July 1 is Canada Day, and it marks not the birth of a nation but a major political milestone, when the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick came together to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Newfoundland, Britain’s longest serving colony in North America, didn’t join until 1949—Nunavut in 1999. But zoom in a little closer, and you've got a city that's older than the country it calls home. Yes, we're talking about Montreal.
The 17th century: Fifty adventurous French settlers arrived in Montreal on May 17, 1642. By 1685, six hundred colonists were in residence, trading in the exploding, world-wide beaver fur industry with Canada's original inhabitants; indigenous groups including the First Nations.
Vieux-Montréal: The oldest remaining part of the city to visit, in the borough of Ville-Marie, is the Old Town, with cobblestone streets around Place d’Armes, the 1847 Bonsecours market, and Gothic-Revival Notre-Dame Basilica where Celine Dion was married in 1994, OTT Vegas headpiece and all.
What's in a name: The name Canada dates to Jacques Cartier’s second voyage to the New World from his home in Brittany, France (1535-1536), when he latched-on to the Huron-Iroquoian word, Kanata ("settlement"). By the mid-1500s, Canada could be found on most European maps of North America as any land north of the St. Lawrence River. Though the city was first referred to as Ville Marie by French colonizers and appeared on all official documents until 1705, Montreal reportedly got its current name after Cartier climbed the volcanic-related hill Mont-Royal, looming as ever over downtown.
The first recorded tourist to Montreal? Historians point to a young man from Normandy, France—Asseline de Ronval—who arrived for an unusual, purely pleasure-driven visit in the early summer of 1662. Today, the city welcomes ten million visitors, remarkable considering its population of just over four million.
On the lineup: This year, the city's tourist board has posted a roster of events, festivals, and parties to attend through to and beyond December 31—"Jazz, comedy, avant-garde dance, poutine" and more. Just name it, including firework displays over Lac des Dauphins every Saturday night through August 5 at 10:00 p.m.
Don't miss: the Expo 67 Olympic Stadium, Habitat 67, and Buckminster Fuller's Biosphere for celebrations held fifty years ago in what was dubbed "The World in a Thousand Acres". The progressive, modernist architecture led to the city being anointed the first UNESCO City of Design in North America.
Stay awhile: Your favorite hotel in town, as voted for in our annual Readers' Choice Awards survey is the Ritz-Carlton—a grande-dame without parallel, opened in 1912 and the very first hotel in North America to bear the Ritz-Carlton name.
So, with history in mind, celebrate Canada's sesquicentennial with an appropriate "eh?"
