Beaconsfield, Quebec
Beaconsfield, located on the western part of the Island of Montreal, is a municipality in Quebec, Canada. After the amalgamation of the Island's 27 distinct municipalities, it was merged with neighbouring Baie-d'urfe to create the Borough of Beaconsfield—Baie-d'Urfé, in the new city of Montreal. It later voted to demerge and was re-established as a town on January 1, 2006. It is on the north shore of Lac St. Louis, bordered on the West by Baie-d'urfe, on the north by Kirkland and on the East by Pointe-Claire. Beaconsfield's diversity is unique, home to both wealthy (mainly on the Lakeshore and Windemere neighbourhood) and lower-middle class neighbourhoods. Beaconsfield is mostly English-speaking and is part of Montreal commonly referred to as the West Island. Beaconsfield is surrounded mainly by industrial parks, and water on the Lakeshore. It has the highest suicide rate of all the towns on the Island of Montreal.
The city is named after Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who was Prime Minister of Britain in 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880. While the city has historical roots which date back to the 17th Century, it was incorporated in 1910 and was known for some time as a semi-rural community of small summer cottages on small lots that urban Montrealers would rent.
Twin village
In recent years, Beaconsfield has been fundraising for Itegero, a small village in Kenya. This was started with the late Ebi Kimanani, PhD., a Kenyan woman who had been living in Beaconsfield and had raised enough money to build a cornmill in Itegero. In 2006, 6 Beaconsfield women traveled to Itegero with school supplies donated by mostly Beaconsfield and Baie-d'Urfé residents.
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