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Rawdon
Rawdon
Municipality
	Motto(s): "In diversitate luceo"; (Latin for, "I shine in diversity")
	Location within Matawinie RCM.
	Rawdon Location in central Quebec.
	Coordinates: 46°03′N 73°43′W / 46.050°N 73.717°W
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Lanaudière
RCM	Matawinie
Settled	1799
Constituted	May 28, 1998
Government
• Mayor	Raymond Rougeau
• Federal riding	Joliette
• Prov. riding	Bertrand
Area
• Total	193.00 km2 (74.52 sq mi)
• Land	187.07 km2 (72.23 sq mi)
Population (2021)
• Total	11,719
• Density	63.2/km2 (164/sq mi)
• Pop 2016-2021	6%
• Dwellings	5,447
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	J0K 1S0
Area code(s)	450 and 579
Highways	R-125 ; R-337 ; R-341 ; R-348
Website	www.rawdon.ca

Rawdon is a municipality located on the Ouareau River in southwestern Quebec, Canada, about 60 kilometres north of Montreal. It is the seat for the Regional County Municipality of Matawinie, in the Lanaudière region. Rawdon is part of the Joliette federal electoral district.

The town of Rawdon is a mostly French-speaking tourist resort and is home to one English public school and four French public schools as well as a medium-size ski resort.

Geography

Rawdon is located at the beginning of the Canadian Shield mountains. Its lakes and mountains make it a destination for summer tourism with its many camps and cottages. Rawdon is home to the Dorwin and Manchester falls, which lie less than a kilometre from downtown and offer a public beach on the artificial Rawdon Lake. In summer, temperatures can soar as high as 35 °C (95 °F) while temperatures as cold as −30 °C (−22 °F) can be felt in winter.

History

The township was established in 1799 and named after Sir Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings. The town was primarily home to people of Irish background up until 1844, when more and more French-Canadians settled the region and small shops and industries emerged. After the First World War and the October Revolution, Rawdon saw a considerable number of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian noble families arrive to settle in its countryside from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Rawdon was originally part of Montcalm County. From 1920 to 1998, there were two separate municipalities named "Rawdon," the Township of Rawdon and the Village of Rawdon; in 1998, they were united into a single municipality. On November 8, 2021, former pro wrestler Raymond Rougeau was elected mayor.

Demographics

Population

Historical Census Data - Rawdon, Quebec^[5]

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1991	6,841	—
1996	8,254	+20.7%

Year	Pop.	±%
2001	8,648	+4.8%
2006	10,058	+16.3%

Year	Pop.	±%
2011	10,416	+3.6%
2021	11,719	+12.5%

In summer, the population is said to double and even sometimes triple due to tourism and the presence of many cottages in the vicinity.

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 4532 (total dwellings: 5422)

Language

Mother tongue:^[4]

English as first language: 8.8%
French as first language: 85.7%
English and French as first language: 2.2%
Other as first language: 3.2%

Education

Commission scolaire des Samares operates francophone public schools.

École Ste-Anne (primary)
École St-Louis (primary)
École secondaire des Chutes (secondary)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board operates anglophone public schools:

Rawdon Elementary School^[6]
Joliette Elementary School
Joliette High School in Joliette^[7]

Notable people

Ludmilla Chiriaeff, (1924-1996), ballet artist
Martin Deschamps, singer
Firmin Dugas (1830-1889), businessman and politician
Jonathan Girard, former Boston Bruins hockey player
Jean-Paul Jeannotte (1926–2021), operatic tenor, academic teacher and opera administrator