La Prairie is an off-island suburb ( south shore) of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, in southwestern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Jacques River and the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

in the Regional County Municipality of Roussillon. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 23,357.

History

French

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

were the first Europeans to occupy the area, which was named La Prairie de la Magdelaine but was also called François-Xavier-des-Prés. The land was given to the Jesuits by Jacques de La Ferté and the

Company of One Hundred Associates The Company of One Hundred Associates ( French: formally the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, or colloquially the Compagnie des Cent-Associés or Compagnie du Canada), or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company ch ...

in 1647. It is in La Prairie that the story

Kateri Tekakwitha Kateri Tekakwitha ( in Mohawk), given the name Tekakwitha, baptized as Catherine and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), is a Catholic saint and virgin who was an Algonquin–Mohawk. Born in the Mohawk village of O ...

took place. In 1668, the site was named Kentaké, the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

name for "at the prairie". In the beginning of modern Quebec history, the territory of La Prairie would be visited on numerous occasions by Iroquois and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

settlers from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, among others at the time of the Anglo-Iroquois expedition of

Pieter Schuyler Pieter Schuyler (17 September 1657 – 19 February 1724) was the first mayor of Albany, New York. A long-serving member of the executive council of the Province of New York, he acted as governor of the Province of New York on three occasions ...

in 1691, who commanded two battles on August 11, 1691. The close of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

led to the 1763 treaty ending the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

, sparsely-populated by

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

and descendants of French colonists, was ceded by

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and divided into

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

colonies. The territory of La Prairie became part of the

Province of Quebec (1763–1791) The Province of Quebec (french: Province de Québec) was a colony in British North America which comprised the former French colony of Canada (New France), Canada. It was established by the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763, following the conqu ...

within the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. In 1845, the village of La Prairie was established. One year later, La Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine was established. La Prairie was the seat of Laprairie County (1855-1980s), which included the parishes of La Prairie, Notre-Dame, Ste-Catherine, St-Constant, St-Isidore, St-Jacques-le-Mineur, St-Mathieu and St-Philippe. In 1909, La Prairie obtained official city status. Historically, the city has been an important transportation hub, as it was the point of transfer between Montreal ferries and the land route to

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu () is a city in eastern Montérégie in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec, about southeast of Montreal. It is situated on the west bank of the Richelieu River at the northernmost naviga ...

, gateway to

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...

and the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. The first railway line in British North America, the

Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad (C&SL) was a historic railway in Lower Canada, the first Canadian public railway and one of the first railways built in British North America. Origin The C&SL was financed by Montreal entrepreneur and br ...

, connected it with Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on July 21, 1836; the railway ran over . The construction of a rail line between La Prairie and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu would greatly accelerate the commercial development of the village. River transport equally played an important role in La Prairie's history.

Geography and climate

Like the rest of southwestern Quebec, La Prairie has hot summers and cold winters, for a generally temperate climate. Winters are cold and sometimes long (snow is usually present from mid-November to mid-April), with temperatures occasionally dipping below -30 °C, not counting the

windchill Wind chill or windchill (popularly wind chill factor) is the lowering of body temperature due to the passing-flow of lower-temperature air. Wind chill numbers are always lower than the air temperature for values where the formula is valid. When ...

. During snowstorms, snowfall frequently surpasses 40 centimeters. In the summer, temperatures sometimes exceed 30 °C.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, La Prairie had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Transportation

The

CIT Le Richelain The Exo (public transit) Le Richelain sector is the public transportation system for the municipalities of La Prairie, Quebec, La Prairie, Candiac, Quebec, Candiac and Saint-Philippe, Quebec, Saint-Philippe, which are suburbs lying southeast of Mo ...

provides commuter and local bus services.

Environment

In 2013, Grand Boisé conservation park is planned to be created and orchestrated by Nature-Action. The park would include Smithers' swamp, as well as, Hydro-Quebec's servitude area in which the western chorus frog, a vulnerable species in Quebec, is found in greatest numbers. There is a controversy involving the city housing development in that area which was supposed to be conserved integrally with high priority according to RCM of Roussillon 1990s' maps. Local environmental organisms, such as Vigile verte and Projet Rescousse, are denouncing the choice of that land for housing development. The debate is ongoing.

Education

The town has three high schools: l'École de la Magdeleine, a public French school which offers the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

(IB) Programme,

Collège Jean de la Mennais Collège Jean de la Mennais is a French private mixed secondary school on the South Shore of Montreal, Québec, Canada at 870 Chemin de Saint-Jean in the municipality of La Prairie. As of 2007, the school had about 1750 elementary and high scho ...

, a private mixed French school and Saint-François-Xavier, a public French school. The

South Shore Protestant Regional School Board The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board (SSPRSB) was a Protestant Christian school district in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It served the South Shore region and it was headquartered in St. Lambert. The district operated elementary a ...

previously served the municipality.King, M.J. (Chairperson of the board).
South Shore Protestant Regional School Board
(St. Johns, PQ). ''

The News and Eastern Townships Advocate The ''News and Eastern Townships Advocate'' is a newspaper based in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec started on January 27, 1848. The headquarters for the paper were destroyed in 1942 during a fire, which resulted in the loss of the building and f ...

''. Volume 119, No. 5. Thursday December 16, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved from

Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google rel ...

on November 23, 2014.

Gallery

File:Chemin de Saint-Jean La Prairie.jpg File:Vieux La Prairie.jpg, Houses in Old La Prairie File:Church of La Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge in La Prairie.jpg, Church of La Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge in La Prairie File:Hotel de ville la prairie.jpg, City Hall

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Quebec populated places on the Saint Lawrence River 1647 establishments in the French colonial empire Incorporated places in Roussillon Regional County Municipality