Macamic is a ''

ville ''Ville'' or "town", but its meaning in the Middle Ages was "farm" (from Gallo-Romance VILLA < Latin ''

'') and ...

'' in northwestern

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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in the

Abitibi-Ouest Regional County Municipality Abitibi-Ouest Regional County Municipality (''English: Abitibi West'') is a regional county municipality located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec. Its seat is La Sarre. Subdivisions There are 23 subdivisions within the RCM: ;Citi ...

. It covers 202.34 km² and had a population of 2,734 in the Canada 2011 Census. In addition to Macamic itself, the town's territory also includes the community of Colombourg.

History

Colonization began at the time when the

National Transcontinental Railway The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway. The Grand Trunk partnership The completion of construction of Canada's ...

running through the Abitibi region was completed. The first pioneers, arriving circa 1913, were originally from Saint-Ignace-du-Lac, Pierreville, Stanfold, Nicolet, and

Shawinigan Shawinigan () is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,349 as of the 2016 Canadian census. Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) an ...

. They settled south of

Lake Macamic Macamic Lake is a freshwater body of the municipalities of Macamic, Quebec, Macamic, Authier-Nord, Quebec, Authier-Nord and Chazel, Quebec, Chazel in the Regional County Municipality (MRC) of Abitibi-Ouest Regional County Municipality, Abitibi-Oues ...

and the new settlement took the lake's name, often written also as Makamik. In the

Algonquin language Algonquin (also spelled Algonkin; in Algonquin: or ) is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by th ...

, the name ''Makamik'' means "limping beaver", from ''makis'' (crippled or disabled) and ''amik'' (beaver). In 1914, Makamik had 100 residents. In 1915, the year the post office opened, it had grown to 300, and the following year, when the Parish of Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste-de-Macamic was formed, there were 500 persons. By 1918, the population had jumped to 1750 and the area was incorporated as the United Township Municipality of Royal-Roussillon-et-Poularies, named after the Royal-Roussillon Regiment of Montcalm's army and after lieutenant-colonel François-Médard de Poularies, commander of this regiment. In 1919, the village itself separated from the united township and was incorporated as Village Municipality of Macamic, having a population of 2300 persons by 1920. In 1924, Poularies Township also separated from Royal-Roussillon-et-Poularies, which became the Parish Municipality of Royal-Roussillon-de-Macamic in 1952, and officially shortened to just Macamic in 1961. In 1955, the Village Municipality of Macamic changed its status to town (''ville''), and was regrouped with the Parish Municipality of Macamic on June 13, 2001, to form the new Town of Macamic. On March 2, 2002, the Municipality of Colombourg (incorporated in 1926) was merged into Macamic.

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 ...

, Macamic 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. Population trend:Statistics Canada:

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

census * Population in 2011: 2734 (2006 to 2011 population change: 0.3%) * Population in 2006: 2726 * Population total in 2001: 2838 ** Town of Macamic: 1519 ** Parish Municipality of Macamic: 570 ** Municipality of Colombourg: 749 * Population in 1996: ** Town of Macamic: 1711 ** Parish Municipality of Macamic: 549 ** Municipality of Colombourg: 780 * Population in 1991: ** Town of Macamic: 1833 ** Parish Municipality of Macamic: 584 ** Municipality of Colombourg: 799 Mother tongue: * English as first language: 0% * French as first language: 99.6% * English and French as first language: 0.4% * Other as first language: 0%

Municipal council

* Mayor: Daniel Rancourt * Councillors: Denise Dubois, Dianne Duchesne, Marc Frappier, Rock Morin, Éric Poiré, Yvan Verville

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Incorporated places in Abitibi-Témiscamingue Populated places established in 1913 1913 establishments in Quebec