Champlain Bridge….. One of the six main links connecting

Montreal to the South Shore sector of the Montérégie.

Over 80% of the English-speaking community

lives within 15 km of the cities downtown core

Looking across from Montreal’s Mount Royal, one can see the far-off and bluish Montérégie peaks, beyond the historic St-Lawrence. Four great bridges span the river, connecting Montreal Island to the mainland and supporting a steady criss-cross flow of goods and people.

Often when one talks of Montreal’s English-speaking community, eyes turn toward the western side of the Island. However, just beyond those bridges leading to the South Shore, you will find a dozen towns and cities that comprise the second-largest English-language community in Québec.

The South Shore English-speaking community makes its home mainly within 20 kilometres of the Island of Montréal. And despite battling rush hour traffic gridlock, we live closer to the cities “downtown” than people in the West-Island or Laval.

Along with the core cities of Brossard, Greenfield Park, Saint-Lambert, Saint-Hubert, Longueuil and Candiac, you will also find English Community pockets in the Richelieu Valley towns of Otterburn Park, Saint- Bruno and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

While the South Shore English-language community is sizable in number, living in the shadow of Montreal means we often make use of on-island services. Easy access to the city allows us to work, shop, study or seek medical services, while still being able to return back home once we are finished. In fact, every day over 300,000 South Shore residents travel into Montreal or Laval.

Also, with our high levels of bilingualism, many South Shore residents have become comfortable using local services in French.

For these reasons, we have not yet developed a support network of English-speaking community services as extensive as those found in other regions of Québec.

The South Shore is home to an ever-increasing multi-cultural community whose first official language spoken is English. If you seek a good example of how Canada’s two great founding cultures can blend together and live side by side in respect of each other, while presenting the vital, dynamic face of a forward-thinking multicultural society, then come visit us on Montreal’s South Shore.