Stanstead

August 26, 2026
By Jade Lemieux

If you are visiting southern Québec and find your way to Stanstead, at first glance, it will seem like any other completely ordinary small town. However, if you drive down CANUSA Street to enter Stanstead, you would be driving, for a short distance, directly along the Canada-United States border (as the name of the street implies). Although it is not the only English-speaking community in the Eastern Township, as I’ve explored in a previous blog post on Lennoxville, Stanstead is unique due to its geographical location on the border between Québec and Vermont, directly south of the community of Derby Line. Looking at a map, you can see that if it weren’t for the border, Stanstead and Derby Line would be the same town.

First founded by settlers from New England in the 1790s, Stanstead is now formed of what was formerly known as the “Three Villages”: Stanstead Plain, Rock Island, and Beebe Plain. In its beginnings, Stanstead was a haven for smugglers and bootleggers; that is, until the establishment of a customs station in 1821. In the 19th century, Stanstead began to flourish as it established itself within Canada-United States relations, becoming the first Canadian stop on the stagecoach route linking Québec City and Montreal to Boston. This role as a transportation centre is one that gave Stanstead major economic prosperity, and it is a role the town maintains to this day, although the original stagecoach is long gone. Stanstead’s identity as a community is intimately tied to Canada’s relationship to the United States, both on a local level and a national level. Locally, its proximity to Derby Line and the two towns’ history of collaboration directly contributes to Stanstead’s ability to maintain its English-speaking identity in the Francophone province. On a wider national level, its position on the border means it is more directly affected by the politics of both countries.

Nothing symbolizes the relations between Canada and the United States better than the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead/Derby Line. The Haskell is built directly astride the border. Therefore, while you enter the stone Victorian building in the United States, you can walk across the black painted line on the floor of the library and find yourself in Canada. In the opera house, while the audience is completely in the United States, the performers are in Canada. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was “built intentionally to be able to re-unite both countries and both communities,” as stated by the president of the Haskell board.

For over 120 years, an informal agreement stood between Canada and the United States, and between Stanstead and Derby Line, to allow border crossings without passports around the Haskell, which let Canadians cross into the US to enter through the building’s front door. Since Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, new rules concerning border control have been established by his administration, making this agreement now impossible. The Haskell has thus been forced to undergo major renovations to retrofit a back door on the Canadian side of the building, which opened in June 2026.

Stanstead residents, while closely tied to Derby Line and the United States—both because of their proximity and due to their linguistic connection as English speakers in a predominantly French area—are also fiercely protective of their Canadian identities. Therefore, like many other Canadians, in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs and threats of annexation, they have gone to certain lengths to avoid the United States, both through their refusal to cross into the neighbouring country and by withholding financial support for American businesses. For Stanstead residents, this choice includes grappling with the additional struggle of a new day-to-day reality that separates them from their neighbours (literally, in some instances). People from Stanstead and Derby Line, however, have not expressed resentment toward the residents of the other town for this separation, despite the direct negative effects it has had on the local economy of both towns. Many local business owners have actually expressed a sense of mourning regarding the loss of connection with their neighbours. Residents are also still finding ways to come together as a community; the Haskell’s renovations related to the new Canadian door, for instance, were funded by donations from both Canada and the United States. In spite of the Trump administration’s actions, Stanstead and Derby Line are continuing their long history of collaboration.

References

Brooks, Anthony. “Trump’s Insults and Tariffs Strain Relationships along the U.S.-Canadian Border.” Wbur, 15 May 2025, www.wbur.org/news/2025/05/15/vermont-canada-library-town-trump-border. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.

Farfan, Matthew. “Stanstead: Historic Border Town.” Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, www.qahn.org/article/stanstead-historic-border-town. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.

“History.” Ville de Stanstead, 3 Mar. 2022, www.stanstead.ca/en/history/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.

Shingler, Benjamin, and Rachel Watts. “U.S. Limits Canadian Access to Iconic Stanstead, Que., Border-Straddling Library.” CBC, 21 Mar. 2025, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/us-border-canada-quebec-stanstead-library-1.7489528. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.