Longueuil | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Longueuil

Longueuil, Quebec, population 239,700 (2016 census), 231,409 (2011 census). Longueuil’s history dates to the 17th century with the settling of French colonists. It is today an important suburb of Montreal and is connected to the island of Montreal by the Jacques Cartier bridge and the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel-bridge. Longueuil is criss-crossed by major expressways linking metropolitan Montreal to Québec city, the Eastern Townships and northern New York State. The municipality of Longueuil is its own entity within the Longueuil agglomeration which includes other nearby cities.

Longueuil is situated on the ancestral territory of the Kanyen’kehà:ka. The land remains unceded and is considered Indigenous territory.

Settlement and Development

In 1657, Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay of Ville-Marie — modern day Montreal — was granted an area of land along the St Lawrence River. He named it Longueuil, in honour of his mother's village in France.

In 1845, the municipality of the parish of Saint-Antoine de Longueuil was created. Three years later, the village of Longueuil was separated from the rural parish and incorporated as a distinct municipality; it became a town in 1874 and a city in 1920. The 1960s saw a period of growth through the annexation of Montréal-Sud (1961) and the merger with the city of Jacques-Cartier (1969).

Given its historical significance, the name Longueuil was chosen to designate the new city that in 2002 amalgamated Longueuil with BouchervilleBrossardSaint-HubertSaint-LambertSaint-Bruno-de-MontarvilleGreenfield Park and LeMoyne.

Cityscape

The new city is predominantly a large suburban residential area where most houses have been built in the second half of the 20th century, although it treasures some older historical districts. For instance, the historical sector of Vieux-Longueuil was designated a heritage site by the municipality in 1993 and contains over 450 buildings built before 1945, including the remarkable St Mark's Anglican church (1842)


Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-cathedral , circa 1965

Finished in 1887, the co-cathedral is recognized as a historic monument and holds many important historical and religious items.

Armour Landy | (BAnQ Vieux-Montréal/P97,S1,D6233-6243)

Economy

Longueuil has a large commercial sector with numerous regional or local shopping centres, and boulevard Taschereau lined with stores and restaurants. It also boasts a diversified industrial base with a significant aerospace industry. Pratt & Whitney and Héroux-Devtek are the leading enterprises in that sector.

Cultural Life

Many of Montreal's universities have established teaching facilities near the Longueuil metro station. (See also Montreal metro). Starting in 1980, the Université du Québec à Montréal  was to offer courses and continuing education with its Centre d'études universitaires de la Montérégie. It was followed by the Université de Sherbrooke (1989) and the Université de Montréal (1999). Established in 1969 by succeeding the Externat classique of Longueuil, the Collège Edouard-Montpetit is one of the first  CÉGEPs in Quebec. Champlain Regional College has been established in the borough of Saint-Lambert since 1971. Longueuil houses the Théâtre de la Ville, a centre for performing arts that features two theatres. A weekly regional newspaper, Le Courrier du Sud, and a community radio station, CHAA-FM, provide the South Shore's inhabitants with information and entertainment.

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