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Huntingdon, Quebec

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Huntingdon
City
Huntingdon Town Hall
Huntingdon Town Hall
Location within Le Haut-Saint-Laurent RCM
Location within Le Haut-Saint-Laurent RCM
Country Canada
Province Quebec
RegionMontérégie
RCMLe Haut-Saint-Laurent
ConstitutedOctober 9, 1848
Government
[1][2]
 • MayorAndré Brunette
 • Federal ridingSalaberry—Suroît
 • Prov. ridingHuntingdon
Area
[1][3]
 • Total
2.80 km2 (1.08 sq mi)
 • Land2.60 km2 (1.00 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[3]
 • Total
2,457
 • Density944.1/km2 (2,445/sq mi)
 • Pop 2006-2011
Decrease 5.0%
 • Dwellings
1,138
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)
J0S
Area code(s)450 and 579
Highways R-138
R-202
Websitewww.
villehuntingdon.com

Huntingdon is a small town in Huntingdon County in the Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality and the Montérégie region of the province of Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 2,457. The town is located 75 kilometers (47 mi) southwest of Montreal, and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) from the border with New York State.

History

Huntingdon in 1910.

The town was first settled by British soldiers after the War of 1812 and the fertile land in the area led to a successful farming economy. Once the fear of attack from the Americans was gone, in the 1820s businessmen established lumber and grist mills on the banks of the Chateauguay River.

During the first few decades of the 20th century, when transport from major urban centers to the outlying rural areas became economically feasible, the textile industry began expanding at a rapid rate in various towns throughout the province of Quebec. By the 1930s, Huntingdon was home to a small but thriving textile industry founded by Alex Fawcett & Hiram Leach as Leach Textiles. After World War II, entrepreneurs François Cleyn and Alec Tinker acquired the textile businesses in Huntingdon and built their company, Cleyn & Tinker Limited, into one of the most successful woolen mills in all of Canada. In Huntingdon, the business expanded to five interconnected operations around the town and the decades of the 1950s through to the early part of the 1970s saw the town prosper and the company acquire subsidiaries in Sherbrooke, Quebec and in Castlecomer, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Recent history

Huntingdon was also home to Huntingdon Mills (Canada) Ltd., another textile business and a significant employer in the town. In December 2004, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and announced they would have to close putting more than 215 employees out of work. Cleyn & Tinker too announced it would be closing its operations in the town in April 2005. Shortly after the announcement, some of the company's assets and supply contracts were acquired by the Greensboro, North Carolina based International Textile Group, Inc. who have a partnership with China Ting Group, a textile manufacturer based in Kabul, Afghanistan. On January 28, 2005, Mayor Stéphane Gendron announced that the town was purchasing the five textile plants that were closing with the expectation that they could be sold to new businesses.

In recent years, the small town had to deal with a substantial increase in teen vandalism. In August 2004 a controversial municipal bylaw went into effect that placed a 10:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew on unsupervised children aged 15 and under. The controversial bylaw held parents responsible for their children's activities through fines if a child was caught in violation of the curfew. After parents filed a legal action to have the bylaw overturned, the Council suspended application of the bylaw.

Government

Huntingdon's mayor is Andre Brunette. At the federal level, Huntingdon is part of the Salaberry—Suroît riding and is represented by Anne Minh-Thu Quach of the New Democratic Party. Provincially, it is part of the electoral district of Huntingdon and is represented by Stéphane Billette of the Quebec Liberal Party.

Demographics

Population

Canada census – Huntingdon, Quebec community profile
2011
Population2,457 (-5.0% from 2006)
Land area2.60 km2 (1.00 sq mi)
Population density944.1/km2 (2,445/sq mi)
Median age47.1 (M: 44.7, F: 49.5)
Private dwellings1,138 (total) 
Median household income$30,308
References: 2011[3] earlier[5][6]
Historical Census Data - Huntingdon, Quebec[7]
YearPop.±%
1991 2,859—    
1996 2,746−4.0%
YearPop.±%
2001 2,666−2.9%
2006 2,587−3.0%
YearPop.±%
2011 2,457−5.0%

Language

Canada Census Mother Tongue - Huntingdon, Quebec[7]
Census Total
French
English
French & English
Other
Year Responses Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop %
2011
2,385
 1,335 Decrease 5.7% 55.97% 970 Increase 0.5% 40.67% 40 Decrease 46.7% 1.68% 40 Decrease 46.7% 1.68%
2006
2,530
 1,415 Decrease 1.7% 55.93% 965 Decrease 1.0% 38.14% 75 Decrease 25.0% 2.96% 75 Increase 50.0% 2.96%
2001
2,565
 1,440 Decrease 5.0% 56.14% 975 Decrease 5.3% 38.01% 100 Increase 53.8% 3.90% 50 Increase 66.7% 1.95%
1996
2,640
 1,515 n/a 57.39% 1,030 n/a 39.02% 65 n/a 2.46% 30 n/a 1.13%

Infrastructure

Transportation

The CIT du Haut-Saint-Laurent provides local bus service.

Media

The town has a bilingual (English & French) weekly newspaper, The Gleaner/La Source, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2013. It was founded in 1863 by Robert Sellar (1841-1919) under the banner Canadian Gleaner, changing its name to the Huntington Gleaner in 1912.[8] It is today part of the Quebecor chain of newspapers.

Sport

Huntingdon is the midway point of the Boston–Montreal–Boston cycling event.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire: Huntingdon
  2. ^ Riding history for Beauharnois—Salaberry, Quebec from the Library of Parliament
  3. ^ a b c 2011 Statistics Canada Census Profile: Huntingdon, Quebec Cite error: The named reference "cp2011" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Banque de noms de lieux du Québec: Reference number 29325". toponymie.gouv.qc.ca (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec.
  5. ^ "2006 Community Profiles". 2006 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. August 20, 2019.
  6. ^ "2001 Community Profiles". 2001 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. July 18, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 census
  8. ^ Hill, Robert Andrew. "Robert Sellar". Volume XIV (1911-1920). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
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