My Montreal: Anjou & Other Quebec Curios

The metropolitan highway is a major highway through the borough of Anjou in Montreal. Photo credit: Chicoutimi/Wikimedia Commons.

Historically once the land of farmers and other agricultural workers. Anjou evolved in the 1950s to a more urban culture, and in 1956, Anjou separated from a fellow parish to become Ville d’Anjou. In 2002, it dropped the words “ville de” to become simply Anjou. During the referendums to separate, Anjou did not get the 35% needed to separate from Montreal, so they stayed part of the city.

A notable Anjou landmark includes Les Galeries d’Anjou, the largest shopping mall in Montreal, but what is notable is the literal roads leading to its creation. The construction of the Metropolitan and the highway 25 gradually led to the creation of an industrial park that would lead to the commercial centre’s construction.

Like its fellow comrade in the Montreal boroughs, according to the 2011 census, Anjou also has a large elderly population of 22%; the average age of a citizen living in Anjou is 44.7 years old. Just about forty-two thousand people call Anjou home; 89% of the population speak only one language at work, the language being mostly French. A whopping 96% learned to speak only one language growing up, 67% of that percentage being French. 70% of Anjou’s inhabitants are native Québécois, the next type of people being a growing adult immigrant population from Algeria, Haiti, and Italy. Like their New France ancestors, the vast majority in Anjou are Catholic, with a growing Muslim community (10%).

Anjou’s provincial political district is combined with Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve to form Anjou-Louis-Riel, a circumscription notable for one of its past MNAs and former Premier Pierre Marc Johnson of the Parti Quebecois. Its federal political district is Honoré-Mercier, which is combined with Rivières-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-Trembles and a bit of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.