LaSalle is a town in Essex County,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

of the

City of Windsor Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

and part of the Windsor

Census Metropolitan Area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...

, and is located south of that city. LaSalle, along with Windsor, is the oldest French settlement area in

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...

, and the oldest continually inhabited

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an settlement in Canada west of the

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

border. The town was named for explorer

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, ...

. The current Town of Lasalle was originally incorporated as the Township of Sandwich West in 1861. A portion of the township incorporated as the Town of Lasalle in 1924, but was dissolved in 1959 and rejoined Sandwich West. In 1991, the Township changed its status to that of a Town and was renamed Lasalle. It is the second most populous municipality within Essex County after the Municipality of Lakeshore. The town's land area includes

Fighting Island Fighting Island is a island in the Detroit River, and is the largest Canadian island in the river. It is part of the town of LaSalle, Ontario, Canada, opposite Wyandotte, Michigan, and downriver from Detroit and Windsor. History Originally pop ...

in the Detroit River at its western side. Fighting Island is privately owned by

BASF BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The ...

, the world's largest chemical company.

Town features

One of LaSalle's biggest events is the annual Strawberry Festival which takes place on the first weekend in June. The annual LaSalle Craft Beer Festival, put on by the Corporation of the Town of LaSalle, is another popular annual event that features a number of different types of beer, from popular brands to smaller microbreweries. In LaSalle, there are two secondary schools for students:

Sandwich Secondary School Sandwich Secondary School is a school in LaSalle, Ontario. It has about 1,050 students, and teaches about half of the students in LaSalle, along with St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School. Sandwich Secondary School is part of the Grea ...

and St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School. The elementary schools include Sacred Heart Elementary School, Legacy Oak Trail Public School, LaSalle Public School, Sandwich West Public School, School Monseigneur Augustin Caron, Legacy Grove Public School and Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School. LaSalle also has its own small but growing bicycle trail network, the "LaSalle Trail", which links up to neighbouring

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

's "Windsor Trail" network, allowing people to ride from Sandwich Secondary School all the way to Windsor's

Riverfront Trail The Roy A. Battagello River Walk Bike Trail is the current backbone of the "Windsor Loop" bike trail network in Windsor, Ontario. The bike trail travels from the foot of the Ambassador Bridge (at Peter Street and Huron Church Road), to traffic lig ...

. The town has expressed interest and intentions to connect LaSalle (and indirectly, Windsor) to the

Chrysler Canada Greenway The Chrysler Canada Greenway is a 42 km-long rail trail in Essex County, Ontario, Canada, stretching from Oldcastle, Ontario, Oldcastle (near Windsor, Ontario, Windsor) to Leamington, Ontario, Leamington. History The trail dates back to ...

by constructing a link to the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific to the A ...

near Oldcastle. The town also features the Vollmer Culture and Recreation Complex, home to the LaSalle Vipers, of the GOJHL and the LaSalle Sabres, of the OMHA. It is also home to the LaSalle Stompers, of the Ontario Soccer Association. The complex has multiple rooms for hosting of events, 2 arenas, an Olympic-sized pool and slide, outdoor skate park, soccer fields, and baseball diamonds.

Communities

Besides the urban area proper of LaSalle itself, the town of LaSalle comprises a number of villages and hamlets, including Delisle's Corners, Heritage Estates, Lukerville, Oliver and River Canard.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, LaSalle 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.

Notable people

Jeff Burrows Jeffrey John Burrows (born August 19, 1968 in Windsor, Ontario) is the drummer and percussionist for Canadian rock band Crash Karma, and The Tea Party. Jeff Burrows begun drumming at eleven years of age and professionally since 1990 when he join ...

- member of rock band

The Tea Party The Tea Party is a Canadian rock band with industrial rock, blues, progressive rock, and Middle Eastern music influences, dubbed " Moroccan roll" by the media. Active throughout the 1990s and up until 2005, the band re-formed in 2011. The Tea P ...

; grew up in LaSalle *

Stuart Chatwood Stuart Chatwood, (born 22 October 1969 in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England) is a Canadian musician, best known as the bass guitar and keyboard player for the rock band The Tea Party. The Tea Party are known for fusing together musical styles of bot ...

- member of rock band The Tea Party; grew up in LaSalle *

Pete Craig Peter Joel Craig (born July 10, 1940) is a Canadian former professional baseball player. He pitched in six games in Major League Baseball, four as a starter, over parts of three seasons (1964–1966) for the Washington Senators. He also pitch ...

- former MLB player *

Andy Delmore Andrew J. Delmore (born December 26, 1976) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. Delmore played 283 games in the National Hockey League (NHL), recording 43 goals and 58 assists for 101 points. He was considered an offensive def ...

- former NHL player * David Finch - comic book artist *

Zack Kassian Zack Adam Kassian (born January 24, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). During his junior career, he won a Memorial Cup with the Windsor Spitfires in 2010. Selected 13t ...

- NHL player * Paul Lucier - Senator * Jeff Martin - member of rock band The Tea Party; grew up in LaSalle *

Kylie Masse Kylie Jacqueline Masse (born January 18, 1996) is a Canadian competitive swimmer. She is a four-time Olympic medallist, having tied for the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 100 m backstroke and then won silver medals at the 202 ...

- competitive swimmer; a world champion and a world record holder in the 100 m backstroke; grew up in LaSalle * Dalton Prout - NHL player *

Amanda Reason Amanda Reason (born August 22, 1993) is a Canadian breaststroke swimmer and a former world-record holder in the 50-metre breaststroke (long course). Career On July 8, 2009, Reason burst onto the international scene when she posted a 30.23 worl ...

- former world record holder and Olympic swimmer * Derek Wilkinson - former NHL player *

Luke Willson Luke Michael Willson (born January 15, 1990) is a Canadian former professional American football tight end. He has played for the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions, the Oakland Raiders, and the Baltimore Ravens. Willson played with the Ca ...

- NFL Super Bowl Champion tight end

References

External links