Saint-Laurent (borough)

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Saint-Laurent, formerly the City of Saint-Laurent, is one of the largest boroughs (arrondissements) of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Population (2001): 77,391.

The borough's mayor is Alan DeSousa.

It is divided into two districts, Norman-McLaren and Côte-de-Liesse.

Saint-Laurent has three fire stations and two police stations, one municipal court building, one library, the former City Hall, and two indoor hockey arenas (the municipal Raymond Bourque Arena, and the commercial Bonaventure's Arena whose rinks can be hired out, among other things, for private league play.)

Saint-Laurent contains two CEGEPs, one English (Vanier College) and one French (Cégep de Saint-Laurent), showing the history of Saint-Laurent as a college town. A widely noted art museum, the Saint-Laurent Museum of Art, is located on the campus of Cégep de Saint-Laurent, along with a bowling alley and an indoor college hockey rink. With both French and English colleges, it also shows the ethnic diversity of the borough, with sizable French, Jewish, Romanian, South-Asian, East-Asian, Arab, Italian, Greek, and English communities.

1 Districts
2 Transportation
3 Merger and Demerger
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Districts

Côte-de-Liesse
Normand-McLaren

[edit] Transportation

Saint-Laurent has many transportation links, with one municipal bus terminal (Terminus Côte-Vertu), two Montreal Metro stations (du Collège, Côte-Vertu), three commuter train stations (Bois-Franc, du Ruisseau and Montpellier), four autoroutes (Autoroute 15 (Decarie Expressway and Laurentian Autoroute), Autoroute 40 - Metropolitan Boulevard, Autoroute 520, and Autoroute 13), and a secondary highway (Route 117), in addition to major urban boulevards (Marcel-Laurin Blvd., Henri-Bourassa Blvd., Cavendish Blvd., Côte-Vertu Road, Decarie Blvd., Thimens Blvd.). The former Cartierville Airport is no more, having been turned into a residential subdivision called Bois Franc. Part of Dorval/Trudeau Airport also lies within the territory of Saint-Laurent.

[edit] Merger and Demerger

The City of Saint-Laurent or Ville Saint-Laurent was one of the economic engines of metropolitan Montreal, which was forcibly merged into Montreal on January 1, 2002 by the Parti Québécois government. On June 20, 2004, the demerger forces lost a referendum on the issue of recreating the Saint-Laurent as a city. While 75% of the turnout voted to demerge, only 28.5% of the total eligible voting population voted to demerge, falling short of the requisite 35% as set by the province.

[edit] Trivia

Saint-Laurent is the home town of Raymond Bourque, a National Hockey League Hall of Famer
Norgate shopping centre, the earliest strip mall in Canada was built in Saint-Laurent in 1950, and is still operational
Coronet Pizza, a local pizzeria on Poirer Boulevard near Rue Grenet, was voted to have the best pizza, by CJAD Radio.
Decarie Hot Dog, a local greasy spoon on Decarie Boulevard, near the former Edouard Laurin Streetcar Terminus, the current Cote-Vertu Metro/Cote-Vertu Terminus and Norgate shopping centre, was voted to have the best hot dogs in Montreal by the Gazette, in the 1980's.