| Beauharnois | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Southern Quebec |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in southern Quebec |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Montérégie |
| Subdivision Type3: | RCM |
| Subdivision Name3: | Beauharnois-Salaberry |
| Established Title1: | Constituted |
| Established Date1: | January 1, 2002 |
| Government Footnotes: | [1] |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Alain Dubuc |
| Leader Title1: | Federal riding |
| Leader Name1: | Salaberry—Suroît |
| Leader Title2: | Prov. riding |
| Leader Name2: | Beauharnois |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 83.40 |
| Area Land Km2: | 68.22 |
| Population Total: | 13638 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Density Km2: | 199.9 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Pop (2016-21) |
| Population Blank1: | 5.9% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 6451 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code(s) |
| Postal Code: | J6N |
| Area Codes: | 450 and 579 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank Info: | |
Beauharnois is a city located in the Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality of southwestern Quebec, Canada, and is part of the Greater Montreal Area. The city's population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 13,638. It is home to the Beauharnois Hydroelectric Power Station, as well as the Beauharnois Lock of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
During the Lower Canada Rebellion, the Battle of Beauharnois was fought in 1838, between Lower Canada loyalists and Patriote rebels.[3] After Edward Ellice and his family were taken prisoner by rebels, the townspeople rebelled. The British were able to quash the rebellion and captured over a hundred Patriote rebels.[4]
The Beauharnois Canal was dug between 1842 and 1845 to connect the lakes Saint-Louis and Saint-Francois[5] as part of a larger project that included the expansion of the Lachine canal. During these years, however, a series of labor conflicts emerged during the canal's construction. On June 3, 1843, a strike began at the canal's construction site. A battle ensued between the striking workers and employers, resulting in the death of five workers and 50 additional injured. The violence unleashed during the strike represented the bloodiest repression against workers in Canadian history.[6]
As part of the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, the neighbouring towns of Maple Grove and Melocheville were amalgamated into Beauharnois on January 1, 2002.
In addition to the main population centre of Beauharnois, the following locations are within the municipality's boundaries:
The following waterways pass through or are situated within the municipality's boundaries:
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Beauharnois had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 68.22km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[2]
| Canada Census Mother Tongue - Beauharnois, Quebec[7] | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | ||||||
| 11,865 | 5.5% | 93.65% | 505 | 9.8% | 3.98% | 115 | 9.5% | 0.91% | 185 | 48% | 1.46% | ||||||||
| 11,245 | 1.7% | 94.22% | 460 | 16.5% | 3.85% | 105 | 133.3% | 0.88% | 125 | 37.5% | 1.05% | ||||||||
| 11,055 | 84.6% | 94.53% | 395 | 163.3% | 3.38% | 45 | 30.8% | 0.38% | 200 | 471.4% | 1.71% | ||||||||
| 5,990 | 1.1% | 95.99% | 150 | 15.4% | 2.40% | 65 | 62.5% | 1.04% | 35 | 12.5% | 0.56% | ||||||||
| 6,055 | n/a | 98.75% | 130 | n/a | 0.69% | 40 | n/a | 0.33% | 40 | n/a | 0.23% | ||||||||
| Amalgamated with Maple Grove and Melocheville on January 1, 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||
In 2012, OVH started construction of its first Canadian data centre in Beauharnois, one of the largest in the world.