Louiseville

Louiseville is a town in the Mauricie region of the province of Quebec in Canada. It is located near the mouth of the Wolf River (Rivière du Loup) on the north shore of Lac Saint-Pierre.

Louiseville is twinned with Soissons in France and Cerfontaine in Belgium.

History
The area was originally part of the Rivière-du-Loup Seignory. This seignory was formed in 1665 by Intendant Jean Talon and granted in 1672 to Charles Dugey Rozoy de Mannereuil, officer in the Carignan Regiment. The seignory was thereafter also known as Rivière-Mannereuil for some time.

In 1714, a mission was formed by the Récollets who dedicated it to the patronage of Anthony of Padua. In 1722, the Ursulines owned the seignory and attempted to change the name to Saint-Antoine-de-la-Rivière-Saint-Jean but the settlement became known as Rivière-du-Loup or Rivière-du-Loup-en-Haut after the seignory or local river.

In 1816, its post office opened. In 1845, the Parish Municipality of Rivière-du-Loup-en-Haut was formed, and abolished two years later in 1847. It was reestablished in 1855 as Saint-Antoine-de-la-Rivière-du-Loup, named after the parish patron and the seignory. In 1878, the main settlement separated from the parish municipality and formed the Village Municipality of Rivière-du-Loup. Just one year later it was renamed to Louiseville in order to avoid confusion with another town called Rivière-du-Loup in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The new name was a tribute to Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, who had planned to visit the Mauricie that same year.

On January 1, 1989, the parish and village municipalities merged again and became the Town of Louiseville.

Demographics
Population trend:
 * Population in 2011: 7517 (2006 to 2011 population change: 1.1%)
 * Population in 2006: 7433
 * Population in 2001: 7622
 * Population in 1996: 7911
 * Population in 1991: 8000

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 3575 (total dwellings: 3694)

Mother tongue:
 * English as first language: 0.9%
 * French as first language: 97.6%
 * English and French as first language: 0.6%
 * Other as first language: 0.9%