In 1978, after similar safety concerns with Mosport, the Canadian Grand Prix moved to its current home at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Notre Dame Island in Montreal, Quebec.

The race was also the third most watched sporting event worldwide, behind the first place Super Bowl XXXIX and that year’s UEFA Champions League Final.

For the first five years, the event would be won by drivers with either prior Formula One experience, or would enter the championship after winning the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mont-Tremblant, located 1+1⁄2 hours northwest of Montreal, was much like Mosport Park in that it was a spectacular circuit which had significant elevation change and was very challenging.

The 1968 event, which was moved to late September so it could be paired with the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, saw the unlucky New Zealander Chris Amon lead from the start until 17 laps from the end of the 90 lap distance when his gearbox broke; the McLaren team finished 1–2 with Amon's countrymen Hulme and Bruce McLaren taking top honours.

Following the 1968 season, a group led by John Bassett and race sponsor Imperial Tobacco developed a proposal to move both the Grand Prix and Mosport's Telegram Trophy IndyCar race to a new street circuit in Toronto along Lake Shore Boulevard and through Exhibition Place with the start/finish line and pits to be located inside Exhibition Stadium.

But the Mont-Tremblant circuit was not used again for Formula One because of safety concerns regarding the bitter winters seriously affecting the track surface and a dispute with the local racing authorities there in 1972.

All this meant that Briton Jackie Oliver ended up in the lead with American Peter Revson second and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise third.

Of these three Revson had the most competitive car and so eventually moved into the lead and led all the way to the flag while Peterson's Brazilian teammate Emerson Fittipaldi charged to try to make up for lost ground and overtook Oliver and Beltoise in the closing laps to grab second.

The 1974 event saw Fittipaldi win while his championship rivals Clay Regazzoni finished 2nd and Jody Scheckter crashed heavily after a brake failure on his Tyrrell.

[11][12][7] A third attempt at a Toronto race eventually came to fruition by competing Canadian brewer Molson in 1986 as the Molson Indy Toronto, part of the Indy Car World Series[13][14] A plan was quickly put together to develop a track called the Circuit Île Notre Dame on a man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence seaway that had been the site of the famous Expo '67; specific roads on the island were combined and modified, and then pit facilities were built to make a temporary race track.

1979 saw circuit layout modifications to make it faster, and Australian Alan Jones win, and he then won the 1980 race and the Drivers' Championship that year.

First, Raul Boesel struck a glancing blow to the stationary vehicle, and then Riccardo Paletti crashed directly into the rear of Pironi's Ferrari at over 180 km/h (110 mph).

In 1983, Frenchman René Arnoux scored his first race win as a Ferrari driver, and the following year Piquet won again in a BMW-powered Brabham.

1985 saw Ferrari finish 1–2 with Italian Michele Alboreto and Swede Stefan Johansson taking top honours from Frenchman Alain Prost, while Lotus gained their final ever lock-out of the front row when Elio de Angelis and Ayrton Senna started 1–2.

Alesi's win at Montreal was voted the most popular race victory of the season by many, as it was the number 27 Ferrari—once belonging to the famous Gilles Villeneuve at his much loved home Grand Prix.

The 1996 race saw the Casino corner removed and the layout changed; the run from the hairpin at the bottom of the circuit was turned into a straight.

Briton Damon Hill won this event, and the 1997 race was stopped early due to a crash involving Olivier Panis.

1999 saw Finn Mika Häkkinen win, and in 2001, there was the first sibling 1–2 finish in the history of Formula 1, as Ralf and Michael Schumacher topped the podium.

On lap 67, Takuma Sato overtook McLaren-Mercedes's Fernando Alonso, to cheers around the circuit, just after overtaking Ralf Schumacher and having overtaken Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen earlier in the race.

On 7 October 2008, the Canadian Grand Prix was dropped from the 2009 Formula One calendar, which left the Montreal race off the list for the first time since 1987.

[19] On 26 April 2009, Speed reported Bernie Ecclestone as saying the FIA was negotiating a return of the Canadian Grand Prix for the 2010 season, provided upgrades to the circuit were completed.

[21] On 27 November 2009, Quebec's officials and Canadian Grand Prix organizers announced they had reached a settlement with Formula One Administration and signed a new five-year contract spanning the 2010–2014 seasons.

Robinson died later in hospital and became the first track-side death in Formula One since that of marshal Graham Beveridge at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.

In the weeks leading up the Grand Prix, city officials trap as many groundhogs as they can in and around the race course, and transport the animals to nearby Île Ste-Helene.

On race day itself, Anthony Davidson had been running in third until he struck a groundhog, initially thought to be a beaver, which forced him to pit and repair the damage to his front wing.

[28] Before the wall was named it also claimed victims such as 1992 World Sportscar Champion and long-time F1 driver Derek Warwick who spectacularly crashed his Arrows-Megatron during qualifying for the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix.