Ville-Marie () is a town on Lake Temiscaming in western

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It is the largest city and seat of the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality. As one of the oldest towns in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, it is considered the cradle of north-western Quebec and nicknamed "Pearl of Témiscamingue". CKVM-FM broadcasts from Ville-Marie. The town is home to the Junior "A" Ville-Marie Pirates of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.

History

Already in 1679, the place functioned as a trading post between the French and indigenous Algonquians. In 1720, the North West Company 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), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

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, 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 of Témiscamingue.''Territorial Division Act''
''Revised Statutes of Quebec'' D-11.

Geography

Climate

Ville-Marie presents a typical

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm to hot summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in central and eastern parts of the three northern-tier continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), typi ...

, 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.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, 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:

Languages

Mother tongue (2021): * English as first language: 1.3% * French as first language: 95.8% * English and French as first language: 0.6% * Other as first language: 1.7%

Economy

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

Government

List of former mayors: * Sylvain Trudel (...–2009) * Bernard Flébus (2009–2017) * Michel Roy (2017–2021) * Martin Lefebvre (2021–present)

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