Montreal, Canada's Great City

The Early History

Ah, Montreal. What can I say? Canada’s greatest city? Certainly my favourite besides ones where I’ve lived (Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Richmond/Vancouver). And what a history! First known to the Europeans as Hochelaga, it was the longtime home of an Iroquois tribe. It was a 16th-century fortified St. Lawrence visited by French explorer Jacques Cartier on October 3, 1535. Cartier found over a thousand Indigenous people living in  some 50 large, bark-covered longhouses inside a triple tiered wooden palisade encirclement. By the time Samuel de Champlain, also from France, arrived in the area in 1603, the village had completely vanished. Theories as to what happened include conflict with Huron-Wendat, trade changes and disease, some suggest possibly from thee white men. Much of the history I know from memory from studying our Canadian history, however, some has also been sourced or verified from Google AI’s database.

The French established a foothold in Canada here and it became the base for further exploration of the continent, particularly to further the fur trade. Because they allied with the resident Huron, there were skirmishes with their longtime foes, the Mohawk. This animosity was heightened when the Mohawk became allies of the British who were arriving in New England. 

The longtime wars between France and England in Europe led to war on this side of the ocean too and in 1763, the Treat of Paris gave the British control of what is now Canada after their 1759 defeat under General Wolfe of the French under Montcalm at Quebec City. Some decades later a new conflict developed between the British-based Hudson Bay Company of 1670, given royal charter over the northwest interior of the continent and - by now made up of Scots and French - the Montreal based traders known as the Nor’westers. The lasted until the HBC came out on top in 1821.  

Modern History

What is now the province of Quebec became Lower Canada in 1821, versus Ontario as Upper Canada, referring to the direction of river flow, Quebec being downstream from Ontario. The Catholic French Canadians, still very much under the control of the Church, constituted some 75% of the half-million population versus a growing number of Scots, Irish and British. Montreal now became a trading seaport and industrial, financial centre. The completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, a joint project with the US, facilitated the former. McGill University, established by royal charter in 1821 with the promotion of an 1813 bequest of Nor-wester James McGill, was becoming an internationally recognized educational facility. 

Montreal really became the subject of international attention with the 1967 World’s Fair, followed in short order by Expo 76, by which time the city had already fielded a major league baseball team (1969), the Expos, who disappeared from the scene in 2004. It had long had a champion calibre hockey team, the Canadiens, known affectionately as the Habs from the French word for the early inhabitants or settlers of Quebec. The Montreal Alouettes, Alouettes being French for ‘lark’, a high flying, soaring and tenacious songbird, subject of a popular French Canadian folksong, had also appeared as a Canadian Football League team. The real source of the name though was the 425th Squadron, the Royal Canadian Air Force's first all-French-Canadian unit from World War II, which used the lark as its symbol of courage and high-altitude strength. 

However, French Canadian nationalism was rearing its head and the effect of that and referendums, plus the criminal activities of the Front de Liberation de Quebec on the issue of separation from Canada and governments favouring that, really led to an outflow of capital and business with Toronto’s taking first place in Canada. 

When it comes to the arts though, Montreal still shines. Quebec artists and film makers thrive here when they maybe little known beyond the province. However, it also has its world-class icons such as Oscar Peterson in jazz, Mordecai Richler in film and literature and Leonard Cohen, the gentleman pop icon of song and poetry.

Although Montreal may have lost some ground as mentioned above, it still retains top billing for culture and history. I asked our son why he chooses to live in Montreal and his quick answer was “the environment.” He was referring to what some promote as Montreal’s European-ness. For some this means things like Old Montreal with its historic buildings but it really points to the culture, already alluded to above, but also its  vibrant neighbourhoods with their local shopping, restaurant, cafe and bar scene.