The Equity, Pontiac’s only bilingual weekly, has been “the voice of the Pontiac” since 1883. Smith and Cowan started the paper in Bryson. After a number of moves, its present location is the 1850s Shawville Academy building. Its mandate is to report regional news for the people of Pontiac County.
Most of the people of the Pontiac are descendants of the original families who arrived here in the first half of the 19th century. The first settlers began to move in from Philemon Wright’s Ottawa-Hull area settlement in the early 1800s. The dominant English-speaking cultural group is Irish (Protestant and Catholic), with a considerable Scottish representation especially in the Bristol area, and a sprinkling from England. About 40% of the present 18,000 population of the county is French-speaking.
The Equity, although primarily English, serves both language groups.