Ville-Marie is a town on Lake Temiscaming in western

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. It is the largest city and seat of the

Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality Témiscamingue is a regional county municipality in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of western Quebec, Canada. The county seat is Ville-Marie. Though Témiscamingue borders Pontiac Regional County Municipality to the south, it is not poss ...

. As one of the oldest towns in the

Abitibi-Témiscamingue Abitibi-Témiscamingue () is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of and its population was 146,717 peo ...

region, it is considered the cradle of north-western Quebec and nicknamed "Pearl of Témiscamingue".

CKVM-FM CKVM-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Ville-Marie, Quebec. Owned and operated by Radio Témiscamingue (a non-profit organization), it broadcasts on 93.1 MHz with an effective radiated power of 18,400 watts and a peak e ...

broadcasts from Ville-Marie. The town is home to the Junior "A" Ville-Marie Pirates of the

Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League The Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League (GMHL) is a Canadian developmental junior ice hockey league. The league has primarily had teams in the Greater Toronto Area, Central Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, and Quebec. In 2019, they added three ...

History

Already in 1679, the place functioned as a trading post between the French and indigenous

Algonquians The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...

. In 1720, the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

opened a trading post and built a store in 1785, which came into the hands of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

in 1821 when the two companies merged. In 1836, a mission was established, followed in 1863, by a mission founded by the

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

, who gave it the name "Ville-Marie". Originally the area was called Kelly Bay in honour of its first settler, James Kelly, who lived as a hermit. In 1874, Oblate missionary Joseph Moffet (1852–1932) cleared some land and moved to Kelly Bay that came to be known as ''Baie-des-Pères'' (Bay of Fathers). In 1883, he was joined by a group of settlers from Nicolet. In 1886, the Parish of Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire-de-Ville-Marie was founded, and in 1891, the Baie-des-Père Post Office opened. The Village Municipality of Ville-Marie was incorporated in 1897 and the following year the post office was renamed to match the village's name. In 1899, the HBC post closed. On December 22, 1962, the Village Municipality of Ville-Marie became the Town of Ville-Marie. Ville-Marie is the seat of the

judicial district A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction. By region Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" (german: Gerichtsbezirk) refers ...

of Témiscamingue.

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 ...

, Ville-Marie 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,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

census,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

census, an
Population and dwelling count amendments
/ref> * Population in 2021: 2,464 * Population in 2016: 2,584 * Population in 2011: 2,595 * Population in 2006: 2,696 * Population in 2001: 2,770 * Population in 1996: 2,855 * Population in 1991: 2,581

Languages

Mother tongue: * English as first language: 0.6% * French as first language: 98.1% * English and French as first language: 0.4% * Other as first language: 1.0%

Climate

Ville-Marie presents a typical

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing som ...

, with frigid winters alongside warm and humid summers. It benefits from the lake's influence in winter, when temperatures are significantly higher than in other towns further from the lake. It still holds the record for the hottest day in Quebec with a temperature of on July 6, 1921.

Economy

The main components of the local economy are agriculture, forestry, hydro-electricity, outdoor tourism (hunting and sport fishing).

References

External links

Ville-Marie official website
{{authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Incorporated places in Abitibi-Témiscamingue Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Catholic missions of New France Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality