Saint-Hubert is currently a borough of the city of Longueuil,Quebec; Longueuil in turn is the largest suburb of the City of Montreal. The borough of Saint-Hubert has a population of roughly 79,000, and it covers roughly 63 km2. It contains an important regional airport, and contains the headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), along with various other industrial plants and warehouses located in one of its three industrial parks.
Saint-Hubert was created as a parish on December 31, 1860 on land ceded by Longueuil. It was named for the patron saint of foresters, Saint Hubert, for it was a heavily wooded area. This parish grew slowly at first (mostly inhabited by farmers), with a total population of just 952 by 1911, and 2 457 people by 1941. After World War II, the population of suburbs in North America exploded and Saint-Hubert's population was a beneficiary, reaching fourteen thousand by 1961 and sixty thousand by 1981.
Saint-Hubert's role as a center of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s is undisputed. The airport was Montreal's main passenger airport, and it was even outfitted with a mast for airship arrivals. Unfortunately airship passenger transport never took off so the only time the mast was used was when the British airship R-100 came to visit, which attracted one million visitors.
Saint-Hubert's territory grew during the century, as the various villages and parishes in the area were joined together or annexed. One major addition was Laflèche. Originally called Mackayville, it was found as a parish in 1925, changed its name to Laflèche in 1959 and was annexed by Saint-Hubert in 1971.
Recently, Saint-Hubert was hit with the Ice Storm of 1998. It caused severe transportation and logistical problems for the people living there - and electricity was cut off for most of the city for at least a week. Then, in 2002, the merger of Saint-Hubert and seven other municipalities created Longueuil.
Personal notes:
I wrote this writeup because I happily grew up and currently live in this wonderful borough. It's my first writeup, so please be gentle, kind reader. All comments are of course welcome. Also, I decided to create this node as "Saint-Hubert" because the Longueuil node points to this spelling, and of course because this is the correct way to spell it out in French. Saint Hubert is the patron saint, Saint-Hubert is the borough/former city.
Sources:
http://www.marigot.ca/Atlas/index.htm (PRATT, Michel, Atlas historique de Boucherville, Brossard, Greenfield Park, LeMoyne, Longueuil, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Saint-Hubert et Saint-Lambert. Société historique et culturelle du Marigot. Édition internet 2002.)