Westmount () is a city on 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

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, Canada. It is an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

of 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 ...

, with a population of 19,658 as of the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

. Westmount is home to schools, an arena, a pool, a public library and a number of parks, including Westmount Park, King George Park (also known as Murray Hill Park) and Westmount Summit. The city operates its own electricity distribution company Westmount Light & Power (Hydro-Westmount). The city is also the location of two

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

Primary Reserve units: The Royal Montreal Regiment and 34th Signals Regiment. Traditionally, the community of Westmount has been a wealthy and predominantly

anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

enclave, having been at one point the richest community in Canada. It is still the most affluent neighbourhood in Canada outside of

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Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, and

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

History

There are indications of a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

presence 4000 to 5000 years ago. A large amount of prehistoric burial sites were found within the area of Westmount. The

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

and

Haudenosaunee 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 ...

(Iriquois) peoples have historically inhabited the Island of Montreal as well as much of Quebec. When the first French colonists settled in the area in the middle of the seventeenth century, this area was known by several names including La Petite Montagne, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Côte-Saint-Antoine. A former farmhouse from this era, Hurtubise House, is the oldest house still standing in Westmount. The Village of Côte St-Antoine was first incorporated in 1874. It later became the Town of Côte St-Antoine. It was renamed Westmount, in 1895, reflecting the geographical location of the city on the southwest slope of Mount Royal and the presence of a large English-speaking population. During the twentieth century, Westmount became a wealthy residential area within the island of Montreal; a small city dotted with many green spaces. Architect Robert Findlay, a resident in the early twentieth century, designed many municipal buildings in the city, including the library, Westmount City Hall and several other buildings of public order. In the twentieth century, Westmount was home to some of Montreal's wealthiest families including the Bronfmans and the Molsons. This made the city a symbolic target of Front de libération du Québec terrorist bombings in the 1960s, culminating in the 1970

October Crisis The October Crisis () was a chain of political events in Canada that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross f ...

. Following the death of former

Quebec Premier The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following that ...

René Lévesque René Lévesque ( ; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to seek, ...

in 1987, the city of Montreal renamed Dorchester Boulevard René Lévesque Boulevard. After the city of Montreal changed the name, Westmount retained the name of Dorchester on their portion, as did

Montréal-Est Montreal East (, ) is an on-island suburb in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the island of Montreal. Montreal-Est has been home to many large oil refineries since 1915. History The formation of Montréal-Est as a municipality was initiated in ...

Merger with Montreal

In 2001, while trying to prevent Westmount from being amalgamated into the city of Montreal, Westmount Mayor Peter Trent and city council asserted that the city was a designated

institution and should not be merged into

francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

greater Montreal. In response to this opposition, Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel said that Westmount's resistance "reeked of colonialism" and that the opposition was an "ethnic project", statements for which she would refuse to apologize. When asked for comment, Quebec Premier

Bernard Landry Bernard Landry (; March 9, 1937 – November 6, 2018) was a Canadian politician who served as the 28th premier of Quebec from 2001 to 2003. A member of the Parti Québécois (PQ), he led the party from 2001 to 2005, also serving as the leader ...

said the minister had his full support and that the opposition was little more than Quebec bashing. Several federalist public figures criticized Landry's statement: Jean Charest called it insulting to the intelligence of the citizens of Quebec; Joseph Gabary, president of the Quebec Chapter of the Canadian Jewish Congress, called the language "crude"; Alliance Quebec also criticized the premier for singling out the city for special criticism. 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 ...

, Westmount was merged into the city of

and became a borough. However, after a change of government and a 2004 referendum, it was re-constituted as an independent city on January 1, 2006. It is now one of fifteen independent cities on the Island of Montreal, and the only one that directly borders the

downtown core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with two integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buil ...

. Nevertheless, it remains part of the

urban agglomeration of Montreal The urban agglomeration of Montreal (, ) is an Urban agglomerations of Quebec, urban agglomeration in Quebec, Canada. Coextensive with the List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Montreal, it is a territory equivalent to a regional c ...

and the bulk of its

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

taxes go to the Agglomeration Council, which oversees activities common to all municipalities on the Island of Montreal (e.g. police, fire protection, public transit) even after the demerger.

Geography

The city is roughly , and occupies an area of land on the south face of Westmount Summit, the western peak of Mount Royal. The city, most of which is on steep terrain, extends from the summit to the end of the narrow plateau at the foot of the mountain.

Cityscape

Most of the city is residential. Homes increase in size and value toward the top of the mountain, with the largest and most expensive being on or near Summit Circle. Notable buildings include Place Alexis Nihon and the Westmount Square complex, which was designed by

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

and funded largely by Westmount resident Samuel Bronfman, the founder of the

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which trade name, traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational beverage and during the last few years of its existence, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. ...

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

empire.

There are several small commercial districts on

Sherbrooke Street Sherbrooke Street (officially in ) is a major east–west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal, Canada. The street begins in the town of Montreal West, Quebec, Montreal West and ends on the extreme ...

from the city's western boundary to the intersection of Sherbrooke Street and Victoria Avenue (" Victoria Village"), on

Saint Catherine Street Sainte-Catherine Street ( ) () is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and de Maisonneuve Boulevard in Wes ...

across from Place Alexis Nihon, on Greene Avenue and on

De Maisonneuve Boulevard De Maisonneuve Boulevard (officially in ) is a major westbound boulevard located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is named after the founder of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve. It is a one-way street westbound. De Maisonneuve ...

near the Atwater metro station.

Parks

There are several parks within the city, including Westmount Park and King George Park (also known as Murray Hill). Summit Woods, a popular urban forest and dog run, is located within Summit Circle.

Westmount Park

Located between

and

to the north and south, and Melville and Lansdowne Avenue to the east and west, this park is the second largest in Westmount. The landscaping design was undertaken in 1912 by M.J. Manning, and comprises large playing fields at the east and south sides, and Westmount Arena and adjacent swimming pool at the southwest corner. The central area contains an extensive playground, footpaths, ponds and wading pools, and tennis courts. Westmount Public Library, built in 1897, Victoria Hall, and a large greenhouse are located on the north side. Westmount Park United Church is adjacent to the park to the west.

Demographics

According to the

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; ) is an agency of the Quebec provincial government charged with ensuring legislative requirements with respect to the right to use French are respected. Established on 24 March 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the ...

, Westmount has been officially recognized as a bilingual municipality since 2 November 2005. 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 ...

, Westmount 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. StatsCan lists the median after-tax income in 2015 as $41,674. The three largest occupation categories were management, business, and "education, law and social, community and government services"; each of these sectors employed about 20% of Westmount workers.

Government

Municipal

Since regaining its status as a city, Westmount is governed by a City Council made up of a mayor and eight "district" councillors. The current mayor of Westmount is Christina Smith, who was elected interim mayor at a special council meeting on April 24, 2017, following the retirement of long-serving Mayor Peter Trent. Smith later went on to win an election November 5, 2017 to remain mayor. She retained her position in 2021, being acclaimed. In addition to the local city council, Westmount is represented by its mayor on the Montreal Agglomeration Council.

Former mayors

List of former mayors: * Eustache Prud'homme (1874–1875) * James Kewley Ward (1875–1884) * Alexander Cowper Hutchison (1884–1887) * Thomas Patton (1887–1890) * John MacFarlane (1890–1891) * Matthew Hutchinson (1891–1894) * James Henry Redfern (1894–1896) * Frederick William Evans (1896–1898) * James Robert Walker (1898–1900) * William Douw Lighthall (1900–1903) * Alexander S. George Cross (1903–1905) * Charles-Albert Duclos (1905–1906) * James W. Knox (1906–1907) * William Galbraith (1907–1909) * William Henry Trenholme (1909–1911) * William Rutherford (1911–1913) * John MacKergow (1913–1919) * Peter William MacLagan (1919–1927) * George Hogg (1927–1933) * John Jenkins (1933–1939) * Walter Alfred Merrill (1939–1945) * R. Percy Adams (1945–1949) * James S. Cameron (1949–1953) * Roy L. Campbell (1953–1955) * James Arthur de Lalanne (1955–1957) * Aimé Sydney Bruneau (1957–1959) * J. C. Cushing (1959–1963) * Chipman Hazen Drury (1963–1965) * M. L. Tucker (1965–1968) * Peter Michael MacEntyre (1968–1971) * Paul A. Ouimet (1971–1975) * Donald Charles MacCallum (1975–1983) * Brian O'Neil Gallery (1983–1987) * May Ebbitt (Cutler) (1987–1991) * Peter Francis Trent (1991–2002, 2009–2017) * Karin Marks (2006–2009) * Christina M. Smith (2017–present)

Provincial and Federal

Throughout Quebec, Westmount is known as an overwhelmingly Liberal riding, both federally and provincially. On the federal level, Westmount is represented in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount riding. The riding was won by Anna Gainey in the 2023 federal byelections. Provincially, the city is represented in the riding of Westmount–Saint-Louis by MNA Jennifer Maccarone of the

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...

Sports

Westmount was home of the

Montreal Arena The Montreal Arena, also known as Westmount Arena, was an indoor arena located in Westmount, Quebec, Canada on the corner of St. Catherine Street and Wood Avenue. It is considered the first arena designed expressly for ice hockey. Opened in 1898, ...

, the third arena in history to be built specifically for hockey. It was the home rink for the

Montreal Wanderers The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association ...

, one of the great teams of the early hockey era, as well as the legendary

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

. The arena burned down in 1918, causing the Wanderers to disband. In 2010, Mayor Peter Trent unveiled a $38-million project to demolish the old arena and create two new rinks, a larger swimming pool, refurbished tennis courts, and an extra of green space. In the fall of 2013, the new Westmount Recreation Centre opened. It is home to the Westmount Wings, Lasalle/Westmount Cobras and was the home of the Westmount Predators that are no longer active. Westmount is home to the Westmount Lynx Lacrosse Club, which has field lacrosse teams for boys and girls aged 8–16. Westmount is also home of the oldest active rugby club in North America, the Westmount Rugby Club. In addition, the city's swim team, the Westmount Dolphins, won the 2007 Section B Alps finals. Tennis star

Eugenie Bouchard Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard (; , ; born February 25, 1994) is a Canadian professional tennis and pickleball player. At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player repr ...

grew up in Westmount.

Education

The city is home to two

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; , ; also written CÉGEP and cegep) is a publicly funded college providing general, professional, academic or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, it ori ...

s: the public anglophone Dawson College and the private anglophone Marianopolis College. The ''

Commission scolaire de Montréal In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

'' (CSDM) operates French-language schools in Westmount. English-language public schools in Westmount are operated by the

English Montreal School Board The English Montreal School Board (official name: Commission scolaire English-Montréal English-Montréal School Board; CSEM or EMSB) is one of five public school boards and one of two English-language school boards on the island of Montreal in Q ...

(EMSB). These include Westmount High School, its sister elementary school Westmount Park School and Roslyn Elementary School, which is significant for introducing the first French Immersion Program on the

in 1968. Westmount is also home to several private schools, including coeducational St. George's School of Montreal as well as Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School,

The Study The Study is an English-language private education all-girls school in Westmount, Quebec. The school was founded in 1915 by a young Englishwoman named Margaret Gascoigne. The Study offers a bilingual mother tongue education to 386 students from K ...

and the French-language Villa Sainte-Marcelline for girls and Selwyn House School for boys. The Montreal Hoshuko School, a supplementary Japanese school serving Japanese nationals and

Japanese Canadians are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

in the Montreal area, previously held classes at the Westmount Park School in Westmount.

Twin towns — sister cities

Westmount is twinned with: *

Rimouski Rimouski ( ; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski, whose motto is ''Legi patrum fidelis'' (Faithful to ...

, Quebec, Canada ''(since 1968)''

Notable people

Musicians

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

and Sam Roberts were born in Westmount, as was the actress and comedian Caroline Rhea. The city is currently home to many notable Montrealers, including the federal MP and former astronaut Marc Garneau. United States Vice President

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

lived for part of her youth in the area, and attended Westmount High School.

Fiction

Westmount has been the setting for a number of novels. Gwethalyn Graham's World War II novel '' Earth and High Heaven'' told the story of a romance between a wealthy English girl from Westmount and a Jewish lawyer from Northern Ontario. David Montrose' 1950s hard-boiled detective novel, ''The Crime on Cote des Neiges'', was translated into French as ''Meurtre à Westmount''. Daniel Richler's ''Kicking Tomorrow'' is a bildungsroman of a teenager growing up in a Westmount family in the 1970s, mentioning how the students at Westmount High School were "famous in the City for the achievement of being perpetually stoned." Claire Rothman's novel ''Lear's Shadow'' takes place amidst an outdoor summer production of the Shakespeare play in Westmount Park. Edward Openshaw Phillips wrote a series of mystery novels starring an anglophone Westmount lawyer, most of which were set in Westmount.

References

External links

*
Walking tour of Westmount
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Mount Royal Enclaves and exclaves Bilingual cities and towns in Quebec Island of Montreal municipalities