Origin of the Name

The station was named for Madeleine Parent (1918-2012), a feminist and labour activist. A full-time labour organizer starting in her twenties, she was an important figure in the 1946 Dominion Textile strike, organizing over 6,000 workers. The strike was violently repressed, but it led to a collective agreement. Her organizing earned the enmity of Premier Maurice Duplessis, and she was charged with seditious conspiracy; she was convicted but the conviction was overturned. She went on to co-found the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union, the Confederation of Canadian Unions, and the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She was recognized as a key figure in the Quebec feminist movement, and was involved in activism for abortion rights, pay equity, and immigrant and Indigenous women’s issues, and against the US government’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following September 11, 2001.

Madeleine Parent is one of the first three women commemorated by the name of a Montreal metro station (other than a saint, queen, or land developer’s relative), along with Mary Two-Axe Earley and Cesira Parisotto.

The station’s name was announced on September 9, 2025. A new name was chosen in order to increase representativity in Montreal toponymy, and because Langelier station already existed.

Temporary name during the planning stage: Langelier.