Saint-Léonard () is a former town in

Madawaska County Madawaska County (2021 population 32,603), also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle", is located in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. Over 90% of the county's population speaks French. Its Francophone population are known as "Brayons." For ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, Canada. It held town status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of

Vallée-des-Rivières Vallée-des-Rivières (, ) is a town in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It was formed through the 2023 New Brunswick local governance reforms. History Vallée-des-Rivières was incorporated on January 1, 2023 via the amalgamation of ...

History

Saint-Léonard was once a popular town during

Prohibition in the United States The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...

as it was easy to smuggle alcohol to Van Buren. The town's economy is driven by

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

farming and a

J.D. Irving Limited J. D. Irving Limited (JDI) is a privately owned Conglomerate (company), conglomerate company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It is a part of the Irving Group of Companies and consists of various s ...

sawmill. Saint-Léonard is officially bilingual but it is predominantly a

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 ...

community. On June 30, 2008, a truck carrying 12 million bees overturned near Saint-Léonard. This accident was the first of its kind in New Brunswick. On 1 January 2023, Saint-Léonard amalgamated with the village of Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska and parts of four

local service district Local service district may refer to these administrative units in Canada: * Local service district (New Brunswick) A local service district (LSD) was a provincial administrative unit for the provision of local services in the Canadian province o ...

s to form the new town of

. The community's name remains in official use.

Geography

It is located on the east bank of the Saint John River opposite

Van Buren, Maine Van Buren is a town on the Saint John River in Aroostook County, Maine, United States; located across from Saint-Leonard, New Brunswick, Canada. The population was 2,038 at the 2020 census. It is named after U.S. President Martin Van Buren. ...

, to which it is connected via the

Saint Leonard–Van Buren Bridge The Saint Leonard–Van Buren Bridge is an international bridge, which connects the communities of St. Leonard, New Brunswick in Canada and Van Buren, Maine in the United States, across the Saint John River. Transport Canada estimated the bridg ...

Climate

The town has a warm-summer

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 ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Dfb''), even for this type of climate the warm season can be milder for a non-coastal city like Saint John, because the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

and

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

hold much of the heat. that come from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and the interior of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. But winters are substantially cold with spring and fall with pleasant temperatures. File:Saint-Léonard, New Brunswick (1918).jpg, Saint-Léonard, 1918 File:Saint-Léonard,NB.jpg, Saint-Leonard railroad station File:J.D. Irving Grande Riviѐre Sawmill in Saint-Leonard, New Brunswick.jpg, J.D. Irving

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

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 ...

, Saint-Léonard 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. Mother tongue language (2006)

Education

It has a single school, École Grande-Rivière.

Notable people

References

External links

Town of Saint-Leonard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Leonard, New Brunswick Communities in Madawaska County, New Brunswick Former towns in New Brunswick 2023 disestablishments in New Brunswick New Brunswick populated places on the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy)