Thousands support UNESCO designation for Mount Royal

A petition to have Mount Royal recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site and join an elite club that includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Egypt’s pyramids and China’s Great Wall has collected more than 31,000 signatures in a less than a month.

The online petition was started by non-profit group Les amis de la montagne with the support of the city of Montreal in early April in an effort to be registered on Canada’s 2017 tentative submission list for World Heritage Sites.

The federal government announced last year it was planning to submit about 10 potential sites for consideration as part of Canada’s 150th-anniversary celebrations this year.

Eighteen Canadian sites are among the 1,052 listed by UNESCO, including Rocky Mountain Parks, Quebec City’s fortified old quarter and the Rideau Canal.

“Mount Royal is an iconic symbol of the city,” wrote Les amis director Sylvie Guilbault at the start of the mobilization campaign.

“The mountain is also fundamental to the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of Montrealers.”

The federal government will announce in November which sites it is submitting.

The competition is steep: UNESCO typically chooses only about a dozen natural or culturally iconic spots worldwide each year.

As an emblematic feature of Montreal’s identity, a heritage site recognized by the Quebec government and a treasured green space designed by Frederick Law Olmsted where people flock to exercise, play, commune and take in the view, Mount Royal merits the added protection a UNESCO designation would bring, Les amis argued.

The petition had received 31,683 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.

The deadline to sign is Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.