Quebec's Eastern Townships considers official name change

You can hear the enthusiasm in Jody Robinson's voice when she talks about the history of her home region.

Robinson was raised on a dairy farm near Lennoxville, Que., and now works as an archivist with the Eastern Townships Resource Centre in Sherbrooke. She says the two names on either side of a debate about what the region should be formally called — Estrie or les Cantons de l'Est — are both rich in meaning.

The traditional territory of the Abenaki has been commonly referred to as the Eastern Townships since 1791. That's when Loyalists, who were tired of squatting after the American War of Independence, petitioned the British government for land. They were awarded 10-by-10-mile tracts to build homes and set up farms.

"Townships ... is an English definition of land," said Robinson. "Townships because of the way the land was divided ... and then Eastern because we're in Quebec, and the other ones were in Ontario."

The townships start in the St. Lawrence lowlands south of Montreal, stretch along the American border to Lac-Mégantic in the northeast and across to Drummondville in the northwest. Marked by rolling hills, swaths of farmland and a few large lakes and rivers that empty into the St. Lawrence, it's a popular place to escape the city and enjoy the outdoors.

The area now consists of nine regional municipalities, including the city of Sherbrooke, but historically it was much bigger, covering parts of Montérégie and the Mauricie.

As more and more people immigrated to Quebec from France, the Eastern Townships became the Townships de l'Est and eventually Cantons de l'Est. 

Estrie was a term coined by a Catholic priest, Maurice O'Bready, in the 1940s and officially adopted as the title of Quebec's fifth administrative region in 1981.

"The word trie can mean a land that is rich and fertile," said Robinson. "Rich and fertile land located in the east, that's how we get Estrie."

Regional council pushes for rebrand

In July 2021, the minister of municipal affairs, Andrée Laforest, and the minister responsible for the Estrie region, François Bonnardel, announced that the regional county municipalities of Brome-Missiquoi and Haute-Yamaska were being added to the territory.

In an email, Bonnardel's office told CBC that's when the Table des MRC de l'Estrie — a council of representatives from each regional county — asked for a rebrand.

Cantons de l'Est is almost always used for tourism and regional promotion, but public services, health resources and provincial documents generally refer to Estrie.

"There was often a lot of confusion," said Magog Mayor Nathalie Pelletier, who sits on the regional council.

"[Estrie] is not a bad name: we don't need to tear ourselves apart over it," she said. "But between the two names, we saw a more distinctive name in Cantons de l'Est. People were proud of it, and it was more inclusive.

Last year, the Commission municipale du Québec started surveying the people in the region to see which name they preferred. Individuals, groups and organizations had until Feb. 4 to submit written arguments.

Up next is a Feb. 23 virtual consultation, and public health measures permitting, there will be in-person consultations March 14 in Sherbrooke, March 17 in Lac-Mégantic and March 22 in Granby.

Not all Estriens are on board

One group pushing to maintain the status quo is the Société nationale de l'Estrie (SNE), which argues the region has been successful economically and continues to attract people from other parts of Quebec to live there under its current name.

President Étienne-Alexis Boucher says there's a regional anthem and flag tied to the Estrie banner, and he questions why Quebec's toponymy commission hasn't been asked to weigh in.

Bonnardel's office says once the consultation process is completed and its findings are reviewed, the minister of municipal affairs will have the final say and potentially issue a ministerial decree to change the name.

For Robinson, shifting to the term that's more commonly used makes sense.

"I think it's a lovely idea, I don't have any particular attachments to Estrie, and I don't think it would create a great loss overall if we went back to Cantons de l'Est."