Tracadie-Sheila ( ) is a former town in Gloucester County,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic Canad ...

, Canada.New Brunswick Provincial Archives - Tracadie-Sheila
/ref> It is now part of the

Regional Municipality of Tracadie The Regional Municipality of Tracadie is the first and only regional municipality in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It had a population of 16,114 in 2016. History Tracadie and Sheila were separate communities whose municipal governm ...

History

Demographics

Population

Language

Tourism and culture

Located on the

Acadian Peninsula The Acadian Peninsula (french: Péninsule acadienne) is situated in the northeastern corner of New Brunswick, Canada, encompassing portions of Gloucester and Northumberland Counties. It derives its name from the large Acadian population loc ...

, the area has a number of sandy beaches. Val-Comeau, the most popular, is protected as a Provincial Park. The beaches can usually be enjoyed from June until September, when the water is a moderate temperature. Signage is in French, as most inhabitants of the Acadian Peninsula are predominantly

French speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

. The community became known as the hometown of

Wilfred Le Bouthillier Wilfred Le Bouthillier (born May 12, 1978) is an Acadian singer from the town of Tracadie-Sheila, New Brunswick, and the winner of both the 2003 edition of ''Star Académie'', a Quebec reality show for aspiring singers, and the 2021 edition of ''Ch ...

, winner of the 2003

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

reality show ''

Star Académie ''Star Académie'' is a Canadian reality television series that started in 2003, aimed primarily at the Quebec television audience, featuring an array of young women and men under the age of 30 competing for the title of the next solo singing se ...

''. The success of the young singer, known simply as Wilfred, resulted in a significant rise in tourism to the region. The town is also home to pop singer Jean-François Breau. Well-known AIDS activist Dr. Réjean Thomas and opera singer

Michèle Losier Michele (), is an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael. Michele (pronounced ), is also an English female given name that is derived from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and identicall ...

, (both now residing in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

), are from the neighbouring village of St-Isidore, part of the greater Tracadie area.

Economy

The region suffers from high unemployment because of its relative isolation from centres of greater population. It depends on federal government assistance to compensate for the weak economic performance of the last decades. Most well-paid jobs tend to be government-related, including teachers, nurses and doctors. Other employers are in the "Parc Industriel".

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

is an important seasonal employer, particularly in the summer months of June, July and August. Thousands of vacationers, mostly from neighbouring

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

, come for the beaches, ocean, and hospitality.

Transportation

The closest public airport is Bathurst Airport (

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, Bigram, digrams, trigrams, or wikt:tetragram, ...

: ZBF), 75 kilometres west of the town. It is served by

Air Canada Jazz The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

with twice daily flights to

. The community was once served by

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

for freight rail transport, but the rail line was abandoned in the 1980s. Today the nearest rail service is at Miramichi or Bathurst with the

New Brunswick East Coast Railway The New Brunswick East Coast Railway was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It included of track of which were mainline between Campbellton and Pacific Junction near Moncton. Important spurs connected Dalhou ...

;

Via Rail Canada Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

provides 6-day/week passenger rail service at Bathurst and Miramichi using its train the ''

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

'', running to Montreal and Halifax. The town is located on Highway 11 which links the town to

Caraquet Caraquet ( ) is a town in Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada. Situated on the shore of Chaleur Bay in the Acadian Peninsula, its name is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for ''meeting of two rivers''. The Caraquet River and Rivière du ...

and Shippagan to the northeast and

Miramichi The name "Miramichi" was first applied to a region in the northeast of New Brunswick, Canada, and has since been applied to other places in Canada and the United States. Although other interpretations have been suggested, it is believed that "Mirami ...

to the southwest. The town is connected to Highway 8 to Bathurst via Highway 365 and Highway 160 through Saint-Isidore and Allardville.

References

External links

Tracadie-Sheila
- official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Tracadie-Sheila Communities in Gloucester County, New Brunswick Former towns in New Brunswick Populated coastal places in Canada