Welcome to Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Your Montreal
area contact is Peter Miller (REMAX Royal (Jordon) INC.) Please refer to the "Relocating to Montreal" section to the right for
the phone number, address, website, and email address to contact Peter Miller directly.
Ask about the REMAX MLS real estate homes for sale including residential houses, apartments, condos, duplexes, acreages and farms.
Montreal summary
Montreal, or Montréal in French is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie ('City of Mary'),
some historians think the city takes its present name from the Mont Réal (as it was pronounced in Middle French, or Mont Royal / Mount Royal in present French), the
three-head hill at the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located.
Formerly the largest city in Canada, it is now positioning itself as the second-largest French-speaking city in the world. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, 1,620,693
people resided in the city of Montreal proper, of which roughly half live and work in English, half in French. The population of the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area
(also known as Greater Montreal Area) was 3,635,571 at the same 2006 census. This larger census metropolitan area, which includes all the former suburbs that were
swallowed up by the mega city, is predominantly French-speaking, bringing the average figure for "language most spoken at home" to 70.5% of the population (as of 2006
census). In 2007, Montreal was ranked as the 10th cleanest city in the world.
Montreal is an important centre of commerce, industry, culture, finance, and world affairs.
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 4th largest centre in North America in terms of aerospace jobs.
The Port of Montreal is the largest inland port in the world. 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
the eastern terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and home to the headquarters of the Canadian National Railway.
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); the International Air Transport Association (IATA); the International Council
of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda); the International Design Alliance (IDA); Gay and Lesbian International Chamber of Commerce, as well as some 60 other
international organizations in various fields. It is also the leading Canadian city for its research output, fuelled in part by Montreal's four universities and numerous
scientific research centres.
Montreal is also a centre of film and television production. The headquarters of Alliance Atlantis 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, e.g), 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's studio in the area. As of today (2007), the city has attracted
world leading game developers and publishers studios such as Ubisoft, EA, Eidos Interactive, Artificial Mind and Movement, Strategy First and many more, mainly because
video games jobs have been heavily subsidized by the provincial government. Every year, this industry is generating billions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the
Montreal area.
Rio Tinto Alcan, Bombardier, CN, CGI Group, Air Canada, CAE, Saputo, Cirque du Soleil, Quebecor, Power Corporation, Bell Canada, SNC-Lavalin, Hydro-Quebec,
Abitibi-Consolidated, National Bank of Canada and many other corporations are headquartered in the Greater Montreal Area.
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). This distinguished
title recognizes Montreal's design community. Since 2005 the city is also a home for the International Design Alliance and the International Council of Graphic Design
Associations (Icograda).
Text & photo credits
The text contained in 'Montreal Summary' above is courtesy of Wikipedia.com.
The article ('Montreal Summary') is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.)
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Montreal, Quebec".
The Montreal header image on this page is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Reference:
Header.