Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue () is an on-island suburb located at the western tip of the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

in southwestern

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's

West Island The West Island (, ) is the unofficial name given to the city, 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 Lachine (specific ...

, having been founded as a parish in 1703. The oldest,

Dorval Dorval (; ) is an Greater Montreal, on-island suburban City (Quebec), city on the island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. In 2016, the Canadian Census indicated that the population increased by 4.2% to 18,980. Although the city has t ...

, was founded in 1667. Points of interest include the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Canal (a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

), the Sainte-Anne Veterans' Hospital, the Morgan Arboretum, and the L'Anse-à-l'Orme Nature Park. Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is also home to John Abbott College and

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Macdonald Campus The Macdonald Campus of McGill University (commonly referred to as the 'Mac Campus' or simply 'Mac') houses McGill's Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (FAES), which includes the Institute of Parasitology, the School of Human Nutri ...

, which includes the J. S. Marshall Radar Observatory and the Canadian Aviation Heritage Centre as well as about of farmland which separates the small town from neighbouring

Baie-d'Urfé Baie-D'Urfé (, ; previously spelled Baie d'Urfé or Baie d'Urfee) is an Greater Montreal, on-island suburb of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is part of the West Island area of the Island of Montreal. As part of the 2002–2006 municipal reorganiz ...

History

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue was established on a location once known and frequented by both the Algonquin and

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

peoples. Situated between two important lakes (Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lac Saint Louis) and near the confluence of two important rivers (the Saint Lawrence River and the Ottawa River) both nations recognized its natural strategic advantages and had names for the place. The oral records show that it was named “Tiotenactokte” by the Algonquin, which means "place of the last encampments" and that the Iroquois called it “Skanawetsy” meaning "white waters, after the rapids". In 1663, the Saint-Louis Mission was founded in the west end of Montreal Island at Pointe-Caron (site of the present-day

yacht club), and was led by

François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé, S.S. (1641 – June 30, 1701) was a French nobleman and Sulpician priest who became the first resident pastor of the parish of Saint-Louis-du-Haut-de-l'Île (in what is now the town of Baie-D'Urfé) on the Is ...

. At that time, the mission included the entire area from the tip of Montreal Island to Pointe-Claire, Île Perrot, Soulanges, Vaudreuil, and Île aux Tourtes."History", City of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
/ref> In 1672, King

Louis XIV of France LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

granted fiefdoms bordering on Lake of Two Mountains and Lake Saint-Louis to Louis de Berthé, Lord of Chailly, and to his brother Gabriel, Lord of La Joubardière. One of these adjacent fiefdoms was called Bellevue, due to its good views to the east and west. In 1677, the Parish of Saint-Louis-du-Bout-de-l'Île, sometimes also called Saint-Louis-du-Haut-de-l'Île, was founded. Jean de Lalonde was the first church warden. One September 30, 1687, Lalonde and four other parishioners were killed in a skirmish with the Iroquois. In 1703, the parish was closed and its registers moved to Lachine because of the constant threat from the

. Around 1712, René-Charles de Breslay (1658–1735), local parish priest from 1703 to 1719, got caught in a fierce snowstorm. He fell from his horse, broke his leg on the ice, and lost the horse. Breslay was allegedly saved through the intervention by

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

, after which he built a chapel dedicated to her at the westernmost point of Montreal Island next to Fort Senneville and Tourtes Island (''Île aux Tourtes''). Two years later, the parish was reestablished and took the name Sainte-Anne-du-Bout-de-l'Île. From the early 1800s the town became a place of literary pilgrimage after

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852), was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist who was widely regarded as Ireland's "National poet, national bard" during the late Georgian era. The acclaim rested primarily on the popularity of his ''I ...

the famous Irish composer wrote one of his most celebrated works ''Canadian Boat Song'' here. Rue Sainte-Anne - Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue 01

In 1835, the local post office opened. In 1843, the Sainte-Anne Canal was completed, resulting in a large number of travellers and merchants passing through the village. Another impetus to its development came a few years later in 1854, when the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

was built through the area, followed by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

in 1887. In 1845, the place was first incorporated as the Municipality of Bout-de-l'Isle. This was abolished two years later, but in 1855, it was reestablished as the Parish Municipality of Sainte-Anne-en-l'Isle-de-Montréal. In 1878, the main settlement was incorporated as a separate village municipality, and the parish municipality was renamed to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue that same year. The village municipality changed its status to town (''ville'') on January 12, 1895. The early 20th century saw several developments in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue: the Macdonald College (affiliated to the

) was established in 1907; the Federal Government built Ste. Anne's Veteran Hospital in 1917; the Galipeault Bridge was built in 1924 and doubled in 1964, linking Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue with

Île Perrot Île Perrot () is an island west of the island of Montreal in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. Part of the Hochelaga Archipelago, the island lies between Lake Saint-Louis and Lac des Deux-Montagnes. The isl ...

. One of Canada's earliest Garden City experiments was undertaken in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue by John James Harpell, an industrialist, who around 1918 developed the neighbourhood of Gardenvale. The neighbourhood was granted its own post office in 1920. In 1911, the parish municipality lost part of its territory when

became a separate municipality. In 1964, the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue annexed the parish municipality. On January 1, 2002, as part of the

2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal Montreal was one of the cities in Quebec affected by the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec. On January 1, 2002, all the municipalities on the island of Montreal were merged into the city of Montreal. However, following a change of ...

, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue was merged into the city of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and became part of the borough of L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève–Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. However, after a change of government and a 2004 referendum, it was re-constituted as an independent city on January 1, 2006.

Climate

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue 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.

Local government

The current mayor of Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue is Paola Hawa. There are six city councilors: #Ryan Young (District 1) #Jean-Pierre Cardinal (District 2) #Dan Boyer (District 3) #Tom Broad (District 4) #Yvan Labelle (District 5) #Denis Gignac (District 6)

List of mayors

The mayors of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue have been: * Jules Tremblay, 1878–1879 * Thomas Grenier, 1880–1884, 1885–1886 * Antoine St-Denis, 1881–1883 * D. Lebeau, 1887 * L. Michaud, 1888–1897 * M. C. Bezner, 1898–1899, 1901–1905, 1909–10, 1915–1916 * L.N.F. Cypihot, 1900, 1921–1922 * J.A. Aumais, 1906 * Guis. Daoust, 1906, 1917–1920 * Bruno Lalonde, 1907–1908, 1913–1914 * J.S. Vallée, 1911–1912 * L.J. Boileau, 1923–1931, 1933–1934 * A.R. Demers, 1932, 1935–1938 * E.E. Deslauriers, 1939–1951 * Philippe Godin, 1951–1965 * J.L. Paquin, 1965–1973 * Alphonse Trudeau, 1973–1978 * Marcel Marleau, 1978–1984 * René Martin, 1984–1994 * Bill Tierney, 1994–2001, 2005–2009 * Francis Deroo, 2009–2013 * Paola Hawa, 2013–present

Transportation

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is traversed by Autoroute 40 (the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

) and Autoroute 20, which crosses the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

over the Galipeault Bridge linking it to

. For public transit, the town is served by the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue commuter train station on the Vaudreuil-Hudson Line. It also covered by the bus network of the

Société de transport de Montréal The Société de transport de Montréal (, STM; ) is a public transport agency that operates transit bus and rapid transit services in the urban agglomeration of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Established in 1861 as the "Montreal City Passenger Railwa ...

. Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue will be the westernmost terminus for the

Réseau express métropolitain The Réseau express métropolitain (REM; ) is a Medium-capacity rail system, light metro rapid transit system in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As of June 2025, it consists of five stations spanning 16 km, connecting Downtown Montreal with th ...

rapid transit system on the island of Montreal. The West Island branch is currently undergoing testing and is scheduled to open in October 2025.

Education

The '' Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys'' operates Francophone public schools, but were previously operated by the '' Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys'' until June 15, 2020. The change was a result of a law passed by the Quebec government that changed the school board system from denominational to

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. It operates the École primaire du Bout-de-l'Isle. The Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) operates Anglophone public schools in the area. It operates Macdonald High School. The zoned elementary school is Dorset Elementary School in

Baie-D'Urfé Baie-D'Urfé (, ; previously spelled Baie d'Urfé or Baie d'Urfee) is an Greater Montreal, on-island suburb of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is part of the West Island area of the Island of Montreal. As part of the 2002–2006 municipal reorganiz ...

School Board Map
" Lester B. Pearson School Board. Retrieved on September 28, 2017.

References

External links

Official website

Parks Canada – Sante-Anne-de-Bellevue locks
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Populated places established in 1703 1703 establishments in the French colonial empire Island of Montreal municipalities Populated places on the Ottawa River Bilingual cities and towns in Quebec