Hawkesbury is a Franco-Ontarian city in Prescott-Russell county in

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

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 C ...

, Canada. The vast majority of its 10,550 inhabitants are francophone. The Long-Sault Bridge links it to Grenville, Quebec to the north. This bridge, crossing Chenail Island, is the only interprovincial bridge between Ontario and

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 ...

east of Ottawa. Hawkesbury is about halfway between Ottawa and Montréal.

History

Founded in 1798, Hawkesbury was named after Charles Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury.

Thomas Mears Thomas Mears (1775 – October 16, 1832) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in the Thirteen Colonies in 1775. He settled in West Hawkesbury Township. He set up a sawmill and gristmill on the Ottawa River in th ...

and David Pattee, two Americans, entered into a partnership in 1805, in order to harness the power of the lower Ottawa River and built the first

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where 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 (dimensi ...

on the

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

side of the river. The town of Hawkesbury developed around this mill. Mears also built the Union, the Ottawa River's first steamer. Demand for timber during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

created a boom. The mill complex continued to grow for at least the next half century, and by 1870 it included 145 different saws and created over 35 million board feet of lumber per year. Image:Scierie Hamilton Hawkesbury Ontario 1859.jpg, Hamilton Sawmill, Hawkesbury, around 1859. Image:Hawksbury 1895.jpg, Workers holding measuring sticks at the Hawkesbury Mills, around 1895. Timber and pulp-and-paper industries have been supplanted by textiles, synthetic fibres, metal extrusions, steel, glass and plastics. Hawkesbury has also become the business and service centre of the county of Prescott-Russell, although recently Rockland has become the largest community. The Grenville Canal on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River opposite Hawkesbury was an important link in the river's transportation system. Part of Hawkesbury was submerged by the Carillon Hydro-Québec dam built between 1950 and 1962, which called for the demolition of over 300 houses in and around Hawkesbury. New developments today are happening due to baby boomers from Ottawa, Montreal and area purchasing some of the many new condos in town.

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, Hawkesbury 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.

Languages

The 2006 census found that French was the mother tongue of 77% of the population, while English was the mother tongue of 16%. A very high percentage (2.7%) claim both French and English as their mother tongues. In 2006, this was the highest proportion in Canada. According to the 2011 census, the percentage of the population declaring solely French as a mother tongue grew to 78.6% while the proportion of the population declaring solely English as a mother tongue declined to 15.3%. The percentage claiming both French and English as their mother tongues declined below 2.00% by 2011.

Ethnocultural ancestries

In parallel to the responses to the census question about ethnocultural ancestries, which are shown below, 1.0% of the population also reported having an Aboriginal identity, while 3.1% reported having a visible minority status (including 2.0% who identified as South Asian). Single responses: 42.4% of respondents gave a single response of 'Canadian', while a further 25.3% identified with both 'Canadian', and one or more other ancestries. 13.4% of respondents gave a single response of French, 1.9% gave a single response of

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, 1.9% gave a single response of English and 1.1% gave a single response of

North American Indian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

. Multiple responses: Counting both single and multiple responses, the most commonly identified ethnocultural ancestries were: ''Percentages are calculated as a proportion of the total number of respondents and may total more than 100% due to dual responses.
All ethnocultural ancestries of more than 1% are listed in the table above according to the exact terminology used by Statistics Canada.''

Transportation

Hawkesbury is located along Prescott and Russell County Road 17, a former routing of Highway 17 and the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...

with connects with Highway 417 eastwards to Montreal. Hawkesbury also connects to Highway 417 westward to Ottawa through a spur of Highway 34. The Long-Sault Interprovincial Bridge between Hawkesbury, Ontario, and Grenville, Quebec, means that Hawkesbury is within minutes of Highway 50 and Route 148 in Quebec. The town is served by two small airports: *

Hawkesbury Airport Hawkesbury Airport is located west of Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada, near the Ottawa River and the border with Quebec. History The airport was built in the early 1940s by the Royal Canadian Air Force as part of the British Commonwealth Air T ...

Hawkesbury (East) Airport Hawkesbury (East) Airport , located east of Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada, is one of three small aerodrome between Ottawa and Montreal on the south shore of the Ottawa River. See also * List of airports in the Montreal area The following act ...

Education

Hawkesbury hosts many establishments in the field of education, from elementary schools to colleges and an adult campus. Elementary Schools: * Paul VI * Nouvel Horizon Secondary Schools: * ESCRH * Le Sommet Post-secondary establishments: * La Cité collégiale * Contact Nord Other educational-based establishments: * Adult Campus of Hawkesbury

Media

Hawkesbury and area are served primarily by local media, media from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

and by media from Ottawa. The town does, however, have four radio stations which broadcast at least partially from local studios in Hawkesbury.

Newspaper

''Le Régional'' is a bilingual independent newspaper that covers the Prescott-Russell region and the municipalities of Grenville and Grenville-sur-la-Rouge in Québec. ''Le Carillon'', a French-language newspaper, and its bilingual supplement ''The Tribune Express'' that cover Hawkesbury and the Prescott-Russell region and are published by the Edition André Paquette Group. ''The Review'' is an English-language weekly newspaper that covers the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell area, which includes Hawkesbury.

Radio

* FM 88.9 - CIMF-1 * FM 92.1 - CHOD-FM * FM 102.1 - CHPR * FM 107.7 - CKHK

Television

* Channel 39: CHLF-TV-2, TFO * Channel 48: CICO-TV-96, TVOntario * Cogeco cable 11: TVCogeco ( community channel)

Notable people

* Linda Cardinal, political scientist * Dominique Demers, writer * Brian Greenway, guitarist for

Canadian rock Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada, beginning with American and British style rock and roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern ...

bands Mashmakhan and

April Wine April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969 and based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Led by singer-guitarist-songwriter Myles Goodwin since its inception, April Wine's first success came with its second album, '' On Record'' (1972), which rea ...

. * Judith Guichon (1947-), Lieutenant-governor of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

* Bob Hartley, professional ice hockey head coach, former NHL coach. The municipal arena bears his name. * Yvan Joly, former NHL player *

Richard Nadeau Richard Nadeau (born April 5, 1959 in Hawkesbury, Ontario) is a teacher and Bloc Québécois politician in Quebec, Canada. He is the former Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament for the riding of Gatineau (federal electoral distric ...

, Former federal MP of the Bloc Québécois * Stephen Warren, member of the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Populated places established in 1798 Towns in Ontario