Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the

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

of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the

2021 Canadian Census 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 sl ...

. It is the third-largest city in the province after

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. The ...

and Saint John. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the

Fredericton Region Museum The Fredericton Region Museum, formerly known as the York Sunbury Museum, is a small, non-profit museum founded in 1934 by the York Sunbury Historical Society. The museum was housed in several different locations until 1959, when it moved into Of ...

, and The Playhouse, a performing arts venue. The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, and world artists. Fredericton is also an important and vibrant centre point for the region's top visual artists; many of New Brunswick's notable artists live and work there today. Fredericton has also been home to some great historical Canadian painters as well, including Goodridge Roberts, and Molly and Bruno Bobak. As a provincial capital, its economy is tied to the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with post-secondary education in the province and the highest per capita income of any city in New Brunswick.

History

There is archaeological evidence of a camp in the area 12,000 years ago, and

Maliseet The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...

s farmed several kilometres upriver. Colonists from the Kingdom of France in the late 1600s built Fort Nashwaak on the north side of the Saint John River, as the capital of Acadia. It withstood a British attack in 1696, but the capital was later moved to Port Royale. In 1713 Acadians escaping the British takeover of Nova Scotia settled the site, naming it Pointe Ste-Anne. It was destroyed in 1758 when the population of about 83 were exiled during the expulsion of the Acadians. It was in 1783, when United Empire Loyalists arrived from New England, that the history of modern Fredericton began. The following year New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia and became its own colony. Pointe-Ste-Anne was renamed "Fredericstown", after Frederick, second son of King George III. It became the capital of the new colony, being considered to have a better defensive position than larger Saint John. The streets were laid out in the typical grid pattern of the time, with the names reflecting loyalist tendencies: Charlotte, Brunswick, George, King, and Queen. In 1785 it became the shire town of York County. In 1790 the New Brunswick Legislative Building was constructed. As a centre of government, it attracted educational institutions, with King's College (now the University of New Brunswick) being the first English-language university in Canada, and religious institutions, with Christ Church Cathedral being built as the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton in 1853. It was a British garrison town from 1784 to 1869, and the military compound is preserved as a National Historic Site of Canada. With the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program in the 1960s, county councils were abolished, and government services were centralized provincially in Fredericton, increasing jobs and population.

Geography

The Saint John River runs through Fredericton, with most of the city's post-war suburban development occurring on the gently sloping hills on either side of the river (although the downtown core is flat and lies low to the river). At an altitude of about above sea level, Fredericton is nestled in the Pennsylvanian Basin. It differs markedly from the geologically older parts of the province. There are prominently two distinct areas in the region that are divided around the area of Wilsey Road, in the east end of the city. In the west side, the bedrock underneath the earth is topographically dominant, whereas the other is controlled by Pleistocene and recent deposits leading to the rivers (resulting in the area being shallow and wide). Fredericton and its surroundings are rich in water resources, which, coupled with highly arable soil, make the Fredericton region ideal for agriculture. The Saint John River and one of its major tributaries, the

Nashwaak River The Nashwaak River, located in west-central New Brunswick, Canada, is a tributary of the Saint John River. It is 113 kilometres long. The river rises from Nashwaak Lake (southeast of the village of Juniper) and flows south and east through uni ...

, come together in Fredericton. The uninhabited parts of the city are heavily forested.

Climate

Fredericton has a humid continental climate ( Dfb) with short, warm summers and long, cold winters. On average, Fredericton receives approximately of precipitation per year.

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; french: Statistique Canada), 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 cultur ...

, Fredericton had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Fredericton CMA had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 7,790 persons or 12.6% of the total population of Fredericton. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were United Kingdom (765 persons or 9.8%), China (645 persons or 8.3%), United States of America (570 persons or 7.3%), Syria (505 persons or 6.5%), Philippines (500 persons or 6.4%), India (460 persons or 5.9%), Egypt (300 persons or 3.9%), Iran (245 persons or 3.1%), Lebanon (205 persons or 2.6%), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (180 persons or 2.3%).

Ethnicity

Fredericton's population is predominantly

European Canadian European Canadians, or Euro-Canadians, are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the continent of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group within Canada. In the 2021 Canadian census, 19,062,115 Canadians self-i ...

. Indigenous peoples make up over 4% of the population and visible minorities make up approximately 10 percent, and include, in descending order of population, Chinese Canadians, Black Canadians, South Asian Canadians, Arab Canadians, and refugees from the Syrian Civil War.

Language

English is spoken as a

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

by 83.7% of residents. Other mother tongues are French (7.8%), Chinese languages (2.1%), Arabic (1.7%), and Russian (0.6%).

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Fredericton included: * Christianity (32,295 persons or 52.2%) * Irreligion (25,150 persons or 40.7%) *

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(2,305 persons or 3.7%) * Hinduism (820 persons or 1.3%) * Buddhism (225 persons or 0.4%) * Sikhism (190 persons or 0.3%) * Judaism (160 persons or 0.3%) * Indigenous Spirituality (15 persons or <0.1%) *Other (670 persons or 1.1%) Those who declare a religion are predominantly Protestant. Fredericton has a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, a mosque, a Hindu temple, a Unitarian fellowship, and a Shambhala Buddhist meditation centre.

Economy

The Government of New Brunswick and the universities are the primary employers. The policies of centralizing provincial government functions during the 1960s led to an expansion of the population. The 1960s also saw an expansion of the University of New Brunswick due to increased post-war university enrolment, as well as the construction of Saint Thomas University. The Law School, now the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to the Fredericton area. The city has been investing actively in IT infrastructure. The City of Fredericton won the "Judges Innovation Award" at the 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Awards due to their "Fred-eZone" free municipality wide Wi-Fi initiative. This and other innovations by the city's utelco, e-Novations, led Intel to do a case study on their successes. Fred-eZone spans much of the city's downtown and parts of surrounding residential areas, as well as peripheral commercial areas such as Fredericton's Regent Mall. In 2008 and 2009 the Intelligent Community Forum selected Fredericton as a Top 7 Intelligent Community, based partly on the city's work in the IT sector.

Arts and culture

The Playhouse is the main venue for Theatre New Brunswick, the province's largest professional theatre company. Festivals include the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, the

New Brunswick Summer Music Festival The New Brunswick Summer Music Festival presents classical chamber music, performed by some of Canada's finest performers. Concerts are held at Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of New Brunswick. Founded in 1994, the festival focuses on ...

, the

Silver Wave Film Festival The Silver Wave Film Festival is an annual film festival, which takes place in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Organized by the New Brunswick Film Cooperative, the festival programs a lineup of Canadian and international films, with a special ...

and

Symphony New Brunswick Symphony New Brunswick is the largest classical music organization in the province of New Brunswick. It is based in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The orchestra was founded in 1983 following the demise of the Halifax-based Atlantic Symphony Orc ...

. Fredericton has a long literary tradition, having been home to Jonathan Odell,

Charles G. D. Roberts Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (January 10, 1860 – November 26, 1943) was a Canadian poet and prose writer. He was one of the first Canadian authors to be internationally known. He published various works on Canadian exploration and na ...

, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman. Writers living in Fredericton include

Raymond Fraser Raymond Fraser (May 8, 1941 – October 22, 2018) was a Canadian biographer, editor, essayist, memoirist, novelist, poet and short story writer. Fraser published fourteen books of fiction, three of non-fiction, and eight poetry collections. Fras ...

Herb Curtis Herb Curtis (born 1949) is a Canadian novelist and humorist who writes about and has long lived in New Brunswick. He is best known for writing the Brennen Siding Trilogy, three connected novels set in the fictional community of Brennen Siding, New ...

David Adams Richards David Adams Richards (born 17 October 1950) is a Canadian writer and member of the Canadian Senate.

, Mark Anthony Jarman, and

Gerard Beirne Gerard Beirne is an List of Irish writers, Irish author and literary editor. He is a fiction editor for ''The Fiddlehead'' and curates the online magazine ''The Irish Literary Times''. In 2008, Beirne served as Writer in Residence at the Unive ...

Fredericton's beloved fountain "Freddy the Nude Dude", officially known as "Putto with Fish" sits outside

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

at 397 Queen St. "Freddy the Nude Dude" was donated to the city b
Mayor George Edward Fentey
in 1885. The statue depicts a nude

Cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

and is a beloved fixture of downtown Fredericton. The famed statue has had some trouble since its historic arrival in 1885. In January 2013, "Freddy the Nude Dude" was taken south to Alabama for a replication of the original statue after 128 winters worth of damage. The original Freddy is kept safely inside

where it is protected from further weather damage.

Architecture

Styles range from

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

to modern. There are 12

National Historic Sites of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

Museums and historic buildings

* Beaverbrook Art Gallery * New Brunswick Legislative Building *

Old Government House Old Government House may refer to: * Old Government House, Parramatta, Australia * Old Government House, Queensland, Australia * Old Government House, South Australia, Australia * Old Government House, Hobart, Australia * Old Government House, Fred ...

* Christ Church Cathedral *

New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame The New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame (french: Temple de la Renommée Sportive du Nouveau-Brunswick) is a provincial sports hall of fame and museum in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The sports hall of fame honours athletes, teams, and sport builders t ...

* Science East * Sir Howard Douglas Hall (Old Arts Building) * William Brydone Jack Observatory * St. Anne's Chapel * Fort Nashwaak *

Fredericton City Hall The Fredericton City Hall is the meeting place of the Fredericton City Council in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The three-storey building was constructed between 1875 and 1876 by architects McKean and Fairweather and built by H. B. Crosby a ...

* Marysville Cotton Mill * Centennial Building

Sports

There are no professional sports teams in Fredericton, although both universities have extensive athletic programs. The UNB Reds play in the Atlantic University Sport conference of U Sports and St. Thomas Tommies play in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association conference of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for most sports, although their women's hockey team, cross-country teams, and track & field teams play in the Atlantic University Sports conference of U Sports. Fredericton's high schools compete in a variety of sports in the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association. UNB's men's hockey team are 8 time National Champions, and the highest attended sporting events in the city. The Junior A hockey team is the

Fredericton Red Wings The Fredericton Junior Red Wings are a Canadian junior ice hockey franchise from Fredericton, New Brunswick. The team is a member of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League and plays in the EastLink North Division. They play their home games at the ...

. The former

Fredericton Express The Fredericton Express were a professional ice hockey team based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They played in the American Hockey League between 1981 and 1988. The Express were affiliated with the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks o ...

and Fredericton Canadiens were American Hockey League teams. Each summer the Fredericton Loyalists host the New Brunswick Timber team which competes in the Rugby Canada Super League.

Parks and recreation

* Carleton Park, part of the Northside Riverfront Trail, includes a boat launching area. The park, which was once the site of Alexander "Boss" Gibson's rail yard. * The Green, along the north and south banks of the Saint John River, a walking and biking trail. * Killarney Lake Park, a lakeside park with a beach and picnic spots as well as an extensive network of nature trails. * Odell Park, features preserved forested areas, trails, spaces for picnics and gatherings, and the

Fredericton Botanic Garden The Fredericton Botanic Garden is a garden located on hillside backed by Odell Park in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Its main features include terraces, streams, and springs, and natural habitats for local animals. History and activities ...

.st * Officers' Square is a venue for outdoor concerts and has an outdoor skating rink in the winter. * Queen Square Park, in the heart of Downtown Fredericton. * Reading Park ( ) is a passive use park incorporating an open meadow, and a walking trail through an old-growth forest. The park's

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

is one of the city's last remaining habitats for the pileated woodpecker. * Wilmot Park - a recreational park downtown.

Trail system

Fredericton has a network of 25 trails totalling more than on both sides of the Saint John and Nashwaak Rivers. Many of the city trails are

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

s that follow old railway lines. These include the Fredericton Railway Bridge that spans across the Saint John River. The rail trail system in Fredericton is part of the

Sentier NB Trail The Sentier NB Trail is a network of hiking trails in New Brunswick, Canada built on abandoned railways. The trails are mostly closed to motorized vehicles. The network is operated by the New Brunswick Trails Council, a non-profit organization. So ...

system and some of these trails are also part of the larger Trans-Canada Trail network.

Government

Fredericton has a non-partisan and Mayor–council government. The mayor and council serve four-year terms with elections in May. The city is divided into 12

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

, (six on each side of the river, one councillor per ward. The city includes the provincial ridings of Fredericton North, Fredericton-Grand Lake,

Fredericton West-Hanwell Fredericton West-Hanwell (french: Fredericton-Ouest-Hanwell) is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada. It was first contested in the 2014 general election, having been created in the 2013 redis ...

, Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton, New Maryland-Sunbury and

Fredericton South Fredericton South (french: Fredericton-Sud) is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada. It was first contested in the 2014 general election, having been created in the 2013 redistribution of ele ...

, which in 2014 elected the first-ever MLA for the Green Party of New Brunswick, party leader David Coon. Federally, the city forms most of the riding of

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...

Education and research

The Anglophone West School District and the District Scolaire Francophone Sud (District 1) run schools including Fredericton High School,

École des Bâtisseurs École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, and the École Sainte-Anne (Fredericton), École Sainte-Anne. Leo Hayes High School is a public–private partnership There are two universities, the University of New Brunswick, UNB, and St. Thomas University (New Brunswick), St. Thomas, the province's only Catholic university. Colleges include the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, the New Brunswick Community College, and the Maritime College of Forest Technology. For-profit universities include University of Fredericton and Yorkville University. The Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre researches in forestry management. Fredericton's Provincial Research Organization specializes in aquaculture, mining, manufacturing, energy and the environment.

Transportation

Air service is provided out of the Fredericton International Airport. Fredericton Transit provides bus service, though not on Sundays. Fredericton started installing bicycle lanes in July 2008. Passenger rail service ended in the 1960s, and freight in 1996. All railway tracks have been abandoned and removed. Fredericton is served by the Maritime Bus fleet which provides connections to points throughout Eastern Canada. The Trans-Canada Highway passes along the southern municipal boundary. Routes New Brunswick Route 7, 7 and New Brunswick Route 8, 8 (the latter being a former alignment of the Trans-Canada) also pass through the city. Two highway bridges, the Westmorland Street Bridge and the Princess Margaret Bridge, cross the Saint John River. Those bridges feed into controlled-access roads (Routes 8 and New Brunswick Route 105, 105 serving the city's north side).

Gallery

File:Princess Margaret Bridge At Sunrise.jpg, Princess Margaret Bridge File:Nashwaak River trail.JPG, The Nashwaak River Trail File:Fredericton - Galerie d'art Beaverbrook 2.JPG, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery File:Tintamarre Fredericton.JPG, Celebration of Acadian culture in Fredericton File:Fredericton - Queen's Square 3.JPG, Queen Square Park File:New Brunswick Legislative Building (6838973457).jpg, The New Brunswick Legislative Building File:MarysvillePlaceMarysvilleNB2014.jpg, Marysville Place houses a number of offices for the provincial government. File:Downtown Fredericton.jpg, Downtown Fredericton File:Fredericton Transit New Brunswick Canada Bus 4936.JPG, Fredericton Transit bus with bike rack

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Fredericton, Cities in New Brunswick Former colonial capitals in Canada Greater Fredericton Populated places established in 1785 New Brunswick populated places on the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy)