Quebec

Quebec (pronounced "keh-BECK" or "kweh-BECK"; French: le Québec) is a Canadian province with a population of 7,487,200 (Statistics Canada, 2003), primarily speakers of the French language making up the bulk of the Francophone population in North America. The capital is Quebec City and the largest city is Montreal. A resident of Quebec is called a Quebecer (also spelled Quebecker) or, in French, un(e) Quebecois(e).

Table of contents

1 Geography
2 History
3 Politics
4 Economy
5 Culture
6 Demographics
7 Symbols and emblems
8 See also
9 External links

Geography

Main article: Geography of Quebec The province, Canada's largest, occupies a vast territory (nearly three times the size of France), most of which is very sparsely populated. More than 90 per cent of Quebec's area lies within the Canadian Shield, a large part of which was historically referred to as the Ungava Region. The annexation of this vast and virtually uninhabited northern region (which borders James Bay, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait) in 1898 and 1912 created the massive Province of Quebec of today. Quebec is located in eastern Canada, bordered by Ontario and Hudson Bay to the west, Atlantic Canada to the east, the United States (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York) to the south and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

The province's three largest hydro-electric projects are built on La Grande Riviere. The extreme north of the province, now called Nunavik, is subarctic or arctic and is home to part of the Inuit nation.

The most populated region is the St. Lawrence River Valley in the south, where the capital, Quebec City, and the largest city, Montreal, are situated. North of Montreal are the Laurentians, a range of ancient mountains, and to the east are the Appalachian Mountains which extends into the Eastern Townships and Gaspesie regions. The Gaspé Peninsula juts into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east.

History

Main article: History of Quebec The name Quebec, which comes from the Mi'kmaq word Gepeeg meaning "strait," originally meant the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River off what is currently Quebec City.

The first European explorer of what is now Quebec was Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross in the Gaspe in 1534 and sailed into the St. Lawrence River in 1535.

After 1627, King Louis XIII of France introduced the seigneurial system and forbade settlement in New France by anyone other than Roman Catholics, ensuring that welfare and education was kept firmly in the hands of the church. New France became a royal province in 1663 under Louis XIV and the intendant Jean Talon.

Britain acquired Canada by the Treaty of Paris (1763) when King Louis XV of France and his advisors chose to keep the territory of Guadeloupe for its valuable sugar crops instead of New France, which was viewed as a vast, frozen wasteland of little importance to the French colonial empire. By the British Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of New France) was renamed the Province of Quebec.

In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act that allowed Quebec to maintain the French Civil Code as its judicial system and sanctioned the freedom of religious choice, allowing the Roman Catholic Church to remain.

Quebec retained its seigneurial system and civil law code after the conquest. Owing to an influx of Loyalist refugees from the US Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Act of 1791 saw the colony divided in two at the Ottawa River; the western part became Upper Canada and changed to the British legal system. The eastern part was named Lower Canada.

After the Patriotes Rebellion of 1837, the British government merged the Canadas into one Province of Canada in 1841. However, the union proved contentious. In 1867 the Province of Canada, joining with the other British colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Canadian Confederation, was redivided into its two parts, under the names Ontario and Quebec.

The conservative government of Maurice Duplessis and his Union Nationale dominated Quebec politics from 1944 to 1960 with the support of the Catholic church. Pierre Trudeau and other intellectuals and liberals formed an intellectual opposition to Duplessis' repressive regime setting the groundwork for the Quiet Revolution under Jean Lesage's Liberals. The Quiet Revolution was a period of dramatic social and political change that saw the decline of the Roman Catholic Church's influence, the nationalization of Hydro Quebec and the emergence of a separatist movement under former Lesage minister Rene Levesque.

During the 1960s a marginal terrorist group known as the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ) launched a decade of bombings, robberies and attacks on government offices. Their activities culminated in events referred to as the October Crisis when James Cross, the British trade commissioner to Canada, was kidnapped along with Pierre Laporte, a provincial minister and Vice-Premier, who was murdered a few days later. It has been discovered that under Trudeau's demand, some RCMP agents infiltrated the group and even pushed them into terrorist actions, so as to turn the public opinion against an aspiration shared by most francophones in Quebec.

In 1977 the newly elected Parti Quebecois government of Rene Levesque introduced the Charter of the French Language. Known as "Bill 101", it defined French as the only official language of Quebec and strictly regulated the use of other languages.

Levesque put sovereignty-association before the voters in the 1980 Quebec referendum. Sixty per cent of the Quebec electorate voted against it.

On October 30, 1995, in a second referendum the vote for Quebec independence was rejected by an extremely slim margin, less than one per cent. The federal Liberal Party under Prime Minister Jean Chretien came under sharp criticism for mishandling the "No" side of the referendum campaign.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Quebec The Lieutenant Governor represents Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The head of government is the Premier (called premier ministre in French) who leads the largest party in the unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale, from which the Council of Ministers is appointed.

Until 1968 the Quebec legislature was bicameral, consisting of the Legislative Council of Quebec and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. In that year the Legislative Council was abolished, and the Legislative Assembly was renamed the National Assembly. Quebec was the last province to abolish its Legislative Council.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Quebec The territory of Quebec is extremely rich in resources in its coniferous forests, lakes, and rivers—pulp and paper, lumber, and hydroelectricity are still some of the province's most important industries.

The St. Lawrence River Valley is a fertile agricultural region, producing dairy products, fruit, vegetables, maple sugar (Quebec is the world's largest producer), and livestock.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Quebec Quebec is at once a North American society and the main French-speaking society on the continent. Montreal, the vibrant cosmopolitan metropolis of Quebec, is the second largest francophone city after Paris. History made Quebec a place where cultures meet, where people from all over the world experience America, but from a little distance and through a different eye. Often described as a crossroads between Europe and America, Quebec is home to a people who has the privilege of being connected to the strong cultural currents of the United States, France, and Britain all at the same time.

Quebec is also home to 11 aboriginal cultures and that of an Anglophone minority of approximately 600,000 people.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Quebec Demographic history of Quebec Quebec's fertility rate is now among the lowest in Canada. At 1.4, it is well below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. This contrasts with the fertility rate before 1960 which was among the highest of the industrialized countries.

Despite the fact that Quebec represents only 24% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec.

Symbols and emblems

The motto of Quebec is Je me souviens (I remember), which is carved into the Parliament Building façade in Quebec City and is seen on the coat of arms and the license plates.

The graphic emblem of Quebec is the fleur-de-lis, usually white on a blue background, as in the provincial flag (above), called the Fleurdelisé. As indicated on the government of Quebec's Web site, the flag recalls the Royal banner said to have accompanied the army of General Montcalm, Marquis de Saint-Veran during the victorious battle of Carillon in 1758. The Fleurdelise replaced the Union Jack atop the Parliament Building by an Order-in-Council in 1948.

The floral emblem of Quebec is the blue flag iris (Iris versicolor). It was formerly the Madonna lily, to recall the fleur-de-lis, but has been changed to the iris which is native to Quebec.

The avian emblem of Quebec is the snowy owl.

The patron saint of French Canada is John the Baptist. La Saint-Jean-Baptiste, June 24, is Quebec's national day, and is officially called the Fête nationale du Québec since 1977.

External links

Provinces and territories of Canada
Provinces: British Columbia \| Alberta \| Saskatchewan \| Manitoba \| Ontario \| Quebec \| New Brunswick \| Prince Edward Island \| Nova Scotia \| Newfoundland and Labrador
Territories: Yukon \| Northwest Territories \| Nunavut

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Geography

History

Politics

Economy

Culture

Demographics

Symbols and emblems

See also

External links