Rawdon is a municipality located on the Ouareau River in southwestern

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, about 60 kilometres north of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. It is the seat for the Regional County Municipality of Matawinie, in the

Lanaudière Lanaudière (, ) is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population ( 2016 Census) of 494,796 inhabitants, an increase of 4.9% over the 2011 census. Geogr ...

region. Rawdon is part of the Joliette federal electoral district. The town of Rawdon is a mostly French-speaking tourist resort and is home to one English public school and four French public schools as well as a medium-size ski resort.

Geography

Rawdon is located at the beginning 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 ...

mountains. Its lakes and mountains make it a destination for summer tourism with its many camps and cottages. Rawdon is home to the Dorwin and Manchester falls, which lie less than a kilometre from downtown and offer a public beach on the artificial Rawdon Lake. In summer, temperatures can soar as high as while temperatures as cold as can be felt in winter.

History

The township was established in 1799 and named after Sir

Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings (9 December 175428 November 1826), styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762, Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783, The Lord Rawdon from 1783 to 1793 and The Earl of Moira bet ...

. The town was primarily home to people of Irish background up until 1844, when more and more French-Canadians settled the region and small shops and industries emerged. After the First World War and the October Revolution, Rawdon saw a considerable number of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian

noble families Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. Th ...

arrive to settle in its countryside from the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. Rawdon was originally part of Montcalm County. From 1920 to 1998, there were two separate municipalities named "Rawdon," the Township of Rawdon and the Village of Rawdon; in 1998, they were united into a single municipality. On November 8, 2021, former pro wrestler Raymond Rougeau was elected mayor. There is a Rawdon in England mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is today a suburb of Leeds. It has a road called Canada Road which was built around 1800 - 1815. These were
club properties

Demographics

Population

In summer, the population is said to double and even sometimes triple due to tourism and the presence of many cottages in the vicinity. Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 4532 (total dwellings: 5422)

Language

Mother tongue: * English as first language: 8.8% * French as first language: 85.7% * English and French as first language: 2.2% * Other as first language: 3.2%

Education

Commission scolaire des Samares The Centre de services scolaire des Samares is a francophone school district headquartered in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, in the Canadian province of Quebec.

operates

francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

public schools. * École Ste-Anne (primary) * École St-Louis (primary) * École secondaire des Chutes (secondary)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB, , CSSWL) is a school board headquartered in Rosemère, Quebec in Greater Montreal. It officially came into existence in July 1998 when English-language schools from eight former school boards were amalg ...

operates

anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

public schools: * Rawdon Elementary School * Joliette Elementary School *

Joliette High School Joliette High School (JHS, ) is a public anglophone secondary school in Joliette, Quebec. Operated by the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board, it is the sole anglophone high school in Lanaudière. , it had about 265 students. Attendance boundary Ar ...

Joliette Joliette () is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of G ...

Joliette High School Zone Sec 1-5
"

. Retrieved on September 5, 2017.

Notable people

Ludmilla Chiriaeff Ludmilla Chiriaeff (January 10, 1924 – September 22, 1996) was a Russian-Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director. Biography Ludmilla Alexandrovna Otsup was born in Riga to a Russian-Jewish father Alexandr Otsu ...

, (1924-1996), ballet artist *

Martin Deschamps Martin Deschamps (born 23 June 1970) is a Canadians, Canadian rock music, rock singer from Quebec. He records and performs both as a solo artist and as the lead vocalist for the reunited Offenbach (band), Offenbach. Young age Deschamps was bo ...

, singer * Firmin Dugas (1830-1889), businessman and politician * Jonathan Girard, former

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

hockey player * Jean-Paul Jeannotte (1926–2021), operatic tenor, academic teacher and opera administrator

References

External links

Official Municipality Website

Rawdon Historical Society

{{authority control Municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Lanaudière Matawinie Regional County Municipality