Beausejour () is a town in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

. It is 46 kilometres northeast of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, just west of the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

and

Whiteshell Provincial Park Whiteshell Provincial Park is a provincial park in southeast Manitoba, approximately east of the city of Winnipeg. The park is considered to be a IUCN protected area categories#Category II — National Park, Class II protected area under the IU ...

. The French name means "beautiful stay". The town is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Brokenhead.

Etymology

The current community name comes from the French phrase meaning "a good place" or "a good stopping place". There are a few variations as to the origin and establishment of the name, although all share similarities in being named by a railway employee. One version is that a

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

CN Railway engineer, after slashing through brush and swamp, came to this high and grassy place. A second documented version from S. Turner, the town's postmaster in 1905 says that he believed the town name came from a French Canadian government engineer. The railway station was built on a small, elevated area of sand and gravel, which had been called "Stony Prairie" by local Indigenous peoples. The engineer provided the name as it was a good camping ground from the other low lying areas. A third and final version says that the town`s first residents, Mr. and Mrs. H.W.D. Armstrong were the ones to name the town. Mr. H.W.D. Armstrong was a

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

surveyor who was responsible for the selection of names along this line and asked his wife to name it. She suggested the Beausejour name for "a nice play to stay".

History

In 1906, the "Manitoba Glass Works" was founded, in a town now known as Beausejour, by Joseph Keilback and his partners. Sustained by a nearby deposit of high quality sand, it was the first glass container factory in Western Canada. Glassblowers from Poland and the United States, supported by local labour, used silica sands to produce bottles for breweries and soft drink companies in

. In 1909 it was taken over by a Winnipeg businessman, who expanded production to include jars, medicine bottles, and ink bottles. At its peak, the Manitoba Glass Works employed 350 workers, but because of its inability to compete with Eastern Canadian manufacturers, was purchased in 1913 by a Montreal company and relocated to Redcliff, Alberta. The factory site remains, and was designated as a Provincial Heritage Site (number 41) on 27 September 1989. In 1912, the Town of Beausejour was incorporated. It is the birthplace of former Provincial Premier and Governor General

Edward Schreyer Edward Richard Schreyer (born December 21, 1935) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, and statesman who served as the 22nd governor general of Canada from 1979 to 1984. He previously served as the 16th premier of Manitoba from 1969 to 1977. Schr ...

. Edward Schreyer School is named after him in his honour. Beausejour was the setting for the 1990 film '' The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick'', & its 1990-91 television dramedy series adaptation, '' Max Glick''. The film was largely filmed there.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Beausejour had a population of 3,307 living in 1,483 of its 1,572 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,219. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Access

Major highways servicing Beausejour are PTH 44 and PTH 12, which run concurrently north of town. From the south, Beausejour can be reached by traveling PTH 12 and Provincial Road 215 east into town or by taking PR 302. PTH 44, PR 215, and PR 302 intersect at the west side of town. Prior to the construction of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

, PTH 44 was the main route from Winnipeg to the Ontario border.

Economy

Beausejour's current economy is based on agriculture (grain production) and tourism. Its location as a main access point to the

, a popular cottage region and tourist attraction, allows Beausejour to cater to visitor traffic through the area. It also serves as the main commercial centre for farmers and residents of the surrounding areas.

Notable people

Raquel Dancho Raquel Dancho (born April 16, 1990) is a Canadian politician who serves as the member of Parliament (MP) for Kildonan—St. Paul, Manitoba. A member of the Conservative Party, Dancho was elected following the 2019 Canadian federal election. ...

, politician * Bob Davie, former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

defenceman * Monika Deol, TV host * Peter Engbrecht, WWII pilot *

Jason Gunnlaugson Jason Gunnlaugson is a Canadian curler currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gunnlaugson is known for having been hired by the Russian Curling Federation (RCF) to represent the country at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The deal which was announced ...

, curler * Fred Klym, politician *

Mark Koenker E. Mark Koenker (born September 11, 1947) is a Canadian former provincial politician and minister in the Lutheran Church of Canada. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan from 1986 to 1999, representing the e ...

, politician * Hayley Marie Kohle, model *

, former

Premier of Manitoba The premier of Manitoba () is the first minister (i.e., head of government or chief executive) for the Canadian province of Manitoba—as well as the ''de facto'' President of the province's Executive Council. In formal terms, the premier rec ...

and

Governor general of Canada The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The monarch of Canada is also sovereign and head of state of 14 other Commonwealth realms and resides in the United Kingdom. The monarch, on the Advice (constitutional la ...

* John Mouat Turner, politician * Anton Weselak, politician

Recreation

The town is home to the Canadian Power Toboggan Championships, the Double B Agricultural Festival (formerly Double B Rodeo and Country Fair) and the annual Brokenhead River Agricultural Conference. Beausejour is also known for its annual "Shades of the Past" car show on the last Sunday of August. The car show encompasses all of Park Avenue and attracts over 500 classic and special interest vehicles. Beausejour has also hosted the 2011 Manitoba provincial men's curling championship (then known as the Safeway Championship) won by Jeff Stoughton (Charleswood), and two Manitoba provincial women's curling championships,

Scotties Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts ('; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Association. The winner goes on to represent Can ...

, at the Sun Gro Centre. The 2004 Manitoba Scott Tournament of Hearts was won by Lois Fowler (Brandon, Wheat City Curling Club), while the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts was won by Kerri Einarson (East St. Paul Curling Club), with Beausejour's Selena Kaatz playing third.

Sports

Beausejour hosted the 2006 Power Smart Manitoba Games. The opening ceremonies were held at the CPTC Racetrack, and the closing ceremonies at the Sun Gro Centre. Beausejour's hockey teams are known as the Blades. Beausejour's CRJHL team is the Beausejour Comets. The Eastman Selects of the Manitoba Midget 'AAA' Hockey League plays in the town. Hockey games are played in the Sun Gro Centre, which also has a curling rink.

Media

The ''Beausejour Review'' published its final issue on 27 June 2013. There are two local weekly community newspapers serving the Beausejour and Brokenhead area. The Clipper Weekly and The Lac du Bonnet Clipper. The Clipper Publishing Corp. Town Radio Beausejour broadcasts to Beausejour and the surrounding area as CKBJ-FM at 93.9 on the FM dial.

Climate

Beausejour has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

influenced by its far inland position in the higher mid-latitudes, resulting in warm and occasionally hot summers and frequently severely cold winters, with January average highs being below .

References

External links

Official Town of Beausejour Website

Beausejour
{{Authority control Towns in Manitoba Urban municipalities in Eastman Region, Manitoba