Herouxville (Quebec)

A commemorative book on this parish-municipality shows a Canadian pale with a central symbol
Luc Baronian, 8 May 2005

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The Municipality of Hérouxville (1,323 inhabitants; 54,510 sq. km) is part of the County Regional Municipality of Mékinac, ten minutes by car from the towns of Shawinigan and Saint-Tite. The municipal territory is partially located on the shore of Lac-à-la-Tortue (Turtle's Lake), close to the National Park of Mauricie.

The parish was founded on 22 December 1897 by Abbot Joseph-Euchariste Héroux and was known in the past as Saint-Timothée-d'Hérouxville. The name of Hérouxville was made official by the Toponymy Commission in 1981. The municipality was granted titles and civil letters on 13 April 1904 but the name of Hérouxville was made official by the Toponymy Commission only in 1981. The development of the village was boosted by forestry in the beginning of the XXth century, the main market being newspaper for the USA. Traditional log floating on the rivers lasted until 1996. Cattle and horse breeding also flourished in the municipality. In 1983, an Ayrshire cow from the Denijoy farm was awarded a silver seal after having produced 53.939 kg of milk in 2.754 days. In 1986, Carole Dumont won in Montréal the America Riders' Turnament, riding the horse "Peter Men", bred in the farm Omer. In 1991, Louis G. Adam was set up as member of the Agropur Excellence Club for the exceptional quality of his milk.

The celebrity of Hérouxville is Dr. Manon Tremblay, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Research Centre on Women and Politics at the University of Ottawa since 2000. See: sciencessociales.uottawa.ca.

The municipal flag of Hérouxville, designed by Mrs. Rose Bordeleau, was inaugurated in May 1997 for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the municipality. The flag is vertically divided green-yellow-blue (1:2:1) with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.

The municipal coat of arms of Hérouxville, adopted on 20 June 1982, was designed by Philippe Hagan (1940-1986), a local painter, sculptor, engraver and herald of national and international fame, who explained the charges as follows:

• the agricultural tractor shown prominently recalls that Hérouxville is mostly a rural municipality
• the trees recall that forest and the related industry are also important
• the fleur de lis recalls our proud heritage
• the sailboat on the waves stands for Lac-à-la-Tortue and the other lakes of the parish
• the cross recalls the Christian faith and divided the shield in four quarters symbolizing the four elements, the air, the earth, water and the fire (the sun), all required to live with the nature.

The Latin motto "Carpe Diem" (Seize the Day)) recall the precepts of our predecessors we still have to follow for the progress of our municipality. "Carpe Diem" is extracted from a Latin poem by Horace (Odes 1.11). The full sentence is: "Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero." (Seize the day, and trust as little as possible in the future.) The most famous modern use of "Carpe Diem" is: "Carpe Diem! Seize the day, lads! Make your lives extraordinary!" in the movie "Dead Poets Society".

Note that the writing is in black letters on the coat of arms but in red on the flag.

See also:

• Municipal website, including a black and white picture of the inauguration of the flag,
• images of the coat of arms
• black and white original signed by the designer and a colour version with black writing,
• and a big photography of the flag, with red writing

Ivan Sache, 23 December 2006