Sherbrooke, Quebec

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Sherbrooke, Quebec
Ville de Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke skyline and Mount Orford
Sherbrooke skyline and Mount Orford
Flag of Sherbrooke, Quebec
Flag
Official seal of Sherbrooke, Quebec
Seal
Nickname: Queen of the Eastern Townships
Motto: Ne quid nimis
Coordinates: 45°24′N 71°53′W / 45.4, -71.883
Country Canada
Province Quebec
Settled 1793
Government
 - Mayor Jean Perrault
 - Governing body Sherbrooke City Council
 - MPs Serge Cardin
 - MNAs Jean Charest
Area
 - City 353.46 km² (136.5 sq mi)
 - Metro 1,231.86 km² (475.6 sq mi)
Highest elevation 378 m (1,240 ft)
Lowest elevation 128 m (420 ft)
Population (2006)
 - City 147,427
 - Density 417.1/km² (1,080.3/sq mi)
 - Metro 186,952
 - Metro Density 151.8/km² (393.2/sq mi)
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Canadian Postal code J1E,J1G,J1H,J1J,J1K,
J1L,J1M,J1N,J1R
Area code(s) 819
Telephone Exchanges -212 239 340 345-9 432 434 437 446 542 560 -6 569 570 - 4 575 577
GNBC Code EIDHN
NTS Map 021E05
Website: City of Sherbrooke

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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Geography

Historical buildings located on Dufferin Street.
Historical buildings located on Dufferin Street.

Located at the confluence of the Saint-François (St. Francis) and Magog rivers in the heart of the Eastern Townships and 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 (in former Lennoxville).

[edit] Administration

Island Street
Island Street

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

[edit] Demographics

[edit] City of Sherbrooke

[edit] 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%

[edit] 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.

[edit] Age Structure

  • 0-14 years: 17.8%
  • 15-64 years: 69.0%
  • 65 years and over: 13.2%

[edit] 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]

Plymouth-Trinity United Church
Plymouth-Trinity United Church

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]


Sherbrooke University Hospital Centre (properly, the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Sherbrooke, or CHUS) in the Fleurimont borough
Sherbrooke University Hospital Centre (properly, the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Sherbrooke, or CHUS) in the Fleurimont borough


Mount Bellevue and the Sherbrooke skyline
Mount Bellevue and the Sherbrooke skyline

[edit] Media

[edit] Radio

[edit] Television

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notable Sherbrooke residents

The former Winter Prison
The former Winter Prison

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.

[edit] Image gallery

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Best places to do business in Canada (HTML) (English). Canadian Business (September 10). Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
  2. ^ Nadeau, Jean-Benoit (September 10). Best places to do business in Canada (HTML) (English). Canadian Business. Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
  3. ^ Sherbrooke-Toronto daily link (HTML) (English). Sherbrooke Airport. Retrieved on February 13, 2008.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ La Tribune
  10. ^ The Record
  11. ^ Le journal de Sherbrooke
  12. ^ Voir

[edit] External links

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