Kingston

Community Organizations: Portuguese Cultural Centre of Kingston

KINGSTON’S POPULATION – 172,411

STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN KINGSTON:

AS MOTHER
TONGUE		AS MOST
SPOKEN		KNOWLEDGE OF
THE LANGUAGE		BORN IN
PORTUGAL		ETHNIC
ORIGIN
1,725
1% of population		695
0,4% of population		2,180
1.3% of population		1,325
0.8% of population		3,935
2.3% of population

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Kingston was named first Capital of then Britain’s Province of Canada, in 1841, but lost the title three short years later. Nonetheless, the locality grew to become one of the most important in Ontario, mainly due to a large investment by the service industry, which includes Provincial and Federal Government operations. Here, the Portuguese community is somewhat considerable, representing 2.3% of Kingston’s ethnic origins.

According to the 2016 Census, there are 1,725 people in the Kingston area who consider Portuguese their mother tongue, 695 who speak it at home and 2,180 who can communicate in the language. The Census also shows that 1,325 residents were born in Portugal and that a total of 3,935 people consider Portuguese as their ethnic origin.

The Portuguese community of Kingston began to organize during the 1970’s. In this decade, three soccer clubs were formed: Portuguese Canadians, Benfica, and Azores. These three groups joined the Portuguese Cultural Centre of Kingston when the association was founded, in 1985, and took on the name of Portuguese Benfica.

The famous Thousand Islands are located in the Kingston area of the St. Lawrence River (photo credit: pixabay.com)

It was also during the 1970’s that a religious movement took place here when the Comissão da Comunidade was formed, in 1978. This commission acquired a plot of land in 1979 to build a church for the community. On May 25, 1980, the Church of Our Lady of Fatima was inaugurated. Father António Pires was the first priest to head the newly formed Parish.

In the mid-1990’s, the community witnessed another major milestone when the Portuguese Cultural Centre acquired its current headquarters on Division Street.

The City of Kingston is the birthplace of many famous Canadians, including Bryan Adams, Don Cherry, David Usher, and Doug Gilmour.

With files from Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008
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