Memoria de un amigo casi verdadero

Montreal

Montreal is the second-largestcity in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary",the city takes its present namefrom 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 spelledin 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)) asCanada's second most populous with a population of 1,906,811in the city and metropolitan area population of 3,814,700.
The language most spoken at home in the city is French by 52.4%of the population, followed by English at 12.5% (as of 2006 census). The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city's charter. Montreal is the second largest primarilyFrench-speaking city in the world, after Paris. Although a few francophone African cities are bigger in size, such asAlgiers, Kinshasa, and Abidjan, it is agreed that none of these citieshave a significant number of mother-tongue French speakers.[15][16] Montreal is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities, was called "Canada's Cultural Capital"by Monocle Magazine and recently was named a UNESCO City of Design. Though historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population, as well as economic strength,by Toronto in 1976. Today it continues as an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, culture, tourism, film and world affairs.[19] As of 2009 Montreal isNorth America's number one host city for international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).