Vaudreuil-Soulanges is at the triangle (centre right) formed west of the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence River rivers in this satellite image.
Vaudreuil-Soulanges is part of the St Lawrence Valley. Two million years ago the region was subject to a series of glaciations that covered much of North America. The last in the series was the Wisconsin glaciation. The ice sheet weighed down the landscape. This created the depressions in the land that created the basins for Lake Saint-Louis, Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lake Saint-Francis. As the ice sheet eroded, the region was mostly submerged 12,000 years ago by an inland saltwater sea known as the Champlain sea. Once the glacier was melted, the land rose again, pushing the saltwater into the sea. 10,000 years ago the body of water, now a fresh water lake, has been named by scholars as Lake Lampsilis.
History
During the French colonial period, the region of New France was divided into several seigneuries populated by French colonists.[4]
Seigneurie de L'Île-Perrot founded on October 29, 1672 (modern day L'Île-Perrot, Pincourt, Notre-Dame-de-L'Île-Perrot and Terrasse-Vaudreuil)[5][6][circular reference]
Seigneurie de Vaudreuil founded on October 12, 1702 (modern day Vaudreuil-Dorion, Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac, L'Île-Cadieux, Saint-Lazare and Hudson[7][8][circular reference]
Seigneurie de Soulanges founded on October 12, 1702 (modern day Saint-Clet, Coteau-du-Lac, Les Cèdres and Pointe-des-Cascades)[9][10][circular reference]
Seigneurie de Rigaud founded on October 29, 1732 (modern day Rigaud, Sainte-Marthe, Pointe-Fortune and Très-Saint-Rédempteur)[11][12][circular reference]
Seigneurie de Nouvelle-Longueuil founded on April 21, 1734 (modern day Saint-Polycarpe, Saint-Télesphore, Saint-Zotique, Les Coteaux et Rivière-Beaudette)[13][14][circular reference]
Canton Newton founded in August 1791 (modern day Sainte-Justine-de-Newton, not part of the seigneurie system, was modeled after British township system)[15][16][circular reference]
The seigneurial system was finally abolished in 1854, nearly a century after Great Britain took over the territory after defeating France in the Seven Years' War.
It is the only county in Quebec that lies both south of the Ottawa River and north of the St. Lawrence River. Great Britain wanted to keep most of the French-speaking, ethnic French population of the area within Lower Canada during the 1791 division of Upper and Lower Canada (precursors to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec). It is geographically isolated from the Montérégie region south of the St. Lawrence.
Since the RCM formation on 14 April 1982, the division of the county into "Vaudreuil" and "Soulanges" is still salient. The "Vaudreuil" area (consisting of the municipalities of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Saint-Lazare, Hudson, L'Île-Perrot, and others) is closer to Montreal. It is more suburban, populous, and economically and ethnically diverse. By contrast, the Soulanges area (including the municipalities of Saint-Polycarpe, Saint-Zotique, Coteau-du-Lac, Rivière-Beaudette and Les Coteaux) is predominantly rural, agricultural, and ethnically French-Canadian.
Owing to the county's geographic isolation within Quebec, and its growing population as a suburb of the city of Montreal, Elections Canada assigned the electoral district to the county in 1997.
^a. Statistique Canada, Recensement de la population de 1996, Profil des divisions et subdivisions de recensement : Vaudreuil-Soulanges, produit 95F0181XDB96001 au catalogue de Statistique Canada. Consulté le 20 juillet 2017. b. Statistique Canada. 2002. Profils des communautés de 2001. Vaudreuil-Soulanges (Code 2471), Ottawa. No 93F0053XIF au catalogue de Statistique Canada. Diffusé le 27 juin 2002; modifié le 30 novembre 2005. Consulté le 20 juillet 2017. c. Statistique Canada. 2007. Profils des communautés de 2006, Recensement de 2006 (Code 2471) (Hiérarchie)., produit nº 92-591-XWF au catalogue de Statistique Canada. Ottawa. Diffusé le 13 mars 2007. Consulté le 20 juillet 2017. d. Statistique Canada. Profil du recensement, produit nº 98-316-XWF au catalogue de Statistique Canada. Ottawa. Vaudreuil-Soulanges (Code 2471) Géographie hiérarchie. 2011, diffusé le 24 octobre 2012. Consulté le 20 juillet 2017. e. Statistique Canada. 2017. Hiérachie, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, MRC (Division de recensement 2471). Profil du recensement, Recensement de 2016, produit nº 98-316-X2016001 au catalogue de Statistique Canada. Ottawa. Diffusé le 3 mai 2017. (site consulté le 20 juillet 2017).