Blainville, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, is nestled on the North Shore in southwestern Quebec, Canada. This town forms part of the Thérèse-De Blainville Regional County Municipality within the Laurentides region of Quebec. Situated at the foot of the Laurentian Mountains, Blainville is a mere 35 kilometres (22 mi) northwest of downtown Montreal.
In 1683, Louis de Buade de Frontenac granted a vast territory, which includes present-day Blainville, to elite members of society, lords or "seigneurs," to promote the development of New France. This territory, known as the Seigneurie des Mille Îles (Lordship of the Thousand Islands), encompassed over 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) along the northern shores of the Mille Îles River.
A disagreement in 1792 between Seigneur Hertel and Seigneuresse Lamarque led to a division of the seigneurial territory along what was then-called the Great Line (present-day Boulevard du Curé-Labelle or Quebec Route 117). Blainville was named after the third lord of the seigneurie, Jean-Baptiste Céloron de Blainville (1660-1756).
On 14 June 1968, the parish of Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville was divided, and Blainville formed its own town consisting of mostly undeveloped land. As of 2017, the municipality governed 54.62 square kilometres (21.09 sq mi), subdivided into eleven districts, and maintained an independent police force, a fire department, a library with three branches, an arena with two rinks, and an aquatic recreation centre.
According to the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Blainville had a population of 59,819 living in 22,424 of its 22,859 total private dwellings, a change of 5.2% from its 2016 population of 56,863. With a land area of 54.97 km2 (21.22 sq mi), it had a population density of 1,088.2/km2 (2,818.5/sq mi) in 2021.
The population is diverse, with 86.5% of Blainville residents being white/European, 12.3% visible minorities, and 1.2% Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups were Arab (3.6%), Black (3.3%), Latin American (1.7%), Southeast Asian (0.9%), and Chinese (0.9%).
The 2021 census found that 82.2% of residents spoke French as a mother tongue. Although 60.0% of residents reported knowledge of both English and French, English was the mother tongue of only 4.1% of respondents. The next most frequent native languages were Arabic (2.3%), Spanish (1.7%), and Portuguese (1.0%).
Blainville is served by the Blainville commuter rail station on the Réseau de transport métropolitain's Saint-Jérôme line. Local bus service is provided by RTM Laurentides, ensuring easy and convenient transportation for residents and visitors alike.
