The Province of Montreal is a proposal to separate the city 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 ...

, its

metropolitan region A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

or its English and non-Francophone regions into a separate province from

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 ...

, becoming the 11th province of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. There have been several proposals of this nature from the mid-20th century onwards. During the French colonial era, a district of Montreal existed in the French Province of Canada. During the 19th century, Americans sometimes referred to the Province of Quebec as the Province of Montreal. The

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

also divides Canada up into

ecclesiastical provinces An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sever ...

, one of which is the Ecclesiastical Province of Montreal. During the prelude to

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Canada, Dom ...

in the 1860s, some proposals were made to divide up

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

, the current Province of Quebec, into multiple provinces, the one with the most currency being to create the Provinces of Montreal,

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (french: Cantons de l'Est) is an historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby in the southwest, to Drummondv ...

, and Quebec. One of the earlier modern proposals for the Province of Montreal dates from the late 1960s, when it was proposed that ''Mr. Montreal'', Mayor

Jean Drapeau Jean Drapeau, (18 February 1916 – 12 August 1999) was Mayor of Montreal from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986. Major accomplishments of the Drapeau Administration include the development of the Montreal Metro entirely underground mass transi ...

, having many successes and having the city as the economic engine of the Province of Quebec, become the premier of a new province because of how Montreal tax dollars were spent outside the region with little benefit to Montrealers. After the renewed rise of the

Quebec sovereignty movement The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision of ...

in the 1990s, efforts revived to create a Province of Montreal. Roopnarine Singh of Montreal founded the

Movement for the 11th Province of Montreal Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

in that era.University of Toronto Press, "Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs -- 1996", David Mortimer, ''2002'', pp.140 () The era before and after the 1995 referendum also produced proposals to split the western

Ottawa Valley The Ottawa Valley is the valley of the Ottawa River, along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais, Quebec, Canada. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. Because of the surroundi ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, the

of Quebec along the US border, and English-speaking parts of Montreal (such as the

West Island The West Island () is the unofficial name given to the cities, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Dorval, Pointe-Cla ...

and Westmount) into a Province of Montreal. The proposal was made by the partitionist movement, which demands the right for minorities to secede from Quebec if Quebec secedes from Canada. In the wake of the referendum, prominent lawyer and then-federalist Guy Bertrand led a court fight to allow for the creation of the Province of Montreal if Quebec were to secede.

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

was used as an example to support the position in public.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Oh Canada, French-speakers in Quebec Keep Up Their Flirtation With Separatism", Jack Kelly, ''6 December 1998'', pp. B3

References

{{reflist Politics of Montreal

See also

References