West Island timeline

1678: Ile Bizard is ceded as a seigneurie to Jacques Bizard by the King of France. By 1723, it is known as Ile Bizard

1703: The parish of Ste. Anne de Bellevue is formed, making it the oldest city on the island of Montreal

1706: The Chemin du Roi, now known as Lakeshore Road is opened when deforestation along the banks of Lake St. Louis is extensive enough to warrant doing so. The road stretches from what is now eastern Dorval to the tip of the island, in what is now Ste. Anne de Bellevue. The parish is divided into three ‘cotes’: Cote St. Charles, Cote St. Jean and Cote St. Remy (now Sources Boulevard).

1844: The Eglise Saint-Geneviève, which now houses CEGEP Gérald-Godin in Ste. Geneviève, is built.

1854: Pointe Claire incorporated as a municipality.

1892: After being in existence in one form or another as a village since the seventeenth century, Dorval is incorporated.

1895: Senneville breaks away from Ste. Anne de Bellevue and is incorporated as a village on its own.

1904: The parish of Ste. Genevieve is split into two: Ste. Geneviève and Ste. Geneviève de Pierrefonds. The latter would later drop the first part of its name, to be known only as Pierrefonds.

1907: Macdonald High School in Ste. Anne de Bellevue opens, making it the oldest current English high school in the West Island.

1910: Beaconsfield is incorporated. One year later, neighbour Baie d’Urfé does the same.

1914: Roxboro is incorporated as a municipality. Originally a summer getaway destination for Montreal’s elite, like may West Island cities, Roxboro’s unique appeal eventually drew city-dwellers out permanently

Sept . 1, 1941: Dorval Airport is opened amid much fanfare. With three paved runways, the airport’s opening ushers in a new era for travel in Montreal. During World War II, it was the major Canadian transit point for departures to Europe.

1960: Dollard des Ormeaux is officially incorporated as a town in 1960 after having been recognized as a district since 1924.

1961: Kirkland is incorporated as a town and named after Dr. Charles-Aimé Kirkland, a provincial politician who represented the area in Quebec City. Later a part of the Jacques Cartier riding, Kirkland’s daughter Marie-Claire represents the city as the province’s first female MNA from 1961 to 1973.

1988: The traffic lights on Highway 20 at Cartier Avenue in Pointe Claire are removed turning the Cartier exit into an overpass. A decade later, Transport Quebec would remove similar lights on the highway at Woodland Avenue in Beaconsfield and Morgan Road in Baie d’Urfé, making Highway 20 a lot safer.

1997: The Lester B. Pearson School Board is founded with the mandate to administer English education in the western end of Montreal, made up of English institutions from the old Protestant (Lakeshore School Board) and Catholic (Baldwin-Cartier School Commission) denominational boards.

Nov. 19, 2000: Thousands of West Islanders show up to a demonstration organized the Liberal Party of Quebec, where then-leader Jean Charest tells cheering West Islanders “you will have your cities back.”

Jan. 1, 2002: Montreal mega-city is formed after a provincial law merging smaller towns into larger ones is rammed through the National Assembly with little consultation.

June 20, 2004: Referendums on de-merging from Montreal are held in former West Island municipalities. Pointe Claire, Dorval, Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urfé, Kirkland, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Senneville and Dollard des Ormeaux vote to de-merge.

Jan. 1, 2006: The cities that voted to reconstitute are officially reborn