This article is about the Canadian province. For the similar historical entity, see Province of Quebec (1763-1791). For the city, see Quebec City. For other uses, see Quebec (disambiguation) and Québécois (disambiguation). Coordinates: 53°45′N, 71°59′W Quebec (
pronounced [kʰwəˈbɛk] or
[kʰəˈbɛk]) or, in
French,
Québec (pronounced
[kebɛk]), is a
province in
Canada.
Affectionately known as
la belle province ("the beautiful province"), Quebec is bordered to the west by the
province of
Ontario,
James Bay and
Hudson Bay. To the north are the
Hudson Strait and
Ungava Bay, to the east the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the provinces of
New Brunswick and
Newfoundland and Labrador, and to the south the
United States (the states of
New York,
Vermont,
New Hampshire and
Maine). It also shares maritime borders with the Territory of
Nunavut and the provinces of
Prince Edward Island and
Nova Scotia.
Quebec is
Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest
administrative division; only the territory of
Nunavut is larger. It is the second most populated province, and most of its inhabitants live along or close to the banks of the
Saint Lawrence River. The central and north portion of the province is sparsely populated and inhabited by the
aboriginal peoples of Canada. Quebec operates North America's largest and most extensive civil service.
The
official language of Quebec is
French; it is the sole Canadian province whose population is mainly
French Canadian, and where
English is not an official language at the provincial level.
Quebec, then called
Canada, formed part of the
colonial empire of
New France until the
Seven Years' War, when it was conquered by
Great Britain; the 1763
Treaty of Paris formally transferred the colony to British possession. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, it became known as
Lower Canada (with
Ontario being
Upper Canada, the names derived from elevation, not latitude). In 1840, Quebec became Eastern Canada after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada on the recommendation of
Lord Durham. Quebec was one of the first 4
provinces to join the
Canadian Confederation in 1867.
While the province's substantial
natural resources have long been the mainstay of its economy, Quebec has renewed itself to function effectively in the
knowledge economy: information and communication technologies,
aerospace,
biotechnology, and health industries.
Geography In
1870, Canada purchased
Rupert's Land from the
Hudson's Bay Company and over the next few decades the
Parliament of Canada transferred portions of this territory to Quebec that would more than triple the size of the province. In
1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first
Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the
aboriginal Cree. This was followed by the addition of the
District of Ungava through the
Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the aboriginal
Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec.
Provincial boundary expansions As a result of the boundary expansions, the province currently occupies a vast territory (nearly three times the size of
France), most of which is very sparsely populated. More than 90 percent of Quebec's area lies within the
Canadian Shield and includes the greater part of the
Labrador Peninsula. 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 mountain range, and to the east are the
Appalachian Mountains which extend into the
Eastern Townships and
Gaspésie regions. Quebec's highest mountain is
Mont D'Iberville, which is located on the border with
Newfoundland and Labrador in the northeastern part of the province. The
Gaspé Peninsula juts into the
Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east.
The northern region of
Nunavik is
subarctic or
arctic and is mostly inhabited by
Inuit. A major
hydro-electric project is found on the La Grande and Eastmain rivers in the James Bay region (the
La Grande Complex) and on the
Manicouagan River, north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Current territory Quebec has three main climate regions. Southern and western Quebec, including most of the major population centres, have a
humid continental climate (
Koppen climate classification Dfb) with warm, humid summers and long, cold winters. The main climatic influences are from western and northern
Canada which move eastward and from the southern and central
United States that move northward. Due to the influence of both storm systems from the core of
North America and the
Atlantic Ocean, precipitation is abundant throughout the year, with most areas receiving more than 1,000 mm (40 inches) of precipitation, including over 300 cm (120 inches) of snow in many areas. Severe summer weather (such as
tornadoes and
severe thunderstorms) are far less common than in southern
Ontario, although they occasionally occur.
Most of central Quebec has a
subarctic climate (Koppen
Dfc). Winters here are long and among the coldest in eastern Canada, while summers are warm but very short due to the higher latitude and the greater influence of
Arctic air masses. Precipitation is also somewhat less than farther south, except at some of the higher elevations.
The northern regions of Quebec have an
arctic climate (Koppen
ET), with very cold winters and short, much cooler summers. The primary influences here are the
Arctic Ocean currents (such as the
Labrador Current) and continental air masses from the
High Arctic.
Climate Main article: History of Quebec History At the time of first European contact and later colonization,
Algonquian,
Iroquoian and
Inuit groups were the peoples of what is now Québec. Their lifestyles and cultures reflected the land on which they lived. Seven Algonquian groups lived nomadic lives based on hunting, gathering, and fishing in the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield: (James Bay
Cree,
Innu,
Algonquins) and Appalachian Mountains (
Mi'kmaq,
Abenaki).
St. Lawrence Iroquoians lived more settled lives, planting squash and maize in the fertile soils of St. Lawrence Valley. The Inuit continue to fish, whale, and seal in the harsh Arctic climate along the coasts of Hudson and Ungava Bay. These peoples traded fur and food, and sometimes warred with each other.
The name "Quebec", which comes from a
Míkmaq word meaning "strait, narrows", originally meant the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River off what is currently Quebec City. There have been variations in spelling of the name:
Québecq — Levasseur, 1601
Kébec — Lescarbot, 1609
Québec — Champlain, 1613
First Nations: before 1500 Basque whalers and fishermen traded furs with Saguenay natives throughout the 1500s.
[2] The first French explorer to reach Quebec was
Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross either in
Gaspé in 1534 or at
Old Fort Bay on the
Lower North Shore. He sailed into the
St. Lawrence River in 1535 and established an ill-fated colony near present-day Quebec City at the site of
Stadacona, an Iroquoian village.
Early European exploration: 1500 Main article: New France New France In 1753 France began building a series of forts in the British
Ohio Country. They refused to leave after being notified by the British Governor and, in 1754,
George Washington launched an attack on the French
Fort Duquesne (now
Pittsburgh) in the
Ohio Valley in an attempt to enforce the British claim to take territory. This frontier battle set the stage for the
French and Indian War in North America. By 1756, France and Britain were battling the
Seven Years' War worldwide. In 1758, the
British mounted an attack on
New France by sea and took the French fort at
Louisbourg.
On 13 September 1759, General
James Wolfe defeated General
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on the
Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City. France ceded its
North American possessions to
Great Britain through the
Treaty of Paris (1763). By the
British Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of New France) was renamed the
Province of Quebec.
In 1774, fearful that the French-speaking population of Quebec (as the colony was now called) would side with the rebels of the
Thirteen Colonies to the south, the British Parliament passed the
Quebec Act giving recognition to French law, Catholic religion and French language in the colony; before that Catholics had been excluded from public office and recruitment of priests and brothers forbidden, effectively shutting down Quebec's schools and colleges. The first British policy of assimilation (1763-1774) was deemed a failure. Both the petitions and demands of the Canadiens' élites, and Governor
Guy Carleton, played an important part in convincing London of dropping the assimilation scheme, but the looming American revolt was certainly a factor. By the Quebec Act, the Quebec people obtained their first Charter of rights. That paved the way to later official recognition of the
French language and
French culture. The Act allowed
Canadiens to maintain French
civil law and sanctioned the freedom of religious choice, allowing the
Roman Catholic Church to remain. It also restored the
Ohio Valley to Quebec, reserving the territory for the fur trade.
The act, designed to placate one North American colony, had the opposite effect among its neighbors to the south. The Quebec Act was among the
Intolerable Acts that infuriated
American colonists, who launched the
American Revolution. A
1775 invasion by the American
Continental Army met with early success, but was later repelled at
Quebec City.
Conquest of New France When the American army came to Quebec they found many sympathetic supporters. According to Baby, Tachereau and Williams, as many as 747 peoples in Quebec took up active service with the Americans. Most notably
Clément Gosselin of the
2nd Canadian Regiment. At sea,
Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil beat the British Navy at the
Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
John Graves Simcoe, the founder of Ontario, was soundly defeated by the French Cavalry of the Duke of
Lauzun, who was brought to America by Louis-Philippe.
William Howe who led the attack on the
Plains of Abraham before Wolfe, was met by the
2nd Canadian Regiment at the
Battle of Brandywine in 1777. This was a diversion battle while other Quebecers in the
1st Canadian Regiment of
James Livingston defeated
John Burgoyne at the
Battle of Saratoga in 1777.
At the end of the war, 50,000 Loyalists came to Canada and settled amongst a population of 90,000 French people. English Canada was built by the British who were defeated by the Americans, French and Quebecers at the
Battle of Yorktown.
The
American Revolutionary War was ultimately successful in winning the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. With the
Treaty of Paris (1783), the British would cede its territory south of the
Great Lakes to the new United States of America.
The English defeat at Yorktown 1781 Main article: Lower Canada Rebellion The Patriotes' Rebellion in Lower and Upper Canada After the rebellions,
Lord Durham was asked to undertake a study and prepare a
report on the matter and to offer a solution for the British Parliament to assess.
The final report recommended that the population of Lower Canada be assimilated. Following Durham's
Report, the British government merged the two colonial provinces into one
Province of Canada in 1840 with the Act of Union.
However, the political union proved contentious. Reformers in both Canada West (formerly Upper Canada) and Canada East (formerly Lower Canada) worked to repeal limitations on the use of the French language in the Legislature. The two colonies remained distinct in administration, election, and law.
In 1848, Baldwin and LaFontaine, allies and leaders of the Reformist party, obtained the grant (from
Lord Elgin) for responsible government and returned the French language to legal status in the Legislature.
Act of Union In the 1860s, the delegates from the colonies of
British North America (Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland) met in a series of conferences to discuss self-governing status for a new confederation.
The first
Charlottetown Conference took place in
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island followed by the
Quebec Conference in Quebec City which led to a delegation going to
London,
England to put forth the proposal for the national union.
As a result of those deliberations, in 1867 the
Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the
British North America Act, providing for the Confederation of most of these provinces.
The former
Province of Canada was divided into its two previous parts as the provinces of
Ontario (Upper Canada) and Quebec (Lower Canada).
New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia joined Ontario and Quebec in the new
Dominion of Canada.
Prince Edward Island joined in 1873 and the
Dominion of Newfoundland entered Confederation in 1949.
Canadian Confederation Main article: Quiet Revolution The "Quiet Revolution" Lévesque and his party had run in the 1970 and 1973 Quebec elections under a platform of separating Quebec from the rest of Canada. The party failed to win control of Quebec's National Assembly both times — though its share of the vote increased from 23% to 30% — and Lévesque himself was defeated both times in the
riding he contested. In the 1976 election, he softened his message by promising a referendum (plebiscite) on
sovereignty-association rather than outright separation, by which Quebec would have independence in most government functions but share some other ones, such as a common currency, with Canada. On November 15, 1976, Lévesque and the Parti Québécois won control of the provincial government for the first time. The question of
sovereignty-association was placed before the voters in the
1980 Quebec referendum. During the campaign,
Pierre Trudeau promised that a vote for the NO side was a vote for reforming Canada. Trudeau advocated the
patriation of Canada's Constitution from the
United Kingdom. The existing constitutional document, the
British North America Act, could only be amended by the
United Kingdom Parliament upon a request by the Canadian parliament.
Sixty percent of the Quebec electorate voted against the proposition. Polls showed that the overwhelming majority of English and immigrant Quebecers voted against, and that French Quebecers were almost equally divided, with older voters less in favour, and younger voters more in favour. After his loss in the referendum, Lévesque went back to Ottawa to start negotiating a new constitution with Trudeau, his minister of Justice
Jean Chrétien and the nine other provincial premiers. Lévesque insisted Quebec be able to veto any future constitutional amendments. The negotiations quickly reached a stand-still.
Then on the night of November 4, 1981 (widely known in Quebec as
La nuit des longs couteaux or the "Night of the Long Knives"'), Federal Justice Minister Jean Chretien met all the provincial premiers except
René Lévesque to sign the document that would eventually become the new Canadian constitution. The next morning, they put Lévesque in front of the "fait accompli." Lévesque refused to sign the document, and returned to Quebec. In 1982, Trudeau had the new constitution approved by the British Parliament, with Quebec's signature still missing (a situation that persists to this day). The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed Trudeau's assertion that every province's approval is not required to amend the constitution.
In subsequent years, two attempts were made to gain Quebec's approval of the constitution. The first was the
Meech Lake Accord of 1987, which was finally abandoned in 1990 when the provinces of
Manitoba and
Newfoundland refused to support it. This led to the formation of the sovereignist
Bloc Québécois party in
Ottawa under the leadership of
Lucien Bouchard, who had resigned from the federal cabinet. The second attempt, the
Charlottetown Accord of 1992, was rejected by 56.7% of all Canadians and 57% of Quebecers. This result caused a split in the
Quebec Liberal Party that led to the formation of the new
Action Démocratique (Democratic Action) party led by
Mario Dumont and Jean Allaire.
On October 30, 1995, with the
Parti Québécois back in power since 1994, a
second referendum on sovereignty took place. This time, it was rejected by a slim majority (50.6% NO to 49.4% YES); a clear majority of French-speaking Quebecers voted in favour of sovereignty.
The referendum was enshrouded in controversy. Federalists complained that an unusually high number of ballots had been rejected in pro-federalist areas, notably in the largely Jewish and Greek riding of Chomedey (11.7 % or 5,500 of its ballots were spoiled, compared to 750 or 1.7% in the general election of 1994) although Quebec's chief electoral officer found no evidence of outright fraud. The Government of Canada was accused of not respecting provincial laws with regard to spending during referendums (leading to a corruption scandal that would become public a decade later, greatly damaging the Liberal Party's standing), and to having accelerated the naturalization of immigrant people living in the province of Quebec (43,850 immigrants were naturalized in 1995, whereas the average number between 1988 and 1998 was 21,733).
The same night of the referendum, an angry
Jacques Parizeau, then premier and leader of the "Yes" side, declared that the loss was due to "
money and the ethnic vote". Parizeau resigned over public outrage and as per his commitment to do so in case of a loss.
Lucien Bouchard became Quebec's new premier in his place.
Federalists accused the sovereignist side of asking a vague, overly complicated question on the ballot. Its English text read as follows:
Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Québec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995? After winning the next election, Bouchard retired from politics in 2001.
Bernard Landry was then appointed leader of the
Parti Québécois and premier of Quebec. In 2003, Landry lost the election to the
Quebec Liberal Party and
Jean Charest. Landry stepped down as PQ leader in 2005, and in a crowded race for the party leadership,
André Boisclair was elected to succeed him. The PQ has promised to hold another referendum should it return to government.
Given the province's heritage and the preponderance of French (unique among the Canadian provinces), there is an ongoing debate in Canada regarding the status of Quebec and/or its people (wholly or partially). Prior attempts to amend the Canadian constitution to acknowledge Quebec as a '
distinct society' – referring to the province's uniqueness within Canada regarding law, language, and culture – have been unsuccessful; however, the federal government under
prime minister Jean Chrétien would later endorse recognition of Quebec as a distinct society. On
October 30,
2003, the National Assembly voted unanimously to affirm "that the Quebecers form a
nation". As only a motion of the House, it is not legally binding.
The Parti Québécois and constitutional crisis Main articles: Politics of Quebec and Monarchy in Quebec Administrative subdivisions The data are from the 2006 census of Canada.
[5] Population centres ¹These figures are adjusted to reflect boundary changes for the 2006 census.
²Where a metropolitan area straddles more than one administrative region, the region of the central municipality is given.
³These figures pertain to the part of the Ottawa-Gatineau census metropolitan area that is in Quebec. The total figures for the CMA, including the part in Ontario, are 1,130,761 (2006), 1,067,800 (2001).
Census metropolitan areas by population The municipalities of the Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan areas exceeding 50,000 in population in 2006 are given below with their
administrative regions in parentheses.
Montreal CMA:
The population of the Island of Montreal was 1,854,442.
Quebec CMA:
Ottawa-Gatineau CMA:
The population of
Ottawa, Ontario is 812,129.
Montreal (
Montréal), 1,620,693;
Laval (
Laval), 368,709;
Longueuil (
Montérégie), 229,330;
Terrebonne (
Lanaudière), 94,703;
Repentigny (
Lanaudière) 76,237;
Brossard (
Montérégie), 71,154;
Saint-Jérôme (
Laurentides), 63,729.
Quebec City (
Capitale-Nationale), 491,142;
Lévis (
Chaudière-Appalaches), 130,006.
Gatineau (
Outaouais), 242,124.
Major municipalities ¹These figures are adjusted to reflect boundary changes for the 2006 census.
²Where a census agglomeration straddles more than one administrative region, the region of the central municipality is given.
The municipalities of Quebec which are not part of a CMA or CA but which had populations exceeding 10,000 in 2006, with administrative regions in parentheses, are:
Gaspé (
Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine), 14,819;
Saint-Lin-Laurentides (
Lanaudière), 14,159;
Mont-Laurier (
Laurentides), 13,405;
Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine (
Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine), 12,560;
Sainte-Marie (
Chaudière-Appalaches), 11,584;
Montmagny (
Chaudière-Appalaches), 11,353;
Sainte-Adèle (
Laurentides), 10,634;
Roberval (
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean), 10,544;
Saint-Félicien (
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean), 10,477;
Sainte-Sophie (
Laurentides), 10,355;
Prévost (
Laurentides), 10,132;
Rawdon (
Lanaudière), 10,058.
Other census agglomerations Main article: Economy of Quebec Economy Main article: Culture of Quebec Culture Main article: Demographics of Quebec Demographics Source: Statistics Canada [9][10] Population of Quebec since 1851 The information regarding ethnicities at the right is from the
2001 Canadian Census. The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g., "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category "French" and the category "Canadian".) Groups with greater than 70,000 responses are included.
Ethnic origins Quebec is unique among the provinces in its overwhelmingly
Roman Catholic population. This is a legacy of colonial times; only Catholics were permitted to settle in the
New France colony.
90.2%
Christian
- 83.3% Roman Catholic
4.7% Protestant
1.4% Eastern Orthodox
0.8% other Christian
7.1% non-religious
1.5% Muslim
1.2% Jewish Religious groups
Main article: Demolinguistics of Quebec Language 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 licence plates.
The graphic emblem of Quebec is the
fleur-de-lis, usually white on a blue background, as on the
flag of Quebec, the
Fleurdelisé. As indicated on the government of Quebec's Web site, the flag recalls the French
Royal banner said to have accompanied the army of
General Montcalm, Marquis de Saint-Véran during the victorious
battle of Carillon in 1758. While the fleur-de-lis, a symbol of France's
Ancien Régime, may be thought of as "counter-revolutionary" in France today, it is a modern symbol in Quebec (which was never ruled by the French Republic) and is prominent in its
coat of arms.
The floral emblem of Quebec is the
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.
In addition to the other emblems, an insect emblem has been chosen by popular vote in October 1998 during a poll sponsored by the
Montreal Insectarium: The
White Admiral (
Limenitis arthemis)
[12] won with 32 % of the 230 660 votes. The butterfly was in competition with four other candidates: the Spotted
lady beetle (
Coleomegilla maculata lengi), the Ebony Jewelwing
damselfly (
Calopteryx maculata), a species of
bumble bee (
Bombus impatiens) and the six-spotted
tiger beetle (
Cicindela sexguttata sexguttata). The
Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs supports and finances actions to officially recognize the White Admiral as the insect emblem.
The patron saints of French Canada are
Saint Anne and
John the Baptist.
La Saint-Jean,
June 24, is Quebec's national day and has been officially called the
Fête nationale du Québec since 1977. The song "
Gens du pays" by
Gilles Vigneault is sometimes regarded as Quebec's unofficial anthem.
Symbols and emblems National Hockey League
- Montreal Canadiens
Canadian Football League
- Montreal Alouettes
Can-Am League
- Quebec Capitales
National Women's Hockey League
- Montreal Axion
Quebec Avalanche
United Soccer Leagues
- Montreal Impact Former sports teams
Cathedrals · Communities · County seats · Lieutenant Governors · Actors · Authors · Counties (historic) · County regional municipalities (current) · Premiers · Provincial highways · Regions · Universities · Quebecers · Airports · Quebec-related topics
Alliance Quebec
Anglo-Quebecer
Autoroute (Quebec) (Quebec's Autoroute system)
Canada
Charter of the French Language
Cinema of Quebec
Civil Code of Quebec
Civil unions in Quebec
Distinct society
Education in Quebec
État québécois
French in Canada
A few acres of snow
Irish Quebecer
Jews in Canada
List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
List of cities in Canada
Quebec lists:
- Cathedrals · Communities · County seats · Lieutenant Governors · Actors · Authors · Counties (historic) · County regional municipalities (current) · Premiers · Provincial highways · Regions · Universities · Quebecers · Airports · Quebec-related topics
Musicians of Quebec
National Assembly of Quebec
National Order of Quebec
New France
Office québécois de la langue française
Politics of Canada
Quebec French
Quebec general elections
Quebec sovereignty movement
Québécois
Same-sex marriage in Quebec
Scots-Quebecer
Scouting in Québec
Timeline of Quebec history
Lefthit
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