Hearst is a town in the district of

Cochrane Cochrane may refer to: Places Australia *Cochrane railway station, Sydney, a railway station on the closed Ropes Creek railway line Canada * Cochrane, Alberta * Cochrane Lake, Alberta * Cochrane District, Ontario ** Cochrane, Ontario, a town wit ...

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 Ca ...

, Canada. It is located on the Mattawishkwia River in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

, approximately west of

Kapuskasing Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another rail ...

, approximately east of Thunder Bay along Highway 11. At Hearst, Highway 583 extends northward to Lac-Sainte-Thérèse and southward to Jogues, Coppell and Mead. Just over 96% of the town's resident's speak French as their mother language, the highest proportion in Ontario.

History

The town was established as a divisional point of the National Transcontinental Railway in 1913, 208 km west of

and 201 km east of the divisional point of Grant. There is some indeterminacy with the name Grant as the original site of Hearst was also called Grant and was changed to Hearst in 1911. Hearst was named to honour William Howard Hearst, then Ontario Minister of Forests and Mines and later Premier of Ontario. It was incorporated in 1922. Many settlers to the town originally came from the province of

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 thirte ...

. Many also came from Europe and other regions in Canada and the USA.

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 cultu ...

, Hearst 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.

Economy

Hearst has a long tradition of being a "lumber town". Currently the major employers include a Tembec hardwood and softwood facility as well as a plywood mill operated by

Columbia Forest Products Columbia Forest Products is the largest manufacturer of hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood in the United States. Founded in 1957, it is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. It specializes in decorative, interior veneers and plywood pane ...

Arts and culture

93.7% of Hearst's population is

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

. Different cultures can be found in Hearst such as Finn, Slovak, Bulgarian, Chinese, Portuguese, Greek,

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, First Nations and also

Black Canadians Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though ...

. The town is home to the Université de Hearst, formerly a federated school of Laurentian University in

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal el ...

. The Hearst Public Library was founded on December 17, 1974. In its beginning, the library was situated in the basement of the Hearst High School where it shared its space with the school library. On June 4, 1984, the library moved to its present location, 801 George Street (formerly Stedman's). Hearst is a four-season destination. Many years ago, the town proclaimed itself the Moose Capital of Canada. Local outdoor activities include fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, camping, swimming, canoeing, and golf.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Hearst is served by Hearst (René Fontaine) Municipal Airport. Hearst was the northern terminus for a Canadian National Railways-operated passenger train service from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, running over the tracks of the former Algoma Central Railway. Hearst is the northern terminus for

Ontario Northland The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC), or simply Ontario Northland, is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario responsible for providing transportation services for passengers and goods in northern Ontario. It reports to ...

's coach service.

Education

Hearst has both elementary and high schools (public and Catholic). It also has the Université de Hearst, a post-secondary institution federated with Laurentian University in

. Education can also be sought at the collegiate level with the Collège Boréal.

Media

Radio

Hearst's only local radio service is provided by CINN-FM, a community radio station. All other radio stations available in the community are rebroadcasters of stations from

, Timmins or

Television

Hearst used to be served by CBCC-TV and CBLFT-TV-5, rebroadcasters of the Toronto-based CBLT-DT ( CBC Television) and

CBLFT-DT CBLFT-DT (channel 25) is an Ici Radio-Canada Télé station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which broadcasts programming to the province's Franco-Ontarian population. It is part of a twinstick with CBC Television flagship CBLT-DT (channel 5). ...

(

Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pu ...

) respectively, but the transmitters were shut down in 2012 due to budget cuts at the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

Notable people

* Réginald Bélair, politician * René Fontaine, politician. Hearst (René Fontaine) Municipal Airport is named in his honour. *

Doric Germain Doric Germain (born 1946 in Lac-Sainte-Thérèse, Ontario) is a Canadian writer and university professor. Educated at the University of Ottawa and Université Laval, he briefly taught high school before publishing his first novel in 1980. He i ...

, writer whose books centre on Franco-Ontarian heritage * Claude Giroux, professional hockey player * Claude Larose, professional hockey player *

Rumun Ndur Rumun Ndur (born July 7, 1975) is a Nigerian-born Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Ndur played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres, the New York Rangers, and the Atlanta Thrashers. Ndur was the first Nigerian ...

, professional hockey player * Eric Sorensen, journalist *

Pierre LeBrun Pierre LeBrun is a Canadian sportscaster and writer working for TSN, where he is a TSN Hockey Insider, and regularly appears on hockey-related broadcasts. He is also a senior NHL columnist for the American-based Internet outlet '' The Athletic'', ...

, journalist

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities in Cochrane District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario Towns in Ontario