The author considers the Province in its spatial framework by taking into account the continental and intercontinental flows, and studies two major phenomena: despite some handicaps, the St. Lawrence Corridor has always functioned as an important gateway of the continent, and nowadays, the computation of the flows on the St. Lawrence Waterway shows the heavy preponderance of the through traffic; Montréal sits on the only east-west passage between the american border and the Canadian Shield, and is at the intersection of the St. Lawrence and the transcanadian axes, which make it a wonderful example of a gateway-city. But these realities do not have much presence in the common collective perception of space, and are not reflected in the existing planning policies.