Laval, Quebec

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City of Laval, Quebec (Ville de Laval, Québec, Canada)
Official flag of City of Laval, Quebec
Flag
Official seal of City of Laval, Quebec
Seal
Motto: Unité, progrès, grandeur (Unity, Progress, Greatness)
City of Laval
City of Laval
Coordinates: 45.57°′N 73.75°′W
Country Canada
Province Quebec
Founded
Established 1965 [citation needed]
City Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt(since 1989)
Area  
 - City 247.07 km²  (153.52 sq mi)
Elevation 91 m  (299 ft)
Population  
 - City (2004) 364, 756
 - Density 1388.30/km² (862.65/sq mi)
  Metro population est. 2004
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code span
Area code = 450
Website: www.ville.laval.qc.ca

Laval (pronounced Image:ltspkr.png læˈvæl) is a city, a regional county municipality and a region in southwestern Quebec, Canada in the Greater Montreal Area. It is located on Île Jésus, across the Rivière des Prairies from Montreal. It also includes the Îles Laval in the Rivière des Prairies. In 2004, the city has a population of 364,756 [1] Laval constitutes one of the 17 regions of Quebec.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The island is still rural in nature, with most of the urban area in the central region and along the south and west coasts.

Laval is bounded on the south and east by Montreal, on the north by MRC des Moulins and on the west by MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville and MRC de Deux-Montagnes.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Highways

Laval is served by five highways:

[edit] Public Transit

The AMT operates two commuter train lines in Laval. The Deux Montagnes and Blainville) line Laval to downtown Montreal in as little as 30 minutes. There are currently five commuter train stations in Laval[2]:

Blainville line Deux-Montagnes line
Sainte-Rose Sainte-Dorothée
Vimont (New) Île-Bigras
Saint-Martin

[edit] Politics

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Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since October 2006.

See also: Canadian federal election results in Northern Montreal and Laval

Politically, Laval is a battleground area between the Quebec nationalist parties (The Bloc Québécois federally and the Parti Québécois provincially) and the federalist parties (The Liberal Party of Canada and the Parti libéral du Québec). The only exception is Chomedey in the south, which voted overwhelmingly to not separate in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The other parts of Laval were narrowly split.

[edit] Mayors

As of 2006,Gilles Vaillancourt is the mayor of the city of Laval. He has been in office since 1989.

Past Mayors have been:

[edit] Demographics

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Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since October 2006.

Laval is the 6th largest suburb in North America after Mississauga, Ontario; Long Beach, California; Mesa, Arizona; Virginia Beach, Virginia and Surrey, British Columbia.

The city is about 6% Anglophone, 73% Francophone and 20% Allophone. Laval is predominantly white (91.4%) with many claiming southern European ancestries. A substantial number of Greeks live there, comprising around 5% of the population. Non-white groups include Black Canadian (3.2%), Arab (2.11%), and many others such as Chinese, and southeast Asian. The city is 81% Roman Catholic. The median income is $23,965.

[edit] History

Laval was first settled by Jesuits in 1636 when they were granted a seigneury there. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670. In 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales. The first municipalities on the island were created in 1845, after nearly 200 years of a rural nature. The only built up area on the island, Sainte-Rose was incorporated as a village in 1850, and remained as the main community for the remainder of the century. With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Laval's first city in 1912 and was followed by L'Abord-à-Plouffe being granted village status three years later. Laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year based on its tourist-based economy from Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the following years, due to its proximity to Montreal which made it an ideal suburb.

To deal with problems caused by urbanization, amalgamations occurred; L'Abord-à-Plouffe amalgamated with Renaud and Saint-Martin creating the city of Chomedey in 1961. The amalgamation turned out to be successful for the municipalities involved, and the Quebec government decided to amalgamate the whole island into the city of Laval in 1965. Laval was named after the first owner of Île Jésus, François de Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. At the time, Laval had a population of 170,000. Laval became a Regional County Municipality in 1980. Prior to that, it was the County of Laval.[3]

The 14 municipalities which existed prior to the incorporation of the amalgamated City of Laval on August 6, 1965 were:

In 2006 an overpass on Quebec Autoroute 19 collapsed killing five people.[4]

[edit] Flag, Seal and Motto

On a white-yellow background, the emblem of Laval illustrates the modernism of a city in full expansion. The sign of the city symbolizes the "L" of Laval.

The colors also have a significant meaning :

  • Dark red represents usually the affluence and represents here the great economic potential of Laval.
  • Blue symbolizes the quality of life and the installation of a human city.

The "L" of Laval is made of cubes that represent the development of Laval.

The letters of the Laval signature are related one to the other to point out the fusion of the 14 municipalities of the Jesus island.

The logo (which is on the flag) has existed since the 1980s and the flag since the 1990s.[5]

[edit] Sister cities

Laval is twinned with three cities:

Laval also maintains ten economic and cultural cooperation agreements with Markham, Ontario (Canada), Ribeira Grande (The Azores), Grenoble (France), Mudanjiang (China) and Pedro Aguirre Cerda (Chile).

[edit] Tourism

Laval's main attractions are:

Source: Tourisme Laval [6]

[edit] Education

Laval is home to a variety of vocational/technical centers, colleges and universities, including:

  • College Montmorency
  • CDI College
  • Centre de formation Compétences-2000
  • Centre de formation en métallurgie de Laval
  • Chomedey Centre
  • Centre de formation horticole de Laval
  • Centre de formation Paul-Émile-Dufresne

[edit] Sport

[edit] Sports teams

Club Sport League Stadium/Arena
Regents Ice Hockey Midget AAA Colisée de Laval
Les Comètes Women’s soccer W-League Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard
Les Associés Baseball Ligue de Baseball Élite du Québec Montmorency Park

See also: Le réseau des sports for detailed coverage.

Laval was also host-city of the "Jeux du québec" held in summer 1991.

[edit] Famous natives and residents

[edit] Regional media outlets

[edit] Radio stations

[edit] Newspapers

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ statistics Canada. Statistics Canada website. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
  2. ^ Agence métropolitaine de transport. AMT website. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  3. ^ History and Heritage. Laval portal website. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  4. ^ Overpass Collapses Near Montreal; People Trapped Feared Dead. Fox News Website. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  5. ^ Flags of the World. Flags of the World website. Retrieved on July 16, 2005.
  6. ^ Tourisme Laval. Tourisme Laval website. Retrieved on August 29, 2006.


North:
Bois-des-Filion, Terrebonne
West:
Rosemère, Boisbriand, Saint-Eustache		 Laval East: Montreal
South: Montreal


Communities in Laval

Auteuil | Chomedey | Duvernay | Fabreville | Îles-Laval | Laval-des-Rapides | Laval-Ouest | Laval-sur-le-Lac | Pont-Viau | Sainte-Dorothée | Sainte-Rose | Saint-François | Saint-Vincent-de-Paul | Vimont
Flag of Quebec Quebec
Regions Abitibi-Témiscamingue - Bas-Saint-Laurent - Capitale-Nationale - Centre-du-Québec - Chaudière-Appalaches - Côte-Nord - Estrie - Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine - Lanaudière - Laurentides - Laval - Mauricie - Montérégie - Montréal - Nord-du-Québec - Outaouais - Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean
List of Quebec Regional County Municipalities
Territories Basse-Côte-Nord - Jamésie - Kativik - Nunavik
Separated cities Gatineau - Lévis - Notre-Dame-des-Anges - Rouyn-Noranda - Saguenay - Saint-Augustin - Shawinigan - Sherbrooke - Trois-Rivières -
Agglomeration areas La Tuque - Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine - Longueuil - Montreal - Quebec City
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