Saint-Laurent, Quebec
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint-Laurent is a former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is now one of the largest boroughs (arrondissements) of the city of Montreal.
The borough's mayor is Alan Desousa.
Saint-Laurent is divided into two districts, Norman-McLaren and Côte-de-Liesse. The Norman-McLaren district is named for Norman McLaren, a cinema pioneer at the National Film Board of Canada, whose headquarters are located in the borough district.
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.
Saint-Laurent is the home town of Raymond Bourque, a Hockey Hall of Fame member. It is also home to some of Montreal's best fast food: Coronet Pizza was voted to have the best pizza by CJAD Radio, and Decarie Hot Dog, a local greasy spoon on Decarie Boulevard, was voted to have the best hot dogs in Montreal by the Gazette in the 1980s.
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, named after the legendary NHL player, and the commercial Bonaventure's Arena whose rinks can be hired out, among other things, for private league play.)
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[edit] History
Saint-Laurent was founded as the Parish of Saint-Laurent.
Norgate shopping centre, the earliest strip mall in Canada was built in Saint-Laurent in 1949, and is still operational.
[edit] Demographics
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| Ethnicity | Population | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian | 16,685 | 21.78% |
| French | 9,570 | 12.49% |
| Lebanese | 7,875 | 10.28% |
| Jewish | 6,765 | 8.83% |
| Chinese | 5,460 | 7.13% |
| Greek | 4,265 | 5.57% |
| Italian | 3,285 | 4.29% |
| English | 2,800 | 3.66% |
| Irish | 2,375 | 3.1% |
| East Indian | 2,265 | 2.96% |
[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 Trudeau International Airport also lies within the territory of Saint-Laurent.
[edit] Merger and Proposed 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 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] See also
[edit] External links
- Borough of Saint-Laurent
- Socio-economic profile 2002 (PDF)
- Socio-economic profile 2004 (PDF) (French)
