| La Prairie | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Motto: | Victor Hostium et Sui (Latin for "Master of our Enemies and Oneself") |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Southern Quebec |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in southern Quebec |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Montérégie |
| Subdivision Type3: | RCM |
| Subdivision Name3: | Roussillon |
| Established Title1: | Constituted |
| Established Date1: | March 30, 1846 |
| Government Footnotes: | [1] [2] |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Frédéric Galantai |
| Leader Title1: | Federal riding |
| Leader Name1: | La Prairie |
| Leader Title2: | Prov. riding |
| Leader Name2: | La Prairie |
| Area Footnotes: | [3] |
| Area Total Km2: | 54.80 |
| Area Land Km2: | 43.47 |
| Population Total: | 26406 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Density Km2: | 607.4 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Pop 2016–2021 |
| Population Blank1: | 9.5% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 11309 |
| Population Demonym: | Laprairien,(ienne) (French) |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code(s) |
| Postal Code: | J5R |
| Area Code: | 450 and 579 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank Info: | |
La Prairie (in French pronounced as /la pʁɛʁi/) is an off-island suburb (south shore) of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Jacques River and the Saint Lawrence River in the Regional County Municipality of Roussillon. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 26,406.
French Jesuits were the first Europeans to occupy the area, which was named La Prairie de la Magdelaine but was also called François-Xavier-des-Prés. The land was given to the Jesuits by Jacques de La Ferté and the Company of One Hundred Associates in 1647. It is in La Prairie that the story Kateri Tekakwitha took place.
In 1668, the site was named Kentaké, the Iroquois name for "at the prairie". In the beginning of modern Quebec history, the territory of La Prairie would be visited on numerous occasions by Iroquois and English settlers from New York, among others at the time of the Anglo-Iroquois expedition of Pieter Schuyler in 1691, who commanded two battles on August 11, 1691.
The close of the Seven Years' War led to the 1763 treaty ending the French and Indian War. New France, sparsely-populated by indigenous peoples and descendants of French colonists, was ceded by France and divided into British colonies. The territory of La Prairie became part of the Province of Quebec (1763–1791) within the British Empire.
In 1845, the village of La Prairie was established. One year later, La Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine was established. La Prairie was the seat of Laprairie County (1855-1980s),[4] which included the parishes of La Prairie, Notre-Dame, Ste-Catherine, St-Constant, St-Isidore, St-Jacques-le-Mineur, St-Mathieu and St-Philippe. In 1909, La Prairie obtained official city status.
Historically, the city has been an important transportation hub, as it was the point of transfer between Montreal ferries and the land route to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, gateway to Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. The first railway line in British North America, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, connected it with Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on July 21, 1836;[5] the railway ran over 16miles. The construction of a rail line between La Prairie and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu would greatly accelerate the commercial development of the village. River transport equally played an important role in La Prairie's history.
Like the rest of southwestern Quebec, La Prairie has hot summers and cold winters, for a generally temperate climate. Winters are cold and sometimes long (snow is usually present from mid-November to mid-April), with temperatures occasionally dipping below -30 °C, not counting the windchill. During snowstorms, snowfall frequently surpasses 40 centimeters. In the summer, temperatures sometimes exceed 30 °C.
In 2013, Grand Boisé conservation park is planned to be created and orchestrated by Nature-Action. The park would include Smithers' swamp, as well as, Hydro-Quebec's servitude area in which the western chorus frog, a vulnerable species in Quebec, is found in greatest numbers. There is a controversy involving the city housing development in that area which was supposed to be conserved integrally with high priority according to RCM of Roussillon 1990s' maps. Local environmental organisms, such as Vigile verte and Projet Rescousse, are denouncing the choice of that land for housing development. The debate is ongoing.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, La Prairie had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 43.47km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[6]
| Canada Census Mother Tongue – La Prairie, Quebec | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +Mother tongue language | Census | Total | |||||||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | ||||||
| 19,540 | 1.6% | 74.4% | 1,260 | 27.3% | 4.8% | 465 | 66.1% | 1.8% | 4,490 | 72.0% | 17.1% | ||||||||
| 19,860 | 0.4% | 82.8% | 990 | 7.0% | 4.1% | 280 | 14.3% | 1.2% | 2,610 | 34.2% | 10.9% | ||||||||
| 19,780 | 4.1% | 86.4% | 925 | 25.0% | 4.0% | 245 | 113.0% | 1.1% | 1,945 | 17.5% | 8.5% | ||||||||
| 19,010 | 13.5% | 88.3% | 740 | 2.1% | 3.4% | 115 | 25.8% | 0.5% | 1,655 | 89.1% | 7.7% | ||||||||
| 16,745 | 12.6% | 90.5% | 725 | 26.1% | 3.9% | 155 | 13.9% | 0.8% | 875 | 18.6% | 4.7% | ||||||||
| 14,870 | n/a | 89.0% | 575 | n/a | 3.4% | 180 | n/a | 1.1% | 1,075 | n/a | 6.4% | ||||||||
The CIT Le Richelain provides commuter and local bus services.
The town has three high schools: l'École de la Magdeleine, a public French school which offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme, Collège Jean de la Mennais, a private mixed French school and Saint-François-Xavier, a public French school.
The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board previously served the municipality.[7]