Shawville, Quebec Explained

Shawville
Settlement Type:Municipality
Pushpin Map:Canada Western Quebec
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in western Quebec
Coordinates:45.6°N -105°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:Canada
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Name1:Quebec
Subdivision Type2:Region
Subdivision Name2:Outaouais
Subdivision Type3:RCM
Subdivision Name3:Pontiac
Established Title1:Constituted
Established Date1:January 1, 1874
Government Footnotes:[1]
Leader Title:Mayor
Leader Name:Bill McCleary
Leader Title1:Federal riding
Leader Name1:Pontiac
Leader Title2:Prov. riding
Leader Name2:Pontiac
Area Footnotes:[2]
Area Total Km2:5.40
Area Land Km2:5.38
Population Total:1668
Population As Of:2021
Population Density Km2:310.1
Population Blank1 Title:Pop (2016-21)
Population Blank1: 5.1%
Population Blank2 Title:Dwellings
Population Blank2:807
Timezone:EST
Utc Offset:−5
Timezone Dst:EDT
Utc Offset Dst:−4
Postal Code Type:Postal code(s)
Postal Code:J0X 2Y0
Area Code:819
Blank Name:Highways
Blank Info:

Shawville is a town located in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Outaouais in western Quebec, Canada.

History

At the end of the 1860s, a group of citizens from Clarendon Centre, under the leadership of James Shaw (1818–1877), separated the municipality from the township of Clarendon. While they had originally planned on naming the new entity "Daggville," after the name of a pioneer family, they opted instead to name it "Shawville" after James Shaw promised to donate 0.8ha of land to the new municipality. Shawville was officially established in 1874 and was populated by Irish Protestant immigrants. John Dale Jr, who was mayor of Clarendon at the time, resigned to become the first mayor of the newly formed township of Shawville in 1874.

The municipality has a Methodist church that was built in Shawville in 1835, while the Catholic Parish of Saint-Alexandre-de-Clarendon opened its doors in 1840. This church would later be renamed Sainte-Mélanie and still later as Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur in 1917.[3]

In recent times, Shawville has been the site of several conflicts between local shopkeepers and the Office québécois de la langue française over the province's language laws.[4]

Geography

The town is completely enclosed within the municipality of Clarendon. Shawville is situated approximately west of Gatineau and southeast of Fort-Coulonge.

Demographics

Language

Shawville is a majority anglophone (with 85 percent of its residents listing English as their first language in the Canada 2006 Census) and Protestant (75%) community. This is unusual in Quebec, a province that is majority French-speaking and Roman Catholic.

+ Mother tongue language (2021)
LanguagePopulationPct (%)
English1,29082.7%
French20012.8%
English and French503.2%
Other languages201.3%

Culture

The town is characterized by its red-brick buildings. Unlike most municipalities in Quebec, it has no Catholic church. Shawville is home to an elementary school, a high school, a regional hospital, and the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) national head office. Its businesses are mostly small and family-run.

The Shawville Fair, held the first weekend in September, is the town's major event. It has run every year since 1856 and includes typical county fair features such as livestock shows, auctions, truck pulls, demolition derbies, art/craft/hobby shows, diverse food stands and a midway. In recent years, it has drawn headline entertainers such as Terri Clark, Stompin' Tom Connors, Paul Brandt, April Wine, Dean Brody and Corb Lund, with total attendance reaching around 50,000. It did not run for the first time in its history in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sports

Shawville is represented in the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League by the Shawville Pontiacs.

Local government

List of former mayors:

Notable people

Famous people from Shawville include the former general manager of the Ottawa Senators, Bryan Murray, Terry Murray (current assistant coach of the Buffalo Sabres and former coach of the L.A. Kings), Tim Murray (former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres), NHL legend Frank "The Shawville Express" Finnigan and race horse owner and lawyer Clay Horner. Former NHL referee Blaine Angus also comes from the area.Ray Harris, a prominent singer-songwriter in the Ottawa area, was raised in Shawville and later wrote the song Shawville Girl.[5] Robert Taylor Telford who founded the Alberta city Leduc in 1891 was born in Shawville in 1860.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shawville . Répertoire des municipalités . Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l'Habitation . French . 3 November 2022.
  2. Web site: Shawville, Municipalité (MÉ) Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population . www12.statcan.gc.ca . Government of Canada - Statistics Canada . 3 November 2022.
  3. Web site: Shawville (Municipalité) . Commission de toponymie du Québec . 2012-04-02 . French.
  4. News: 'Shawville posse' language incident goes to court. 19 December 2003. CBC.ca. 26 March 2017.
  5. Web site: Harris. Ray. Shawville Girl. Bandcamp. 20 January 2017.