Sherbrooke
Overview
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sherbrooke (2006 population: 147,427) is a city in south-eastern Quebec, Canada, the only major city in the Eastern Townships. Although originally settled in the early 19th century by anglophones, it is today primarily a francophone city.
History
The area of Sherbrooke was first settled in 1793 by American Loyalists, including Gilbert Hyatt, a farmer from Schenectady, New York, who built a flour mill in 1802. The village was named "Hyatt's Mills" until 1818 when the village was renamed after Governor General Lord Sherbrooke at the time of his retirement and return to England.
The city grew considerably on January 1, 2002, by the mergers of the cities of Sherbrooke, Ascot, Bromptonville, Deauville, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Rock Forest, and Saint-Élie-d'Orford.
Geography
Located at the confluence of the Saint-François (St. Francis) and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Sherbrooke. Its geographical code is 43.
Economy
In 2007 Canadian Business Magazine Magazine ranked Sherbrooke as the top place to do business in Canada. [1] The report cites large increases in commercial building permits, strong exports, a highly educated workforce, and low unemployment rate. Another benefit is the daily flight available to and from Toronto from Sherbrooke Airport. [2][3]
Sherbrooke is also the centre of an important agricultural region with many dairy farms. An important business is the manufacturing of ice hockey sticks: more of these are made in Sherbrooke than anywhere else in the world.[citation needed] Sherbrooke is home to a concrete truss bridge, the first of its kind in the world.
Education
The city is the location of one university, the French-language Université de Sherbrooke, and since Lennoxville and Sherbrooke merged in 2002 (see municipal reorganization in Quebec), it is the location of an English-language University, Bishop's University. There are three CEGEPs in Sherbrooke, two of which are French-language institutions, the Cégep de Sherbrooke and the Séminaire de Sherbrooke, and one is an English-language one, Champlain Regional College.
Administration
The merged city is composed of six boroughs: Brompton, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Mont-Bellevue, Rock Forest-Saint-Élie-Deauville and Jacques-Cartier.
| Borough | Population | City Councillors |
|---|---|---|
| Brompton | 5,956 | 3 |
| Fleurimont | 41,276 | 5 |
| Jacques-Cartier | 30,229 | 4 |
| Lennoxville | 5,195 | 3 |
| Mont-Bellevue | 33,377 | 4 |
| Rock-Forest–Saint-Élie–Deauville | 29,191 | 4 |
Demographics
City of Sherbrooke
Mother tongue Language
from Canada 2006 Census
| Language | Population | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| French only | 129,970 | 89.89% |
| English only | 5,735 | 3.97% |
| Both English and French | 640 | 0.44% |
| Other languages | 8,245 | 5.7% |
Ethnic origin
| Ethnic origin | Population | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian | 117,305 | |
| French | 50,540 | 33.61% |
| Irish | 6,560 | 4.36% |
| English | 5,065 | 3.37% |
| Scottish | 3,070 | 2.04% |
| Québécois | 2,415 | 1.61% |
| North American Indian | 1,805 | 1.20% |
| Italian | 1,505 | 1.00% |
The information regarding ethnicities above is from the 2001 Canadian Census. The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g. "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category "French" and the category "Canadian".) Groups with greater than 1,500 responses are included.
Age Structure
- 0-14 years: 17.8%
- 15-64 years: 69.0%
- 65 years and over: 13.2%
Census Metropolitan Area
The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) includes the cities of Sherbrooke, Magog and Waterville, the Parish of Saint-Denis-de-Brompton; the municipalities of Compton, Stoke, and Ascot Corner, Hatley county and the village of North Hatley.
The population in 2006 was 186,952. Indigenous peoples comprised just over 0.6% of the population.[4]
French was mother tongue to 90.6% of residents (counting both single and multiple responses). The next most common mother tongues were English at 5.6%, Spanish at 1.3%, Arabic and Serbo-Croatian languages at 0.6% each, Farsi at 0.4%, Niger-Congo languages at 0.3%, and Chinese and German at 0.2% each. (Percentages may total more than 100% due to rounding and multiple responses). [5] [6]
About 87% of the population identified as Roman Catholic in 2001 while 6% said they had no religious affiliation. Among smaller denominations Statistics Canada counted 1.2% Anglicans, 0.8% Muslims, 0.8% United Church, 0.7% Baptists, 0.5% Eastern Orthodox and 0.3% Jehovah’s Witnesses. Pentecostals and Methodists accounted for 0.2% each, while Buddhists, Presbyterians, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons and Plymouth Brethren accounted for 0.1% each. [7]
The area is home to about four thousand recent immigrants (arriving between 2001 and 2006) who now comprise about 2% of the total population. Approximately 13% have emigrated from Colombia, 12% from France, 7% from Afghanistan, 6% from each of Morocco and Argentina, 5% from each of Algeria and Congo, 4% from China, and 3% from each of Burundi, Tunisia, and Tanzania. About 2% of these recent immigrants were born in the United States while about 2% were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[8]
Media
Radio
|
Television |
Newspapers
Daily newspapers are La Tribune[9] and The Record[10]. Le journal de Sherbrooke[11] owned by Quebecor and La Nouvelle, a community newspaper, are published for free every Saturday. The Voir [12] cultural magazine also publishes a regional version.
Notable Sherbrookers
- Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Belanger and David Perron, hockey players for the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues (hockey)
- Serge Cardin, Bloc Québécois MP for Sherbrooke
- Jean Charest, federal cabinet minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Progressive Conservative Party leader; Quebec Liberal Party leader and Premier of Quebec
- Jim Corcoran, singer-songwriter
- Christian Dubé, ice hockey player
- Northrop Frye, literary critic
- Garou, singer
- Yousuf Karsh, photographer
- Harry Saltzman, film producer
- Yanic Perreault, NHL ice hockey player
Joseph-Armand Bombardier hailed from the Sherbrooke area. John Bassett and Conrad Black started their careers as media barons as owner and co-owner, respectively, of the Sherbrooke Record.
Image gallery
|
Downtown: King Street |
King Street |
Downtown Sherbrooke at night |
Downtown: Wellington Street, January 2006 |
|
Neo-Tudor style House, Corner of Ball and Brooks streets |
Montreal Street |
King Street, downtown |
Sherbrooke City Hall |
|
Corner of King and Wellington streets |
Mount Bellevue |
The Magog River dam |
See also
References
- ^ Best places to do business in Canada (HTML) (English). Canadian Business (September 10). Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
- ^ Nadeau, Jean-Benoit (September 10). Best places to do business in Canada (HTML) (English). Canadian Business. Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
- ^ Sherbrooke-Toronto daily link (HTML) (English). Sherbrooke Airport. Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
- ^ Sherbrooke. Aboriginal Identity (8), Sex (3) and Age Groups (12) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada (2008-01-15). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ Sherbrooke. Detailed Mother Tongue (148), Single and Multiple Language Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada (2007-11-20). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ Sherbrooke. Detailed Mother Tongue (186), Knowledge of Official Languages (5), Age Groups (17A) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 and 2006 Censuses - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada (2007-11-20). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ Sherbrooke. Religion (95A), Age Groups (7A) and Sex (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 1991 and 2001 Censuses - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada (2007-03-01). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ Sherbrooke. Immigrant Status and Period of Immigration (8) and Place of Birth (261) for the Immigrants and Non-permanent Residents of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data. Statistics Canada (2007-12-04). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ La Tribune
- ^ The Record
- ^ Le journal de Sherbrooke
- ^ Voir
External links
- (Bilingual) Sherbrooke website
- (French) EstriePlus.com — A regional on-line journal.
- (French) Sherbrooke's amateur hockey website
- (French) La Tribune
- (French) Université de Sherbrooke
- (French) Répertoire des clubs de golf de la ville de Sherbrooke
- (Bilingual) Université Bishop's University
- (Bilingual) Association des Townshippers' Association
