Tignish is a Canadian town located in

Prince County, Prince Edward Island Prince County is located in western Prince Edward Island, Canada. The county's defining geographic feature is Malpeque Bay, a sub-basin of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which creates the narrowest portion of Prince Edward Island's landmass, an isthm ...

. It is located approximately northwest of the city of Summerside, and northwest of the city of

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlott ...

. It has a population of 719. The name "Tignish" is derived from the Mi'kmaq "Mtagunich", meaning "paddle". The name is also believed to come from a Gaelic phrase meaning “Home Place”. Tignish was founded in the late 1790s by nine

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 ...

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

families, with further immigrants (mostly Irish) arriving in the 19th century and settling mostly in the nearby smaller locality of Anglo–Tignish (meaning "English Tignish"). Many of Tignish residents today are either of Acadian or Irish heritage. One of the town's most popular and defining structures is the local

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church, St. Simon & St. Jude Catholic Church, which was among the first major structures built in Tignish, constructed between 1857 and 1860. Tignish was designated a community or village in 1952. It changed its status to a town in 2017.

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 ...

, Tignish 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.

History

Tignish was settled in 1799 by eight

families. Two Irish families joined them in 1811. Tignish was once the western terminus of the

Prince Edward Island Railway The Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR) was a historic Canadian railway in Prince Edward Island (PEI). The railway ran tip-to-tip on the island, from Tignish in the west to Elmira in the east, with major spurs serving Borden-Carleton's train ...

. Rail service to the town was abandoned in 1989.

Community

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

is one of the most important aspects of daily life and employment in Tignish, with many local families depending on this industry for income. There are three functioning

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

s located in the Tignish area: the Tignish harbour, the Skinner's Pond harbour, and the Seacow Pond harbour. Citizens of Tignish celebrated the

bicentennial __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe * French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...

of Tignish in 1999. Among local festivities were

music, local parties, carnivals, and the creation of a local music CD rich with the voices of Tignish residents. In addition, each summer there is a bluegrass festival that is held in Tignish.

Education

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

–12 students in the Tignish area mostly attend Tignish Elementary School from grades K–6, followed by

Merritt E. Callaghan Intermediate Merritt E. Callaghan Intermediate School is an intermediate school providing education for 7th to 9th grade students in the Tignish, Prince Edward Island, Tignish, Alberton, Prince Edward Island, Alberton, St. Louis, Prince Edward Island, St. Lou ...

school for grades 7–9 and Westisle Composite High school for grades 10–12.

Government

Tignish is within district #27 of PEI's electoral boundaries, which is labeled Tignish–Palmer Road. There is a polling station at the Tignish fire hall, and others located elsewhere in Tignish as well as in St. Felix and Palmer Road. The name of the district used to be "Tignish–DeBlois", but was changed to "Tignish–Palmer Road" before the 2007 provincial election with slight boundary changes. As of the 2011 provincial election, Hal Perry is the MLA for the region. Perry left the PCs and joined the Liberals on 3 October 2013. As a Liberal, Perry won re-election in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Surrounding communities

Nearby smaller localities, considered to be "part of" Tignish due to their proximity, include: *

Ascension Ascension or ascending may refer to: Religion * "Ascension", the belief in some religions that some individuals have ascended into Heaven without dying first. The Catholic concept of the Assumption of Mary leaves open the question of her deat ...

(2 mi NW of Tignish) * St. Felix (2 mi S) *

Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name and place names, for example: Harper Islands, Nunavut. Places ;in Canada * Harper Islands, Nunavut * Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name ...

(2 mi SW) * Leoville (3.5 mi SW) * Peterville (2.5 mi SW) * Nail Pond (3 mi N) * Greenmount (3.5 mi S) * Skinner's Pond (5 mi NW) * St. Peter and St. Paul (3 mi S) *Kildare North (4 mi SE) *Tignish Shore (2 mi E) *Anglo Tignish (2 mi NE) *Seacow Pond (5 mi NE) *Norway (6 mi NE) *Christopher’s Cross (1 mile NE)

Mars crater namesake

The name "Tignish" has been adopted by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

for a crater on the surface of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. The crater is located at −30.71 degrees south by 86.9 degrees east on the Martian surface. It was officially adopted by the IAU/WGPSN in 1991, and has a diameter of .A Little Bit of Canada on the Red Planet

Climate

Tignish experiences a

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 ...

(

Koppen Koppen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Dan Koppen (born 1979), American football offensive lineman * (1929–1990), German literary scholar * (1855–1922), German author * Otto C. Koppen (1901–1991), American aircraf ...

: Dfb) with four seasons, with winter being the longest. Summers are very mild to warm due to the

Gulf of St Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, ...

moderating temperatures during the warmer months. Wintertime is very cold with daily highs often below freezing.

References

External links

* {{Subdivisions of Prince Edward Island Communities in Prince County, Prince Edward Island Populated places established in 1799 Towns in Prince Edward Island Populated coastal places in Canada