Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province
of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the fifteenth
largest in North America. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of
Mary",the city takes its present name from Mount Royal,the
triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was
also initially given to the island on which the city is
located,[8][9] or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French,(Mont
Royal in present French).
As of February 2012, Statistics Canada identifies Montreal's Census
Metropolitan Area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq
mi)) as Canada's second most populous with an estimated metropolitan
area population of 3,824,221and a population of 1,886,481 in the
"agglomeration" of Montreal, which includes all of the
municipalities on the island of Montreal. The city of Montreal
proper had a population of 1,649,519 as of the 2011 census.
French is the city's official language and is also the language
spoken at home by 60.5% of the population in the city of Montréal
proper, followed by English at 21.2% and 23.4% other languages (as
of 2006 census).In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area,
70.5% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 18.5% who
speak English.56% of the population is able to speak both English
and French.Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking
city in the Western world, after Paris.
Montreal is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable
cities, was called "Canada's Cultural Capital" by Monocle Magazine
and recently was named a UNESCO City of Design.
Though historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was
surpassed in population, as well as economic strength, by Toronto
after 1976. Today it continues as an important centre of commerce,
aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, culture,
tourism, film and world affairs.
In 2010, Montreal was named a hub city, ranked 34th globally out of
289 cities for innovation across multiple sectors of the urban
economy, in the Innovation Cities Index by 2thinknow. Montreal was
the next Canadian city in the annual index behind nexus city Toronto
in 12th place and ahead of fellow hub cities Calgary, Quebec City,
Vancouver and Edmonton. In 2009, Montreal was named North America's
number one host city for international association events, according
to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and
Convention Association (ICCA).
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west
of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its
name.
The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the
Laurentians and the Appalachians. It gave its Latin name, Mons
Regius, to the Monteregian chain.
The mountain consists of three peaks: Colline de la Croix (or Mont
Royal proper) at 233 m (764 ft), Colline d'Outremont (or Mount
Murray, in the borough of Outremont) at 211 m (692 ft), and
Westmount at 201 m (659 ft) elevation above mean sea level. At this
height, it might be otherwise considered a hill, but it has always
been called a mountain, given there are no actual mountains in the
Montéregie region.
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