Edmundston

Edmundston is a city in northern New Brunswick with about 16,000 residents.

Understand
The city of Edmundston is roughly 95% francophone, the highest proportion in New Brunswick. Unlike the rest of the Maritimes, the majority of Francophones in Edmundston aren't descended from the Acadians but rather from French-Canadians that came up from Lower Canada (modern day Quebec), and are commonly known as Brayons. Some of the Brayons think of themselves as neither Acadian nor Québécois and their accent (l'accent brayon) is fairly distinct from the Québécois and Acadian accents. However others embrace Acadian roots, and it is not uncommon to see the Acadian flag flown.

Edmundston's economy is focused on the Saint John River paper industry. The river has provided water power for the mills and was the route of log drives bringing pulpwood from upstream forests. Forestry is one of the city's major industries, with several sawmills and paper plants in the vicinity, the largest being the Twin Rivers pulp mill. The town's economy is highly dependent upon cross-border trade. Edmundston and the smaller American city of Madawaska are considered by residents to be one community. An illuminated sign and plastics manufacture owned by Pattison Sign is also important to the city's economy. IPL, a company that manufactures plastic eating utensils, has a facility in Edmundston. The city is the site of the regional hospital for the area. There is a campus of the French-language University of Moncton in Edmundston. The New Brunswick Community college system has a campus in Edmundston.

By plane

 * Edmundston Airport (ICAO:CYES) is north west of the city, and its runway straddles the border with Quebec. It does not appear to have any regular flights. The closest major airport is Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle, Maine, 103 km from Edmundston. The nearest major airport in Canada is Mont-Joli Airport . This airport has domestic flights and is about 138 km from Edmundston.

By car

 * Edmundston is on the highway Route 2 between Fredericton and the border with Quebec, where the highway is re-named Autoroute 85. It is across the river from and has an international border crossing with Madawaska, Maine. Route 2 is part of the Trans-Canada Highway between New Brunswick's border with Quebec and New Brunswick's border with Nova Scotia.

By bus

 * Operates a bus route from Moncton including stops in Grand Falls, Perth-Andover, Florenceville, Woodstock, Fredericton, and Fredericton Airport. Travel time to Edmundston from Moncton is 5.5 hours and from Fredericton is 3.5 hours.
 * Travel to Edmundston from the following destinations involving same day transfers is as follows:
 * From Saint John (4 hours) with a transfer in Fredericton
 * From Bathurst (10.75 hours), Campbellton (12 hours), Halifax (9.5 hours), Miramichi (9.75 hours) with a transfer in Moncton
 * From Charlottetown (8.5 hours) with transfers in Amherst and Moncton
 * From Antigonish (10.25 hours), North Sydney (13 hours), Sydney (13.75 hours) with transfers in Truro and Moncton

Buy
There are the usual big box stores in this town.