Labelle, Quebec (Canada)

Municipalité de Labelle

Last modified: 2012-08-11 by rob raeside
Keywords: labelle | quebec | letter: l (angled) | waterfalls | sun | mountain |
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• City flag
• Logo flag

See also:

• Quebec
• Laurentides Administrative Region

City flag

A Canadian pale, yellow and white, with the arms centred. Image above drawn using the arms from http://www.municipalite.labelle.qc.ca/en/labelle-logo-arms.html. This appears to be a more formal flag than the logo flag seen by Luc Baronian (below).
Rob Raeside, 6 November 2011

The municipality of Labelle (2,297 inhabitants in 2008; 217 sq. km) is located in the MRC Laurentides, 150 km north-west of Montreal. The municipality is named for Priest François-Xavier Antoine Labelle (1833-1891), aka "The North King" or "The Apostle of Colonization". Labelle, the parish priest of Saint-Jérôme, upset by the massive emigration of French Canadians to the US, prompted several families to move northwards, where plenty of forest land was available for clearing. The colonization of the place known as "Chute des Iroquois" (Iroquois' Fall, according to a local legend recalling the fall of Iroquois into the cascade) started in 1878, the "Nativité-de-Marie" (Mary's Birth) mission being set up in 1880, while the chapel was built in 1882. The Cloutier House is the last remaining house from the time and, probably, the best preserved colonist's wooden house in the region. In 1894, the Chute des Iroquois village was renamed Labelle. In 1902, the municipal territory was split into the village proper (Labelle Village Municipality) and the neighboring area (Canton Joly Municipality). The two entities were reunited in 1973 to form the present day's Labelle Municipality.
http://www.municipalite.labelle.qc.ca/fr/Histoire/labelle-histoire.html - Municipal website

The arms of Labelle are: "Gules, a baroque man's head proper per fess crined and wattled argent crowned with laurel's leaves vert surrounded or, a chief azure a branch raguly per fess surrounded by two partridges ensigned by an old crown all or." The shield is surrounded by green maple branches and placed above a yellow scroll with red ribbons, charged with the town's motto written in black capital letters, "SOIS JUSTE ET FORT" (French for "Be Fair and Strong").
http://www.municipalite.labelle.qc.ca/fr/Histoire/labelle-logo-armoiries.html - Municipal website (also including the description of the logo already presented below).
Ivan Sache, 10 November 2011

Logo flag

image by Luc Baronian

I saw the flag in the summer of 1999, though the logo depicted on it was adopted in 1993. Translated from municipal documentation:

The base of the logo is the letter "L" for Labelle, tilted towards the left, to create a symmetric form, the top of which represents two mountains. Iroquois Falls comes through over the letter and between the mountains. The falls on the Rouge River is the central point of the municipality. In the background, a sun is stylized to give the logo a well-being and joie-de-vivre atmosphere. One can also see it as a mountain under sunshine. From another point of view, the logo also resembles a flower, symbol of beauty. Like a flower, the Labelle area is very beautiful. The colors were dictated by the illustrated elements that almost give life to the logo, by their clarity and luminosity.