Montreal (Canada)

Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", the city takes its present name from Mont-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, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French, (Mont Royal in present French).

As of July 2009, 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 a population of 1,906,811 in the city and metropolitan area population of 3,814,700.

The most spoken language at home in the city is French by 56.9% of the population, followed by English at 18.6% (as of 2006 census). The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city's charter. Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.