My Montreal: Dorval & Other Quebec Curios
Trudeau airport's departure sector for the United States. Source: FRED/Wikimedia Commons.
With a population of nineteen thousand and 42% of its population speaking English as their mother tongue, although we approach the middle of the island, Dorval is still very much part of the “West” part of Montreal. It has the privilege of being called the oldest city on the West Island, being founded in 1667, beating fellow contender Pointe-Claire, another independent municipality on the West Island, by thirty-one years.
Dorval used to share its name with one of the airports on Montreal Island. The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, prior to its renaming in 2004 by the federal government, was the Montreal-Dorval airport–although the name Dorval still sticks around somehow. The airport is owned by Transport Canada and is the busiest Montreal airport and the fourth busiest Canadian airport (the busiest airport was Lester B. Pearson, named after Trudeau’s predecessor, and located in–wait for it–Toronto). The Trudeau airport flew over 14.8 million people in total alone in 2014.
Dorval is not to be confused with its off-island little cousin, Dorval Island, a cottaging island that is usually empty during the Winter months due to only a seasonal transport ferry available that connects the island to Dorval. Dorval Island is itself an independent municipality that had only 5 residents at the time of the 2011 census. When it comes to the Dorval Island’s part in the referendum, 49 out of 50 inhabitants voted for a grand total of 98% voter turnout and 74% of those who voted in favour of becoming an independent municipality.
The borough is named after the Sulpician missionary project of the same name.
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