Shediac (official in both languages; Shédiac is colloquial French) is a town in Westmorland County, New Brunswick known as the "Lobster Capital of the World". It hosts an annual festival every July which promotes its ties to lobster fishing. At the western entrance to the town is a 90-ton sculpture called The World's Largest Lobster.
Since its founding it has expanded several times, most recently in 2023, when it annexed all or part of four local service districts.
Etymology
Shediac was originally called La Batture. Its name was later changed to Shediac in reference to its position at the basin of the Shediac River. The name "Shediac" itself is derived from the
Micmac language word
Esedeiik, which means "which comes from far away", possibly in reference to the
Shediac Bay or the current of the Petitcodiac river.
Geography
Shediac is situated primarily on Route 133 around
Shediac Bay, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait.
Its topography is relatively flat and its soil is mostly composed of sedimentary rocks dating from the Pennsylvanian. Shediac enjoys a continental climate.[Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de l'énergie du Nouveau-Brunswick, « Bedrock Geology of New Brunswick » archive, 2000 (consulté le 19 juin 2009)]
The town is located southwest and adjacent to the community of Pointe-du-Chêne, once the eastern terminus of the European and North American Railway as well as a stopover for Pan-Am's transatlantic "clipper" air service featuring large seaplanes. Imperial Airways' flying boat service to Foynes in Ireland also used the facilities.
History
Hundreds of years ago, the Mi'kmaq encampment of "Es-ed-ei-ik" was one of the major camps in southeast New Brunswick. The Mi'kmaq word Es-ed-ei-ik, which means "running far in", in reference to its position where the coastline turns between running north-south and east-west, eventually transformed into
Gédaique.
Acadians first arrived at Shediac in 1751 as a result of the
Acadian Exodus from peninsular
Nova Scotia. During the French and Indian War, French officer Charles Deschamps de Boishebert made his headquarters at both Shediac and Cocagne, New Brunswick. In the autumn of 1755, Boishebert established himself on the south shore of Cocagne Bay, a place known as Boishebert's Camp. The following year, Boishebert moved to Miramichi, New Brunswick, specifically to
Beaubears Island. After the war, Acadians returned to the region in 1767.
Today many
francophones use the spelling Shédiac; however, the town's name upon its incorporation did not feature an accented "e", and correspondingly the official geographic name for the community is
Shediac.
Shediac Bay Yacht Club
Shediac Bay Yacht Club is on the Register of 'Canada's Historic Places' for being the location of a local wharf for nearly a century. The previous Shediac Bay Yacht Club House was designed by Roméo Savoie.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Shediac 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.
[
]
Income (2015)
|
|
| Median Total income per capita | $31,067 |
| Median Household Income | $57,203 |
| Median Family Income | $76,373 |
Mother tongue (2016)
|
|
| French | 4,435 | 71.0% |
| English | 1,450 | 23.2% |
| English and French | 150 | 2.4% |
| Other languages | 215 | 3.4% |
Notable people
-
Georges-Antoine Belcourt (1803–1874), missionary
-
Edna May Williston Best (1880–1923), feminist
-
Emile Duprée (1936–2023), former professional wrestler and promoter
-
René Duprée (1983 – ), professional wrestler, former WWE wrestler, son of Émile Dupree
-
Muriel McQueen Fergusson (1899–1987), Canadian senator
-
Gord Gallant (1950 – ), professional hockey player
-
Placide Gaudet (1850–1930), journalist, historian
-
Daniel Lionel Hanington (1835–1909), former Premier of New Brunswick
-
Rosa Laricchiuta (1974 – ), professional singer
-
Joseph E. Leblanc (1916–1979), politician
-
Samuel Lee (1756–1805), judge, politician
-
Anna Malenfant (1905–1988), singer, educator and composer
-
Edward R. McDonald (1872–1952), lawyer, politician, mayor, inventor of the Crossword Game, 1926
-
Olivier-Maximin Melanson (1854–1926), Acadian businessman and politician
-
A. P. Paterson (1870–1957), politician
-
Scott Pellerin (b. 1970), former professional hockey player
-
Pascal Poirier (1852–1933), writer, lawyer, senator
-
Jean George Robichaud (1883–1969), politician
-
Ferdinand-Joseph Robidoux (1875–1962), lawyer, politician
-
Wes Sheridan (1960-) , Canadian politician
-
Albert James Smith (1822–1883), former Premier of New Brunswick
-
Ernest A. Smith (1864 – 1952), Canadian politician
-
Elsie Wayne (1932–2016), politician
-
John Clarence Webster (1862–1950), physician, historian
Sister city
-
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana since 1970
[Clément Cormier, « Les Acadiens de la Louisiane et nous », Les Cahiers, Société historique acadienne, vol. 17, no 1, janvier-mars 1986, p. 13]
See also
Bibliography
Bordering communities
External links
