Montreal South West Le Sud-Ouest is the area west of Downtown, on both sides of the Lachine Canal Canal de Lachine, bordered by the districts of LaSalle, Verdun and Westmount.
It is made up of the neighborhoods of Petite-Bourgogne-Griffintown Little Burgundy, Saint-Henri, Pointe-Saint-Charles, Côte-Saint-Paul and Ville Émard.
Historically a blue collar neighborhood, it used to be called "Smokey Valley" because of a high concentration of heavy industry and other sources of pollution. Those days are long gone, and the Lachine canal cleanup and conversion into a park and bike path, as well as many of the old industrial buildings being gentrified and turned into luxury condominiums have changed the face of Sud Ouest forever.
