail Canada, and the Canadian terminates in Toronto.
Montreal-based Canadian National Railways
(CN) was formed during in 1919 by the Canadian government following a
series of country-wide rail bankruptcies. CN was formed from the lines
of the Grand Trunk, Midland and Canadian Northern Railways, and has risen to become CPR's chief rival in freight carriage in Canada.[186] Like the CPR, CN has divested itself of passenger services in favour of Via Rail Canada.[187]
^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, especially where there is a French-like
pronunciation even in English (e.g., Université de Montréal, 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.
^Kinshasa
and Abidjan are sometimes said to rank ahead of Montreal as francophone
cities, since they have larger populations than Montreal and are
located in countries with French as sole official language. However,
French is uncommon as a mother tongue there. According to Ethnologue,
there were 17,500 mother tongue speakers of French in the Ivory Coast as
of 1988. [1] Approximately 10% of the population of Congo-Kinshasa knows French to some extent. [2]
^Marsan, Jean-Claude (1990). Montreal in evolution. An historical analysis of the development of Montreal's architecture.. Montréal, Qc: Les Éditions de l'Homme.
^"Sister City: The City of Montreal". International Relations Division, International Peace Promotion Department. The City of Hiroshima. 2001. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
^"Window of Shanghai". Humanities and Social Sciences Library. McGill University. 2008. Archived from the original on May 22, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Montreal" article dated April 26, 2005, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
Michael Sletcher, 'Montréal', in James Ciment, ed., Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History, (5 vols., N.Y., 2005).