straight and wide streets was drawn up for the town, and the plan prepared for a clearly larger population; however, even today, there are still many undeveloped estates in the town, and the urban settlement hardly extends beyond the original zoned area. The rise of the new town was slow in the 19th century, primarily due to poor transport connections. The bridge to the mainland was completed in 1828. As a maritime town, Kaskinen fell behind Kristinestad and Vaasa. Until the 19th century, fishing and trading were the most important livelihoods. During the heyday of the Finnish sailing fleet on both sides of the middle of the 19th century, especially tar and timber were exported from Kaskinen. The town's merchant fleet was at its largest the size of 12 sailing ships. After the era of sailing ships, coastal traffic as well as freight and passenger traffic to Sweden was practiced in the town by steamships. On 18 November 2019, Kaskinen and Närpes voted for a municipal merger, but Kaskinen's town council voted 9-8 to reject the consolidation. Economy In 2015, there were 479 jobs in the municipality. 5,2% of them were in primary production (agriculture, forestry and fisheries), 39,7% in processing and 53,7% in services. The share of processing was higher than in the whole country (20%). In 2016, the companies that paid the most corporate tax were Oy Sonnfish Ab, Kuivaniemen Kala Oy and Kaskitek Oy. The town includes the Port of Kaskinen, which deals with cargo transport. Demographics The following diagram shows the population development of the town every five years since 1990: Government At the end of 2017, Minna Nikander was elected the town manager of Kaskinen. Politics The two major parties in Kaskinen are SFP and SDP, which form the majority in elections and in the council. Below are the percentages of support for the parliamentary elections based on the votes cast in the most recent municipal elections: Swedish People's Party 28.8% Social Democratic Party 27.0% True Finns 21.4% National Coalition Party 12.9% Left Alliance 6.7% Green League 3.0% Culture Food Gubbe ronka or gubbe runka, mashed potato containing salted Baltic herring, served with mashed lingonberry and melted butter, was named as Kaskinen's traditional parish dish in the 1980s. Notable people Rosina Heikel (1842–1929), medical doctor and feminist Krista Siegfrids (born 1985), pop singer Gallery See also Närpes Kristinestad References External links Town of Kaskinen –