Shawville is a town located in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of

Outaouais Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western Quebec, Canada. It includes the city of Gatineau, the municipality of Val-des-Monts and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the Ottaw ...

in western

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...

, Canada.

History

At the end of the 1860s, a group of citizens from Clarendon Centre, under the leadership of James Shaw (1818-1877), separated the municipality from the township of Clarendon. While they had originally planned on naming the new entity "Daggville," after the name of a pioneer family, they opted instead to name it "Shawville" after James Shaw promised to donate 0.8 ha of land to the new municipality. Shawville was officially established in 1874 and was populated by Irish Protestant immigrants. Shaw, who had settled in the area in 1843, was the first mayor, serving from 1856 to 1877. The municipality has a Methodist church that was built in Shawville in 1835, while the Catholic Parish of Saint-Alexandre-de-Clarendon opened its doors in 1840. This church would later be renamed as Sainte-Mélanie, and still later as Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur in 1917. In recent times, Shawville has been the site of several conflicts between local shopkeepers and the

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; en, Quebec Board of the French Language) is a public organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the , its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 April 1964, was "to alig ...

over the province's language laws.

Geography

The town is completely enclosed within the municipality of Clarendon. Shawville is situated approximately west of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

and southeast of Fort-Coulonge.

Demographics

Population

Language

Shawville is an overwhelmingly

anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

(with 85 percent of its residents listing English as their first language in the Canada 2006 Census) and

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

(75%) community. This is unusual in Quebec, a province that is overwhelmingly French-speaking and

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Culture

The town is characterized by its red-brick buildings, and unlike nearly every other municipality in Quebec, it has no

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Shawville is home to an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, a regional hospital, and the

SRPC The Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (commonly referred to by its acronym SRPC) was founded in 1992 by a group of physicians in Mount Forest, Ontario. The SRPC National Head office is located in Shawville, Quebec Awards * The Keith Award - A ...

national head office. Its businesses are mostly small and family-run. The Shawville Fair, held the first weekend in September, is the town's major event. It has run every year since 1856 and includes typical

county fair An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhibi ...

features such as livestock shows, auctions, truck pulls, demolition derbies, art/craft/hobby shows, diverse food stands and a midway. In recent years, it has drawn headline entertainers such as

Terri Clark Terri Lynn Sauson, known professionally as Terri Clark, born August 5, 1968, is a Canadian country music singer who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that ...

Stompin' Tom Connors Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, he is credited with writing more than 300 songs and has rel ...

Paul Brandt Paul Rennée Belobersycky (born July 21, 1972), known professionally as Paul Brandt, is a Canadian country music artist. Growing up in Calgary, he was a pediatric RN at the time of his big break. In 1996, he made his mark on the country music c ...

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 ...

, Dean Brody and Corb Lund, with total attendance reaching around 50,000. It will not run for the first time in its history in 2020, amid fears of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

Sports

Shawville is represented in the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League by the Shawville Pontiacs.

Local government

List of former mayors: * Albert Armstrong (...–2013) * Sandra A. Murray (2013–2021) * Bill McCleary (2021–present)

Notable people

Famous people from Shawville include the former general manager of the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member ...

, Bryan Murray, Terry Murray (current assistant coach of the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conf ...

and former coach of the

L.A. Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference a ...

Tim Murray Timothy Patrick Murray (born June 7, 1968) is an American lawyer and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 71st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2013, when he resigned to become the head of the Worcester Chamber of C ...

(former general manager of the

), NHL legend Frank "The Shawville Express" Finnigan and race horse owner and lawyer Clay Horner. Former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

referee Blaine Angus also comes from the area. Ray Harris, a prominent singer-songwriter in the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

area, was raised in Shawville and later wrote the song ''Shawville Girl''. Robert Taylor Telford who founded the Alberta city Leduc in 1891 was born in Shawville in 1860.

References

External links

Official town site
{{authority control Incorporated places in Outaouais Municipalities in Quebec