Edmundston

Edmundston is a city in Madawaska County at the junction of the Saint John and Madawaska Rivers in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada only a few kilometres from the border with Quebec and on the border with the United States, opposite the town of Madawaska, Maine. Out of the eight cities in New Brunswick, Edmundston is the most francophone, with 98% of the city's population speaking French as a first language.

Edmundston is second to only Clarence-Rockland, Ontario, as the largest French speaking city in North America outside the province of Quebec. If the population of the adjacent town of Madawaska, Maine, was included, it would be the largest. There are higher numbers of francophones in other Canadian cities such as Ottawa (122,665), Sudbury (45,420), Toronto (34,900), Winnipeg (26,855), Moncton (20,425) and Timmins (17,390), but French speakers there are in the minority.

The area was at the centre of the Aroostook War over the boundary line between the U.S.A. and what was then British North America. It was because of the boundary disputes in this entire area that residents on both the Canadian and U.S. sides took to referring to the region as the Republic of Madawaska. The tradition is carried on to this day, with each mayor of Edmundston being automatically given title as the "President of the Republic of Madawaska".

Originally named Petit-Sault (Little Falls), the settlement was renamed Edmundston in 1850 after Sir Edmund Head, who was Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick from 1848 to 1854 and Governor-General of Canada from 1854 to 1861.