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Acadia

Acadia Acadie
Flag
Carte approximative de la définition la plus couramment acceptée de l'Acadie
Provinces	New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island
Cities	Bathurst, Caraquet, Campbellton, Clare, Dieppe, Shediac, Cap-Pelé, Memramcook, Edmundston, Moncton, Tracadie-Sheila, Bouctouche, Madawaska, Van Buren, Matapédia, Carleton-sur-Mer, Bonaventure, Cap-aux-Meules, Havre-Saint-Pierre
Area
• Total	30,000 ha (70,000 acres)
Population  (2021)
• Total	300,000
• Density	1,000/km2 (2,600/sq mi)
Demonym	Acadian

Acadia is a North American cultural region in the Maritime provinces of Canada where approximately 300,000 Acadians live and speak in French. Acadia is a region without clear borders, and it is usually considered to be the north and east of New Brunswick as well as a few isolated localities in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Some also include a few localities in Maine..

The present-day region of Acadia's name is based the historic colony of Acadia, a colony of New France which covered the Maritimes, and that was inhabited by Acadians until the Deportation of the Acadians. A few Acadians managed to escape the deportation by fleeing to the most rural parts of the old territory and re-settling there, which is mostly the North and East of New Brunswick today. Their descendants came to dominate these areas, leading to the emergence of modern day Acadia.

Acadia has always been a poor region for a variety of reasons. For example, after the British conquest, an test oath was put in place, preventing Catholics from voting or being a candidate. The Acadians were also firmly opposed to the Confederation of Canada, which would severely affect the local economy. Furthermore, the lands of Acadia are not very fertile, making them a poor choice for agriculture. In the 1960s, the Quiet Revolution took place, which modernized and secularized Acadia. This not only allowed the socio-economic standing of Acadians to improve, but also created a national identity for Acadians. Symbols and institutions were created, and a desire to protect Acadian culture and the French language emerged. Today, rural exodus, anglicization and the aging of the population influence the demography of Acadia.

Economy

Since 1961, Acadia's economic situation has improved compared to the Canadian average. Several factors explain this development, including increased access to post-secondary education, increased participation in the labor market and ultimately entrepreneurial dynamism. The traditional Acadian economy was rather socialist and encouraged cooperation, while the individualism that accompanies urbanization and modernization oriented entrepreneurs towards capitalism. This dynamism led to the development of a network of economic organizations, which increase the involvement of the population in government decisionsa. The rise of the welfare state has played a major role: income transfers represent 20% of total income among Acadians, against 16% among Anglophones. which above all makes it possible to support the service sectora. The development of public services allows the creation of many well-paid jobs in all regions. Support for the development of entrepreneurship, through programs such as Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, enables job creation.

Along with this progress is the persistence of a large development gap. This is explained, among other things, by the fact that the workforce is smaller than the Canadian average and the unemployment rate higher. Economic activity is very seasonal in several regions, in part because the manufacturing sector is focused on the transformation of natural resources. Employment therefore remains the main concern, causing strong opposition to the reform of some government programs, particularly in the fishing sector, where employment insurance allows workers to provide for their needs during periods of inactivity. Certain diversification projects have nonetheless aroused widespread opposition, such as the construction of a contaminated soil incinerator in Belledune.

Geography

Borders

Acadia is generally considered to be a territory comprising the French-speaking localities of the Atlantic provinces, in eastern Canada.

It is mainly this territory that this article deals with. For other localities and regions of the world associated with Acadia, please consult: Acadian diaspora

In its most common sense, Acadia is therefore made up, in NB, of a territory roughly shaped like a crescent comprising the north of Victoria County (Grand-Sault, Drummond), of Madawaska, Restigouche County, Gloucester County (Acadian Peninsula), eastern Northumberland County (Rogersville, Néguac, Baie-Sainte-Anne), Kent County and central Westmorland County (Beaubassin- East, Cap-Pelé, Dieppe, Memramcook, Moncton and Shediac); there are also significant minorities in Fredericton, Minto, Miramichi, Nackawic and Saint John. In NS, there are isolated communities in Antigonish County (Pomquet, Havre-Boucher and Tracadie), Guysborough County (Larry's River), Inverness County (Chéticamp region) and Richmond County (Isle Madame and environs) to the east, as well as the district municipalities of Clare (Baie-Sainte-Marie) and Argyle (Par-en-Bas) to the west; there is also a significant minority in Halifax, while Acadians are in the majority in the district of Chezzetcook. In PEI, the main communities are in Prince County (Tignish, Évangéline region, Miscouche), to the west. There are also Acadian populations in Queens County (Rustico) and Kings County (Souris). Finally, there are significant minorities in Summerside and Charlottetown. The Port-au-Port peninsula (Cap-Saint-Georges, La Grand'Terre, L'Anse-aux-Canards – Maisons-d'Hiver), west of NL, is the main Acadian community in this province; there is also a significant minority in St. John's and the rest of the Avalon Peninsula to the east10. Certain historic sites are also frequently associated with Acadia, such as Fort Beauséjour, the Fortress of Louisbourg, the habitation of Port-Royal, Île Sainte-Croix and Grand-Pré.

This vision of Acadia is in fact the third definition proposed by the geographer Adrien Bérubé in the 1970s in order to illustrate the territory of Acadia as well as its perception, which have evolved over the course of history; the other three definitions are historical Acadia - a larger territory that ceased to exist in 1763 -, genealogical Acadia - having welcomed refugees from the Deportation of the Acadians from 1755 - as well as prospective Acadia, the smaller, made up of communities in NB only, where the main population concentration is. The existence of the Acadian diaspora makes other definitions necessary: ​​Acadia du Nord thus refers to all localities in Canada and New England, while Acadia du Sud refers to Acadiana, in Louisiana. Acadia of lands and forests is a group of regions far from the sea, in NB, Maine and Quebec. Moreover, a “Cadie” or “Petite Cadie” is a city or region in Quebec where Acadians live. In Louisiana, "Cadie" is rather a synonym of Acadiana.

• 
  Pays du monde comprenant des communautés de l'Acadie généalogique.
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  Principales régions acadiennes et cadiennes en Amérique du Nord.
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  Carte de l'Acadie juste avant le début de la guerre de la Conquête.
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  Carte de l'Acadie en 1754 avant la déportation.
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  L'Acadie des Maritimes et les régions acadiennes limitrophes (Gaspésie, îles de la Madeleine et Maine).

Culture

Cuisine Detailed article: Acadian cuisine. A poutine with a hole.

Acadian cuisine evolved from old French cuisine but there are many other influences, particularly French Canadian, Native American and even German. There are in fact several regional cuisines. Most of the ingredients are available locally while some come from an ancient trade with the West Indies and Brazil, such as raisins, rice, brown sugar and molasses. Potatoes are the staple food and fish and seafood are very popular.

Folklore Detailed article: Acadian Folklore. Anselme Chiasson.

Before the 1900s, Acadian folklore was preserved and transmited well because of Acadia's relative isolation. Stories often focused around Christian dogma and traditions rooted in superstition. The devil especially was a common character. In the 20th century, Acadian culture experienced a renaissance of sorts. Acadian songs and stories became more popular, while also taking on more historical and familial themes. A good example is Évangéline which tells the story of two lovers seperated by the Deportation of the Acadians. Acadian folklore was somewhat despised by the elites of the Maritimes until the newspaper L'Évangéline published a column, written by Thomas Leblanc, on Acadian songs in 1939. Anselme Chiasson and Daniel Boudreau also published the collection Chansons d'Acadie between 1942 and 1956. Following this, foreign researchers became interested in Acadian folklore, soon followed by the Acadians themselves. The Université de Moncton has been offering classes on Acadian folklore since 1966 and its library Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson has a large collection on this subject. Laval University also has a collection. The folklore inspires many modern-day authors, including Antonine Maillet.

Partie 3

Amerindians and Inuits

Main article: Settlement of the Americas

The Laurentide ice sheet prevented migrants from populating Quebec.

During the last ice age, 20,000 years ago, nomads from Asia very gradually made their way to the Bering Strait, crossed it and reached America. From there, they and their descendants then populated the different regions of the continent. The first humans who established themselves on the lands of Quebec arrived there after the Laurentide ice sheet melted, roughly 11,000 years ago.

From the first people who settled on the lands of Quebec, various ethnocultural groups emerged. They can be grouped into eleven indigenous peoples: the Inuit and the ten Amerindian nations of the Abenakis, the Algonquins (or Anichinabés), the Attikameks, the Cree (or Eeyou), the Huron-Wendat, the Wolastoqiyik (or Etchemins), the Micmacs, the Mohawks (or Iroquois), the Innu (or Montagnais) and the Naskapis. In the past, other groups were also present, like the St. Lawrence Iroquoians.

European explorations

Main article: Exploration of North America

The first confirmed contact between pre-Columbian civilizations and European explorers occurred in the 10th century, when the Icelandic Viking Leif Erikson explored some of the coasts of Newfoundland, Baffin Island, Greenland and Labrador. From the 15th to 16th century, Basques, Bretons and Normans also occasionally traveled to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence to exploit the plentiful fish.

In the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire fell. For the Christian West, this made trade with the Far East, usually for things like spices and gold, more difficult because the regular sea route was now under the control of less cooperative Arab and Italian merchants. As such, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese, and then the English and French, began to search for a new sea route. One method involved trying to bypass Africa. But, since the Europeans knew that the Earth was round, a second method involved traveling continuously West to circle the Earth. At the time, the Old World was not aware of the continent of America's existence and that it would be blocking the way. As such, in 1492, the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus set sail West and became the first European explorer to discover America. Columbus' discovery became the cataclysm for the European exploration movement.

France eventually wanted to find out if there was a way to bypass North America and reach China, like Magellan had done with South America by traveling under Cape Horn. Therefore, King Francis I launched a maritime expedition in 1524, lead by Giovanni da Verrazzano, to search for the Northwest Passage. Though this expedition was unsuccessful, it established the name "New France" for Northeastern North America.

A depiction of Jacques Cartier by Théophile Hamel, 1844.

In his first expedition ordered from the Kingdom of France, Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover and map Quebec when he landed in Gaspé on July 24, 1534. The second expedition, in 1535, was bigger and now comprised 110 men on three ships: the Grande Hermine, the Petite Hermine and the Emérillon. That year, Jacques Cartier explored the lands of Stadaconé and decided to name the village and its surrounding territories Canada, because he had heard two young natives use the word kanata ("village" in Iroquois) to describe the location. 16-century European cartographers would quickly adopt this name. Cartier also wrote that he thought he had discovered large amounts of diamonds and gold, but this ended up only being quartz and pyrite. Then, by following what he called the Great River, he traveled West to the Lachine Rapids. There, navigation proved too dangerous for Cartier to continue his journey towards the goal: China. Cartier and his sailors had no choice but to return to Stadaconé and winter there. In the end, Cartier returned to France and took about 10 Native Americans, including the St. Lawrence Iroquoians chief Donnacona, with him. In 1540, Donnacona told the legend of the Kingdom of Saguenay to the King of France. This inspired the king to order a third expedition, this time led by Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval and with the goal of finding the Kingdom of Saguenay. But, it was unsuccessful.

After these expeditions, France mostly abandoned the idea of ​​America for 50 years because of its financial crisis; France was at war with Italy and there were religious wars between Protestants and Catholics.

Around 1580, France became interested in America again, because the fur trade had become important in Europe. France returned to America looking for a specific animal: the beaver. As New France was full of beavers, it became a colonial-trading post where the main activity was the fur trade in the Pays-d'en-Haut. When French traders sold beaver furs, which were either caught by them or traded with Native Americans, they earned a lot of money because these furs would be made into felt hats and coats and purchased by the bourgoisie. In 1600, Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit founded the first permanent trading post in Tadoussac for expeditions carried out in the Domaine du Roy.

In 1603, on Pointe Saint-Mathieu, Samuel de Champlain established a defense pact with the Innu, Wolastoqiyik and Micmacs, that would be "a decisive factor in the maintenance of a French colonial enterprise in America despite an enormous numerical disadvantage vis-à-vis the British colonization in the South". Thus also began French military support to the Algonquian and Huron peoples in defense against Iroquois attacks and invasions. These Iroquois attacks would become known as the Beaver Wars and would last from the early 1600s to the early 1700s.

Creation and development of trading posts (1608-1663)

Algonquins attack an Iroquois fort in 1609 with the help of Samuel de Champlain.

In 1612, the Compagnie de Rouen received the royal mandate to manage the operations of New France and the fur trade. In 1621, they were replaced by the Compagnie de Montmorency. Then, in 1627, they were substituted by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés. Shortly after being appointed, the Compagnie des Cent-Associés introduced the Custom of Paris and the seigneurial system to New France.

In 1629, during the Anglo-French War, the Québec habitation surrendered to the British. However, the habitation was returned to France following the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1632. In 1634, Sieur de Laviolette founded the government of Trois-Rivières at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice river. In 1635, at Québec, Jesuits opened the Collège des Jésuites. In 1639, the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec was founded and the Ursulines opened a girls' college. In 1642, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve founded the government of Montreal (called Ville-Marie at the time) on Pointe-à-Callière. He chose to found Montreal on an island so that the settlement could be naturally protected against Iroquois invasions. In 1657, Marguerite Bourgeoys founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame and established the first girls' school in Montreal.

Many heroes of New France come from this period, such as Dollard des Ormeaux, Guillaume Couture, Madeleine de Verchères and the Canadian martyrs.

Royal province (1663-1760)

In 1663, King Louis XIV officially made New France into a royal province of France. New France would now be a true colony administered by the Sovereign Council of New France from Québec, and which functioned off triangular trade. A governor-general, assisted by the intendant and the bishop of Quebec, would govern Canada (Montreal, Québec, Trois-Rivières and the Pays-d'en-Haut) and its administrative dependencies: Acadia, Louisiana and Plaisance.

Between 1663 and 1673, King Louis XIV sponsored a program which sent 770 Filles du Roy to New France. This was to fix the gender imbalance in the colony (as there were more men than women) and boost population growth. In 1665, the Carignan-Salières regiment developed the Vallée des Forts ("Valley of Forts") to protect against Iroquois invasions and brought along with them 1,200 new men from Dauphiné, Liguria, Piedmont and Savoy. In 1666, intendant Jean Talon organized the first census of the colony and counted 3,215 habitants. Talon also enacted policies to diversify agriculture and encourage births, which, in 1672, had increased the population to 6,700 habitants.

In 1686, the Chevalier de Troyes and the Troupes de la Marine seized three forts the Kingdom of England had erected on the lands explored by Charles Albanel in 1671 near Hudson Bay. In the south, Cavelier de La Salle took for France lands discovered by Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673 along the Mississippi River. From then on, the colony of New France's territory grew to extend from Hudson Bay all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, and would also encompass the Great Lakes.

Governor Frontenac speaking with the Governor of Massachusetts at the Battle of Quebec, in 1690.

In the early 1700s, Governor Callières concluded the Great Peace of Montreal which not only confirmed the alliance between the Algonquian peoples and New France, but also definitively ended the Beaver Wars. In 1701, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founded the district of Louisiana at Biloxi, an administrative headquarter that was later moved to Mobile, and then to New Orleans. In 1738, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, extended New France to Lake Winnipeg, while in 1742, his voyageur sons, François and Louis-Joseph, crossed the Great Plains and discovered the Rocky Mountains.

From 1688 onwards, the fierce competition between the French Empire and British Empire to try to take control of North America's interior and monopolize the fur trade pitted New France and the vast majority of Amerindians against New England in a series of 4 successive wars between 1688 and 1763 called the French and Indian Wars ("Intercolonial wars" in Quebec). The first 3 of these wars were King William's War (1688-1697), Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), and King George's War (1744-1748). Many notable battles and exchanges of land took place. In 1690, the Battle of Quebec became the first time Québec's defenses were tested. In 1713, following the Peace of Utrecht, the Duke of Orléans ceded Acadia and Plaisance Bay to the Kingdom of Great Britain, but retained Île Saint-Jean and Île-Royale, where the Fortress of Louisbourg was subsequently erected. These losses were significant since Plaisance Bay was the primary communication route between New France and France, and Acadia contained 5,000 Acadians. In the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, the British were victorious, but returned the city to France after war concessions.

Conquest of New France (1754-1763)

Main article: Conquest of New France (1758–1760)

See also: Battle of the Plains of Abraham and Deportation of the Acadians

The last of the 4 French and Indian Wars was called The French and Indian War ("The War of the Conquest" in Quebec) and lasted from 1754 to 1760. It was a part of the Seven Years' War. In 1754, tensions between the French and English for control of the Ohio Valley, an area coveted by British fur trade companies, escalated into the first battle: the Jumonville affair. Canadian forces were pitted against the colony of Virginia at Fort Duquesne. In 1755, the first batch of new French soldiers arrived, commanded by Jean-Armand Dieskau. The latter would go on to fight in the Battle of Lake George, but would be wounded and taken prisoner. Also in 1755, the forceful Deportation of the Acadians was ordered by the Governor Charles Lawrence and Officer Robert Monckton. Most Acadians would be separated from loved ones and some would be left to drown at sea. In 1756, Lieutenant General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm arrived in New France with 3,000 men as reinforcements.

Montcalm leading his troops into battle. Watercolour by Charles William Jefferys.

In 1758, on Île-Royale, British General James Wolfe besieged and captured the Fortress of Louisbourg. This allowed him to control access to the Gulf of St. Lawrence through the Cabot Strait. In 1759, he besieged Québec for nearly three months from Île d'Orléans. Then, Wolfe and his men stormed Québec and fought against French Lieutenant General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and his men for control of the city in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Both Montcalm and Wolfe died from the battle. The British won on September 13, 1759. Five days later, the king's lieutenant and Lord of Ramezay concluded the Articles of Capitulation of Quebec.

During the spring of 1760, the Chevalier de Lévis, armed with a new garrison from Ville-Marie, besieged Québec and forced the British to entrench themselves during the Battle of Sainte-Foy. However, the loss of the French vessels sent to support and resupply New France after the fall of Québec during the Battle of Restigouche marked the end of France's efforts to try to retake the colony. Then, after the British captured Trois-Rivières, Governor Vaudreuil signed the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal on September 8, 1760.

While awaiting the results of the Seven Years' War, the rest of which was taking place in Europe, New France was put under a British military regime led by Governor James Murray. The regime remained from 1760 to 1763. In 1792, Commander Jeffery Amherst ended the French presence in Newfoundland at the Battle of Signal Hill. Two months later, France ceded the western part of Louisiana and the Mississippi River Delta to the Kingdom of Spain via the Treaty of Fontainebleau in an attempt to curb British expansion towards the west of the continent. The only territory France would retain from its time in North America up to today are the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris concluded the Seven Years' War and ceded Canada to the Kingdom of Great Britain in exchange for Guadeloupe. Thus, France had put an end to New France and abandoned the remaining 60,000 Canadians who, as a result, sided with the Catholic clergy, refusing to take an oath to the British Crown.

The rupture from France would provoke a transformation within the descendants of the French colonials that would eventually result in the birth of a new nation whose development and culture would be founded upon, among other things, ancestral foundations anchored in Northeastern America. This is referenced in O Canada with the passage: “terre de nos aïeux”. What British Commissioner John George Lambton (Lord Durham) would describe in his 1839 report would be the kind of dynamic that would reign between the "Two Solitudes" of Canada for a long time: "I found two nations at war within one state; I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races”. Incoming British immigrants would find that Canadians were as full of national pride as they were, and while these newcomers would see the American territories as a vast ground for colonization and speculation, the Canadians would regard the province of Quebec as the heritage of their own race - not as a country to colonize, but as a country already colonized.

Province of Quebec (1763-1791)

Main article: Province of Quebec (1763–1791)

The Province of Quebec in 1774.

After their official acquisition of Canada in 1763, the King George III reorganized the constitution of Canada using the Royal Proclamation on October 7th. From this point on, the Canadian community was subordinated to the government of the British Empire and circumscribed to a region of St. Lawrence valley called the Province of Quebec. Canadians were not happy with British rule. Likewise, during the Pontiac Rebellion of 1763, the Amerindian peoples jointly fought against the new order established by the British, and the Boston Tea Party of 1773 marked the culmination of protest movements in the British American colonies.

The British eventually became worried about the American Revolution that was being organized in the British American colonies. To encourage Canadians to become loyal to the British Crown -so they would not rebel too- Governor Guy Carleton replaced the Royal Proclamation of 1763 with the Quebec Act of 1774. This act allowed Canadians to regain their civil customs, return to the seigneural system and regain certain rights including the use of the French language as well as the reappropriation of their old territories: Labrador, the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, Illinois Country and the Indian Territory. However, the oath of abjuration to the Catholic faith was replaced by an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. The Council for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec was established to admit Canadians - that is to say faithful Catholics - to civil and governmental functions. It should also be noted that women had the same voting rights as men during this period, with them also being required to be landowners.

As early as 1774, the Continental Congress of the separatist Thirteen Colonies attempted to rally the Canadians to its cause. However, its military troops failed to defeat the British counteroffensive during its Invasion of Quebec in 1775. When it came to the idea of rebelling against the British, most Canadians were neutral, although some patriotic regiments allied themselves with the American revolutionaries in the Saratoga campaign of 1777. When the British Empire recognized the independence of the rebel colonies at the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, it conceded Illinois and the Ohio Valley to the newly formed United States and denoted the 45th parallel as the seperation between the British Empire and the US. This drastically reduced the Province of Quebec's size; its southwest borders now ended at the Great Lakes. Then, United Empire Loyalists migrated to the Province of Quebec and populated various regions, including the Niagara Peninsula, the Eastern Townships and Thousand Islands.

Lower Canada and Lower Canada Rebellion (1791-1840)

Main articles: Lower Canada and Lower Canada Rebellion

Dissatisfied with the many rights granted to Canadians, the immigrant loyalists from the United States protested until they successfully enacted the Constitutional Act of 1791 which divided the Province of Quebec into two distinct colonies starting from the Ottawa River: Upper Canada to the west (predominantly Anglo-Protestant) and Lower Canada to the east (predominantly Franco-Catholic). Each colony had a parliamentary system based on the principles of the Westminster system.

A drawing of a village in Lower Canada, by Robert Mountain.

In 1813, Beauport-native Charles-Michel de Salaberry became a hero by leading the Canadian troops to victory at the Battle of Chateauguay, during the War of 1812. In this battle, 300 Voltigeurs and 22 Amerindians successfully pushed back a force of 7000 Americans. This loss caused the Americans to abandon the Saint Lawrence Campaign, their major strategic effort to take Canada.

Gradually, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, who represented the people, came more and more into conflict with the superior authority of the Crown and its appointed representatives. Starting from 1791, the government of Lower Canada was criticized and contested by the Canadian party. In 1834, the Canadian party presented its 92 resolutions, a series of political demands which expressed a genuine loss of confidence in the British monarchy. London refused to consider these and, in response, submitted Russell's 10 resolutions. Discontentment intensified throughout the public meetings of 1837, sometimes being lead by tribunes like Louis-Joseph Papineau. Despite opposition from ecclesiastics, for example Jean-Jacques Lartigue, the Rebellion of the Patriotes began in 1837.

The Battle of Saint-Eustache, December 1837.

Following the British's defeat of the Patriotes, the Catholic clergy recovered their moral authority among the people and preached for the cohesion and development of the nation in the fields of education, health and civil society.

As access to new lands remained problematic because they were still monopolized by the Clique du Château, an exodus of Canadians towards New England began and went on for the next one hundred years. This phenomenon is known as the Grande Hémorragie and greatly threatened the survival of the Canadian nation. The massive British immigration ordered from London that soon followed the failed rebellion would only serve to further compound this problem. In order to combat this, the Church consequently adopted the revenge of the cradle policy.

Province of Canada (1840-1867)

Main article: Province of Canada

In his Report on the Affairs of British North America, Lord Durham recommended that Canadians be culturally assimilated, with English as their only official language. In order to do this, the British passed the Act of Union of 1840, which merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a single colony: the Province of Canada. Lower Canada became the francophone and densely populated Canada East, and Upper Canada became the anglophone and sparsely populated Canada West. This union, unsurprisingly, was the main source of political instability until 1867. The differences between the two cultural groups of the Province of Canada made it impossible to govern without forming coalition governments. Furthermore, despite their population gap, both Canada East and Canada West obtained an identical number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. In the wake of the massive immigration from the British Isles ordered by London, Canada West's population increased and the region got more seats, making it even more overrepresented. The under-represented political weight of Canada East was quickly called into question by the debates on Rep by Pop. In 1844, the capital of the Province of Canada was moved from Kingston to Montreal.

A map of Canada East and New Brunswick in 1855.

In this period, the mass of immigrants from the British Isles decided to no longer refer to themselves as English or British, and instead appropriated the term "Canadian", refering to Canada, their place of residence. The “Old Canadians” responded to this appropriation of identity by henceforth identifying with their ethnic community, under the name "French Canadian". As such, the terms French Canadian and English Canadian were born. French Canadian writers began to reflect on the survival of their own. François-Xavier Garneau wrote an influencial national epic, and wrote to Lord Elgin: “I have undertaken this work with the aim of re-establishing the truth so often disfigured, and of repelling the attacks and insults which my compatriots have been and still are the daily target of, from men who would like to oppress and exploit them all at every opportunity. I thought the best way to achieve this was to simply expose their story”. His and other written works allowed French Canadians to preserve their collective consciousness and to protect themselves from assimilation, much like works like Evangeline had done for Acadians roughly around the same time.

Political unrest came to a head in 1849, when English Canadian rioters set fire to the Parliament Building in Montreal following the enactment of the Rebellion Losses Bill, a law that compensated French Canadians whose properties were destroyed during the rebellions of 1837-1838. This bill, resulting from the Baldwin-La Fontaine coalition, was a very important one as it established the notion of responsible government. In 1854, the seigneurial system was abolished, the Grand Trunk Railway was built and the Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty was implemented. In 1866, the Civil Code of Lower Canada was adopted. Then, the long period of political impasse that was the Province of Canada came to a close as the Macdonald-Cartier coalition began to reform the political system.

Confederation

Main article: Confederation of Canada

George-Étienne Cartier, creator of the Quebec state and premier of Canada East.

On July 1 1867, negotiations took place for a confederation between the colonies of the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This lead to the British North America Act, which created the Dominion of Canada and its four founding provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. These last two came from the splitting of the Province of Canada, and used the old borders of Lower Canada for Quebec, and Upper Canada for Ontario. This federal system, whose Constitution was founded on the same principles as that of the United Kingdom, defined the fundamental distribution of legislative powers between the Parliament of Canada and the provincial assemblies. Each of these new provinces was thus guaranteed sovereign authority in the sphere of its legislative powers. The Liberal Party of Quebec was also born in 1867, and traces its origin to the Patriote Party and Red Party of Lower Canada.

After having fought as a Patriote at the Battle of Saint-Denis in 1837, George-Étienne Cartier joined the ranks of the Fathers of Confederation and had the 72 resolutions of the Quebec Conference of 1864 approved for the establishment of a federated state -Quebec- whose territory was to be limited to the region which corresponded to the historic heart of the French Canadian nation and where French Canadians were sure to retain majority status. In the future, Quebec as a political entity would act as a form of protection against cultural assimilation and would serve as a vehicle for the national affirmation of the French-Canadian collective to the face of a Canadian state that would, over time, become dominated by Anglo-American culture. Despite this, “the imperatives of the new political regime were, however, going to reveal great obstacles to the assertion of Quebec and its Parliament. The political class of Quebec would discover that the political power given to the provinces would be restricted in this new system. Quebec, economically weakened, would have to face political competition from Ottawa, the capital of the strongly centralizing federal state”.

Ultramontaine clericalism and French-Canadian nationalism (1867-1914)

In this time period, the omnipresence of the Church was at its peak. The objective of clerico-nationalists consisted of promoting the values ​​of traditional society: family, the French language, the Catholic Church and rural life. These values were the main ones upon which the French-Canadian nation's survival was based. They continued to be shared, in particular, by Roman du terroir novels and Abbé Gadbois' song La Bonne Chanson. Though the Church was well regarded, it did sometimes have deviants of the ecclesial order to contain. A good example are the Montreal cabarets who defied Prohibition.

Ignace Bourget, bishop of Montreal and ultramontanist leader.

Also during this time period, events such as the North-West Rebellion of 1885, the Manitoba Schools Question in 1896 and Ontario's Regulation 17 in 1917, turned the promotion and defense of the rights of French Canadians into an important concern. Under the aegis of the Catholic Church and the political action of Henri Bourassa, various symbols of national pride were developed, like the Carillon Sacré-Cœur and O Canada - a patriotic song composed for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. Many organizations would go on to consecrate the affirmation of the French-Canadian people, including the cooperative movement of the caisses populaires Desjardins in 1900, the Catholic Association of French-Canadian Youth in 1904, the Club de Hockey Canadien (CH) in 1909, Le Devoir in 1910, the Congrès de la langue française in 1912, the League of the rights of French in 1913, L'Action catholique in 1915, L'Action nationale in 1917, the Order of Jacques-Cartier in 1926, Jeune-Canada in 1932, the Union nationale in 1935, the Bloc populaire in 1942, etc.

On July 15 1867, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau became Quebec's first Premier. In 1868, he created the Ministry of Public Instruction which was quickly denounced by the clergy. As such, in 1875, Boucherville abolished the Ministry and the 1867 system was restored. In 1876, Pierre-Alexis Tremblay was defeated in a federal by-election because of pressure from the Church on voters, but succeeded in getting his loss annuled with the help of a new federal law. He quickly lost the subsequent election. In 1877, the Pope sent representatives to force the Quebecois Church to minimize its interventions in the electoral process. At the time, the religious (ex. nuns, priests, etc.) represented 48% of teachers in Catholic schools.

As Montreal was the financial center of Canada during this era, it was the first Canadian city to implement new innovations, like electricity, streetcars and radio. In 1885, liberal and conservative MPs formed the Parti national out of anger with the previous government for not having interceded in the execution of Louis Riel following the North West Rebellion. They then proposed a series of unsuccessful republican reforms that supported economic nationalism and public education. Then, in 1905, Lomer Gouin's government undertook a series of similar but more modest reforms that were more succesful, including the creation of a few state schools like HEC Montreal. In 1899, Henri Bourassa vigorously opposed the British government's request for Canada to join the Second Boer War. This would sow the seeds for the future conscription protests of the World Wars.

In 1909, the government passed a law obligating wood and pulp to be transformed in Quebec. This helped slow the Grande Hémorragie by allowing Quebec to export its finished products to the US instead of its labour force. Afterwards, in 1910, Armand Lavergne passed the Loi Lavergne, the first language legislation in Quebec. It required the use of French alongside English on tickets, documents, bills and contracts issued by transportation and public utility companies. At this point in time, companies rarely recognized the majority language of Quebec. Clerico-nationalists eventually started to fall out of favour in the federal elections of 1911.

World Wars (1914-1945)

Main articles: Conscription Crisis of 1917 and Conscription Crisis of 1944

See also: Canada in WWI and Canada in WWII

During World War I, many Canadians voluntarily enlisted to fight. However, most of them were English Canadians. Unlike English Canadians, who felt a connection to the British Empire, French Canadians felt no connection to anyone in Europe. Furthermore, Canada was not threatened by the enemy, who was an ocean away and uninterested in conquering Canada. So, French Canadians saw no reason to fight. Nevertheless, a few French Canadians did enlist in the 22nd Battalion - precursor to the Royal 22e Regiment. By late 1916, the horrific number of casualties were beginning to cause reinforcement problems. After enormous difficulty in the federal government, because virtually every French-speaking MP opposed conscription while almost all the English-speaking MPs supported it, the Military Service Act became law on August 29th 1917. French Canadians protested in what is now called the Conscription Crisis of 1917. The conscription protests grew so much that they eventually led to the Quebec riot of 1918.

Following the Balfour declaration at the Imperial Conference of 1926, the Statute of Westminster of 1931 was enacted and it confirmed the autonomy of the Dominions - including Canada and its provinces - from the United Kingdom, as well as their free associaton in the Commonwealth.

When World War II came around, French Canadians would still be against conscription for the same reasons as last time. When Canada declared war in September 1939, the federal government pledged not to conscript soldiers for overseas service. As the war went on, more and more English Canadians voiced support for conscription, despite firm opposition from French Canada. Following a poll on April 27 1942 that showed 72,9% of Quebec's residents were against conscription, while 80% or more were for conscription in every single other province, the federal government passed Bill 80 for overseas service, then enacted it. Protests exploded and the Bloc Populaire emerged to fight conscription until the end of the war. The stark difference between the values of French Canada and English Canada popularized the expression the "Two Solitudes". Soldier Léo Major became a hero after he liberated the city of Zwolle from the Nazis by himself in 1945.

In response to the previous government led by Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, a dissident wing of the Liberal Party of Quebec formed the Action libérale nationale, which then allied with the Conservative Party of Quebec to form the Union Nationale. The Union Nationale leader, Maurice Duplessis, was in power from 1936 to 1939. In 1937, he adopted the Padlock Law, considered unconstitutional, in order to counter syndicalism and communism. Despite this, the following Adélard Godbout-led government of 1939 to 1944 gave workers the right to unionize and women the right to vote in 1940.

Grande Noirceur (1944-1959)

Main article: Grande Noirceur

Maurice Duplessis, premier of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and during the Grande Noirceur.

In the wake of the 1944 conscription crisis, Maurice Duplessis returned to power until 1959. He focused on defending provincial autonomy, Quebec's catholic and francophone heritage, and laissez-faire liberalism instead of the emerging welfare state.

However, as early as 1948, French-Canadian society began to develop new ideologies and desires. This is because many big changes in society were happening simultaneously, for example the: television, baby boomers, workers' conflicts, electrification of the countryside, refrigerator, emergence of a middle class, rural exodus, expansion of universities and bureaucracies, birth of a new intelligentsia, creation of a motorway system, renaissance of litterature and poetry, urbanization, etc... New ideas would sometimes be shared in publications like the Refus global or the Cité Libre before becoming mainstream.

The more French Canadian society was shaken by social change, the more the traditional elites - grouped around clerical circles and the figure of Duplessis - reflexively hardened their conservative and French-Canadian nationalism. Over time, the people became discontent.

Quiet Revolution (1960-1980)

Main article: Quiet Revolution

See also: Quebec nationalism and Quebec sovereignty movement

The Quiet Revolution was a period of intense modernization, declaricalization and social reform where, in a collective awakening, French Canadians clearly expressed their concern and dissatisfaction with the inferior socioeconomic position French-speaking Canadians had been forced to occupy in Canada, and with the cultural assimilation of francophone minorities in the English-majority provinces. It resulted, among many other things, in the formation of the modern Québécois identity and Québécois nation.

In 1960, the Liberal Party of Quebec was brought to power with a two-seat majority, having campaigned with the slogan “C'est l'temps qu'ça change” ("Its time for things to change"). This new Jean Lesage government had in it the "team of thunder": René Lévesque, Paul Gérin-Lajoie, Georges-Émile Lapalme and Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain. This government made many reforms in the fields of social policy, education, health and economic development. It also created the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Labour Code, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Education, Office québécois de la langue française, Régie des rentes and Société générale de financement.

"Maîtres chez nous" was the electoral slogan of the Liberal Party of Quebec during the 1962 Québécois elections.

The Quiet Revolution was particularly characterized by the 1962 Liberal Party's slogan of "Maîtres chez nous" ("Masters of our home"), which, in front of the stranglehold of the Anglo-American conglomerates on the economy and natural resources of Quebec, announced a collective will for freedom of the French-Canadian people. In 1962, the government of Quebec nationalized its electricity and dismanteled the financial syndicates of Saint Jacques Street.

Confrontations between the lower clergy and the laity began. As a result, state institutions began to be declericalized and deconfessionalized, and many parts of civil society began to be desacralized. During the Second Vatican Council, the reform of Quebec's institutions was overseen and supported by the Holy See. In 1963, Pope John XXIII proclaimed the encyclical Pacem in Terris establishing human rights. Then, in 1964, the Lumen Gentium confirmed that the laity had a particular role in the “management of temporal things”.

In 1965, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism wrote a preliminary report underlining Quebec's distinct character, and promoted open federalism, a political attitude guaranteeing Quebec to a minimum amount of consideration(s). To favour Quebec during its Quiet Revolution, Canada, through Lester B. Pearson, adopted a policy of open federalism. In 1966, the Union Nationale was re-elected and continued on with major reforms.

In 1967, for the first time since the Conquest, a French head of state named Charles de Gaulle visited Quebec in order to attend Expo 67 in Montreal. There, he adressed a crowd of more than 100,000 Québécois, making a speech and ending it with the exclamation: "Vive le Québec Libre!" ("Long live free Quebec"). This declaration had a profound effect on Quebec by bolstering the burgeoning modern Quebec sovereignty movement and resulting in a political crisis between France and Canada. Following this, various civilian groups developed and acted, sometimes to the point of confronting public authority, for example, the October crisis of 1970. The meetings of the Estates General of French Canada of November 1967 marked a tipping point where relations between francophones of America, and especially francophones of Canada, would rupture. This breakdown would greatly affect Québécois society's evolution moving forward (as well as the ones of other francophones).

René Lévesque, one of the architects of the Quiet Revolution, and the Premier of Quebec's first modern sovereignist government.

In 1968, class conflicts and changes in mentalities intensified. That year, Option Quebec sparked a constitutional debate on the political future of the province by pitting federalist and sovereignist doctrines against eachother and talking about the cultural and social emancipation of the Quebec and French-Canadian political entities. In the 1970s, Quebec abandoned the word "province" to describe itself for the word "state" (see State of Quebec). In 1973, the liberal government of Robert Bourassa initiated the James Bay Project on La Grande River. In 1974, it enacted Bill 22, which made French the official language of Quebec. In 1975, it established the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. In 1976, the Summer Olympics took place in Montreal. In the same vein, between 1964 and 1979, the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup every single season, except for the 1974-1975 period.

Quebec's first modern sovereignist government, led by René Lévesque, materialized when the Parti Québécois was brought to power in the 1976 Quebec general election. The Charter of the French Language came into force the following year, strengthening the linguistic rights of Quebecois, most notably at work and concerning signage. Before then, Quebec was the only province to de facto practice institutional English-French bilinguilism.

Debate over sovereignity (1980-present)

Main articles: 1980 Quebec referendum and 1995 Quebec referendum

See also: Kitchen Accord, Meech Lake Accord, and Charlottetown Accord

Between 1966 and 1969, the Estates General of French Canada confirmed the state of Quebec to be the nation's fundamental political milieu and for it to have the right to self-determination.

In the 1980 referendum, Québécois voted against the option of sovereignty-association, as proposed by the Parti Québécois.

On the night of November 4th 1981, an event called the Kitchen Accord ("Night of Long Knives" in French) took place. Constitutional negotiations were being discussed between the 10 Premiers and the Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, but, since they did not satisfy Quebec Premier René Levesque, he left to sleep in his hotel room in Hull. Since the other 9 Premiers remained, Pierre Trudeau used this opportunity to get his constitutional law approved by the other Premiers behind René Levesque's back. Because of this corrupt behaviour, the National Assembly of Quebec refused to expressly recognize the new Constitutional Act of 1982, which repatriated the Canadian constitution and made numerous modifications to it. Today, Quebec is still subservient to this 1982 constitution despite never having officially consented in any way. Between 1982 to 1990, the Quebecois government's attitude changed to prioritize reforming the federation, a behaviour described by René Lévesque as a Beau risque ("Beautiful risk").

Unfortunately, the following attempts at constitutional ratifications by the Mulroney and Bourassa governments ended in failure, including with both the Meech Lake Accord of 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord of 1992. After these failed attempts, Daniel Johnson of the Liberal Party of Quebec briefly seized power as the 25th Premier of Quebec in 1994. He then quickly lost the following election, which established Jacques Parizeau as the new Premier.

In 1995, in a political spirit influenced by the Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec, Jacques Parizeau and his government called a second referendum on Quebec sovereignty. This consultation ended in failure for sovereignists, and therefore in the maintenance of the province within the federation, though the final outcome was very close: 50.6% NO and 49.4% YES. Data shows that francophones voted 60% YES, while anglophones and immigrants voted 95% NO. The victory of the NO camp was led by Daniel Johnson.

In 1998, following the Supreme Court of Canada's decision on the reference relating to the secession of Quebec, the Parliaments of Canada and Quebec defined the legal frameworks within which their respective governments would act concerning another referendum. In 2004, the illegals donations to Option Canada from the federal government to skew the 1995 referendums results towards the NO vote were discovered. The sponsorship scandal (1996-2004), an operation run by the federal government, was also discovered. These acts of corruption briefly revived the sovereignist option in 2005 over the 50% YES threshold, according to some polls carried out at the time.

In March 2007, the Parti Québécois was pushed back to official opposition in the National Assembly, with the Liberal party leading. During the 2011 Canadian federal elections, the people of Quebec rejected the sovereignist Bloc Quebecois in favour of the federalist and previously minor New Democratic Party (NDP). It is thought that this occured mostly because of dissatisfaction with the Bloc. As the NDP's logo is orange, this event was called the "orange wave". After three subsequent Liberal governments, the Parti Québécois regained power in 2012 and its leader, Pauline Marois, became the first female Premier of Quebec. The Liberal Party of Quebec then returned to power in April 2014.

In 2018, the Coalition Avenir Québec, a then 7 year old political party led by François Legault, won the provincial general elections, obtaining a majority of seats in the National Assembly. Between 2020 and 2021, Quebec took measures to protect itself against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Partie 2

Private land

Private land makes up about 8% of Quebec's territory. The records of land ownership are kept in the registre foncier. The lands are divided into 1,606 cadastres (townships).

Since the abolition of the seigneurial system of New France in 1854, full ownership has been limited only by the public powers of escheat, expropriation for the common good, police, taxation, or by the commitments of the owner.

"Since 1966, no proclamation has been issued with the effect of creating new townships, even though there still remains vast areas of Quebec which have not been divided into seigneuries or townships. Today, its no longer so much a question of opening up new regions to colonization, but rather, a matter of responding to the very specific needs of State managers."

Public land

One of Quebec's many national parks: the Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé National Park.

The public lands of Quebec, also called lands of the State or Crown lands, are a vast expanse of public land which cover approximately 92% of the Québécois territory, including almost all of the bodies of water (21% of the total area). Information and records about these lands are kept in the Registre du domaine de l'État, though before 2005, they were kept in the Terrier du Québec. While all of these lands are owned by the Québécois state, they can be administered by a variety of entities, including the Ministère du développement Durable, the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et Faune, or the federal government of Canada, among others.

Protected areas are a type of public land and can be classified into about twenty different legal designations (ex. exceptional forest ecosystem, protected marine environment, national park, biodiversity reserve, wildlife reserve, zone d’exploitation contrôlée (ZEC), etc.). More than 2,500 sites in Quebec today are protected areas. As of 2013, the protected areas of Quebec are 9.14% of the Québécois territory. The origins of the lands of the State can be traced back to New France. Back then, all lands not divided into seigneuries and given to settlers were considered Crown land.

Amerindian and Inuit land

The following table shows the traditional territories of the Amerindian and Inuit peoples who live on the Québécois territory in the basins of the St. Lawrence Valley and James Bay, as well as on the Labrador peninsula.

Map of the traditional territory and co-territorial area of the Abenakis, which overlaps between Quebec and Massachussets.

Traditional territories of the different indigenous peoples of Quebec

Groups	Sub-groups	Name of territory	Territorial division	Other names for territory
Ojibwe		Anishinaabewaki	Osogonek	Anishinaabe Ahiki
	Algonquins	Osogonek
Attikameks		Kitaskino		Nehirowisi Aski / Nitaskinan
Iroquois confederation		Haudenosauneega	Kanienkeh	Aquanishuonigy
	Mohawks	Kanienkeh
Wabanaki confederation		Wabanaki	***
	Abenaki	Ndakinna		N'dakina
	Maliseet	Wolastokuk
	Micmacs	Mi'kma'ki		Migmagi
Cree		Eeyou Istchee
Hurons-Wendats		Wendake
Innu-Montagnais		Nitassinan	Innu Assi
Inuits		Inuit Nunangat	Nunavik
	Nunavimmiutitut	Nunavik
Naskapis		Nutshimiu-Aschiiy		Nuchimiiyu - chhiiy

Public policies

National policy

Main article: Quebec nationalism

Quebec's national policy covers all areas relating to the Quebec nation. It establishes the values and foundations on which Quebec society bases its cohesion and its specificity. The Québécois constitution is enshrined in a series of social and cultural traditions that are defined in a set of judicial judgments and legislative documents, including the Loi sur l’Assemblée Nationale ("Law on the National Assembly"), the Loi sur l’éxecutif ("Law on the Executive"), and the Loi électorale du Québec ("Electoral Law of Quebec"). Other notable examples include:

• the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms
• the Charter of the French language
• the Civil Code of Quebec

It is also based on a set of statements which clarify and reinforce already established social practices. For example, in his press release on February 8th 2007, Jean Charest reaffirms three of Québécois society’s fundamental values:

• the equality between men and women
• the primacy of French
• the separation of State and religion

In addition, Quebec defines itself as a free and democratic state of law.

On October 30th 2003, the National Assembly of Quebec adopted a resolution reaffirming that the people of Quebec form a nation, as well as a motion on May 22nd 2008 citing:

"That the National Assembly reiterates its desire to promote the language, history, culture and values of the Québécois nation, promote integration into our nation in a spirit of openness and reciprocity, and bear witness to its attachment to our religious and historical heritage represented by the crucifix in our Blue Room and by our coat of arms adorning our institutions."

Federal policy

Quebec participates in federal political life in different ways.

Since 1969, the Official Languages Act has allowed Quebec to integrate better into the Canadian community, in addition to guaranteeing a legal and linguistic context conducive to the development of the province.

Quebec is part of the Council of the Federation, which allows it to participate proactively in the federation.

Quebec possesses a network of 3 offices for representing itself and defending its interests in Canada: one in Moncton (for Atlantic Canada), one in Toronto (for Ontario and Western Canada) and one in Ottawa (for the federal government). These offices’ mandate is to ensure an institutional presence of the Government of Quebec near other Canadian governments and to allow Quebec to interact effectively with the other provinces of the country.

International policy

Quebec's international policy is founded upon the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine, formulated in 1965. While Quebec's Ministry of International Relations coordinates guiding principles in international policy, its Quebec's general delegations that are the main interlocutors in foreign countries. In matters relating to Quebec law, or matters relating to treaties, deals, accords and programs, only Quebecois political bodies have negotiatic power, along with heads of state, governments, embassies and foreign consulates. Under the rule of law, any agreement made abroad, by the federal or Quebecois government, is only applicable in domestic politics by the consent of popular sovereignty.

Quebec is the only Canadian province that has set up a ministry to exclusively embody the state's powers for matters of international relations. In other provinces, the general tendency is to entrust this type of mandate to a minister that was already carrying out other responsibilities (most likely in intergovernmental relations).

Quebec is a member of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie and of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie.

Environmental and energy policies

Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Premier from 1920 to 1936. He successfully put an end to the Grande Hémorragie and was the first to see the hydroelectric potential of Nunavik.

Since 2006, Quebec has adopted a green plan in order to meet the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol regarding climate change. The Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MELCC) is the primary entity responsible for the application of environmental policy on the Québécois territory. The Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (SEPAQ) is the main body responsible for the management of national parks, wildlife reserves, etc.

On November 23rd, 2009, Jean Charest announced Quebec’s greenhouse gas reduction targets at the Copenhagen conference: Quebec intends to reduce its emissions by 20% by 2020 (compared to the emissions of 1990) and will focus on the transportation sector, which accounts for 40% of GHG emissions in Quebec. Following this anoucement, the government quickly took the initiatives needed to keep its promises. On January 14th 2010, a new law came into effect aimed at reducing vehicle GHGs. Automobile manufacturers who sell vehicles in Quebec would now have to comply with an emission ceiling of 187g of GHG/km. This emission level was also lowered every year until it fell to 127g of GHG/km in 2016. Manufacturers have to obtain an emission average equivalent to that of the enforced level, so they are still be able to sell vehicles that sometimes exceed this threshold. These standards are as strict as those of California (United States), according to the Government of Quebec.

Hydroelectricity is Quebec’s main energy source. The Hydro-Québec corporation, owned by the government of Quebec, is the main producer and provider of this renewable and low-pollution energy. Hydro-Québec is a profitable company in constant expansion (ex. the Manic-Outardes project, the James Bay project, the Romaine project, etc.). Wind energy also sees modest use.

The population of Quebec seems to be more sensitive to environmental issues than the population of other Canadian provinces. According to a 2019 university study, 67% of Québécois residents are aware of humanity’s impact on global warming, while the figure drops to 47% in Saskatchewan and to 42% in Alberta. The economic structure of each of these provinces could be one explanation: “Quebec does not produce petroleum, but mainly hydroelectricity. Compared to Alberta... There is the whole structure of the economy that could explain this phenomenon" analyzes the academic Erick Lachapelle. Nearly 500,000 people took part in a climate manifestation on the streets of Montreal in 2019.

Agricultural and forestry policies

Agriculture in Quebec is subject to agricultural zoning regulations since 1978. Faced with the problem of expanding urban sprawl, agricultural zones were created to ensure the protection of fertile land, which make up 2% of Quebec’s total area. The Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ) is the main guarantor. The city of Saint-Hyacinthe is the agricultural technopole of Quebec and is recognized for its agro-food, veterinary and agro-environmental biotechnology.

Quebec's forests are essentially public property. The calculation of annual cutting possibilities is the responsibility of the Bureau du forestier en chef. The Société de protection des forêt contre le feu (SOPFEU) works in a public-private partnership with the Quebec government in order to protect forests against forest fires. The Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) seeks to protect the interests of its members, including forestry workers, and works jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

Employment and immigration policies

Adélard Godbout, Premier from 1939 to 1944. He granted women the right to vote in 1940, made education compulsory until age 14, introduced free primary school education, and affirmed workers' rights to unionize.

The Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale du Québec has the mandate to oversee social and workforce developments through Emploi-Québec and its local employment centers (CLE). This ministry is also responsible for managing the Régime québécois d'assurance parentale (QPIP) as well as last-resort financial support for families and people in need.

The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) is the main body responsible for the application of labour laws in Quebec and enforcing the collective agreements concluded between unions of employees and their employers.

Immigration to Quebec is supported by integration programs favoring French, as it is the common language for all Québécois, as well as the principles of pluralism and interculturalism. The Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles du Québec is responsible for the selection and integration of immigrants, and immigration policy favours respect for Québécois values as well as respect for Quebec’s cultural, historical and social characteristics.

Health, social and education policies

Quebec’s health and social services network is administered by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. It is composed of 95 réseaux locaux de services (RLS) ("local service networks") and 18 agences de la santé et des services sociaux (ASSS) ("health and social services agencies"). Quebec’s health system is supported by the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) which works to maintain the accessibility of services for all citizens of Quebec. Pre-hospital care and rescue missions are provided by foundations and non-profit organizations.

The centres de la petite enfance (CPEs) ("centres for young children") are institutions that link family policies to education. They are administered by the Ministère de la Famille et des Aînés du Québec.

Quebec’s education system is administered by the Ministère de l'Éducation (primary and secondary schools), the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur (CEGEP) and the Conseil supérieure de l'Education du Québec. Postsecondary studies include : the public university of the University of Quebec, vocational training centers, private colleges, public colleges (CEGEPs) and private universities.

In 2012, the annual cost for postsecondary tuition was 2,168 dollars (1,700 euros) - less than half of Canada’s average tuition. Quebec universities are among the least expensive in Canada. Part of the reason for this is the relative democratization of higher education implemented during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, when the Québécois government froze tuition fees to a relatively low level and created CEGEPs. When Jean Charest’s government decided in 2012 to sharply increase university fees, massive students protests erupted. Thanks to these protestors’ persistent and organised efforts, Quebec’s tuition fees remain relatively low today.

Energy

The Beauharnois generating station is one of the more than 63 hydroelectric power stations operated by Hydro-Québec.

Unlike most other regions of the world, Quebec stands out for its use of renewable energy. In 2008, electricity (more than 99% of which came from renewable energy sources) ranked as the main form of energy used in Quebec (41.6%), followed by oil (38.2%) and natural gas (10.7%). Over time, Quebec pivots more and more towards renewable energy; in 2017, 47% of all energy came from renewable sources.

Quebec produces the vast majority of the hydroelectricity in Canada and is, on its own, one of the main hydroelectricity producers of the world, behind only China, Brazil and the United States. In 2019, Quebec’s electricity production amounted to 214 terawatt-hours (TWh), 95% of which comes from hydroelectric power stations, and 4.7% of which come from wind energy. Thermal electricity production is almost completely absent from Quebec, except for a few power stations exploiting forest biomass or diesel generators which supply some twenty remote communities.

The public company Hydro-Québec occupies a dominant position in the production, transmission and distribution of electricity in Quebec. Hydro-Québec operates 63 hydroelectric power stations and 28 large reservoirs; they guarantee a stable and flexible supply which adjusts according to demand. Because of the remoteness of Hydro-Québec’s TransÉnergie division, with its main facilities located in James Bay and on the Côte-Nord, the TransÉnergie division operates the largest electricity transmission network in North America. Their network includes 34,361 km of lines and 17 interconnections with neighbouring markets, allowing for the export of 38.3 TWh in 2018 alone.

The Valero refinery in Lévis has a production capacity of 265,000 barrels per day.

As Quebec has few significant deposits of fossil fuels, all hydrocarbons are imported. Refiners' sourcing strategies have varied over time and have depended on market conditions. In the 1990s, Quebec purchased much of its oil from the North Sea. Since 2015, it now consumes almost exclusively the crude produced in western Canada and the United States. Quebec’s two active refineries (Valero’s in Lévis, and Suncor's in Montreal) have a total capacity of 402,000 barrels per day, which is greater than local needs, which stood at 365,000 barrels per day in 2018.

The natural gas consumed in Quebec arrives through the TC Energy transmission network. Since 2016, Quebec’s main natural gas distributor, the Énergir company, has been getting its supply at the Dawn reception point in southwestern Ontario, instead of at its previous main source the Empress intersection in Alberta. This change has occured because of an increase in the non-traditional production of shale gas in North America, stimulating competition between the different supply basins operated across the continent. In 2018, 86% of natural gas came from Dawn and 12% from Empress. The rest consists of injections of natural gas produced locally by the recovery of residual materials.

The Québécois government's energy policy, updated in 2016, has the vision of making Quebec "a North American leader in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency", in order to build, by 2030, a low carbon economy. The policy aims in particular to reduce the quantity of petroleum products consumed by 40%, increase renewable energy production by 25%, and increase the production of bioenergy by 50%. The government estimates that its targets should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030.

Language

This work by Charles Huot represents the Debate on languages during the first legislative assemblies of Lower Canada (now the province of Quebec) in 1793.

Quebec differs from other Canadian provinces in that French is the only official and preponderant language, while English predominates in the rest of Canada. French is the common language, understood and spoken by 94.46% of the population. In 2016, some 79.06% of Quebecers have French as their mother tongue (77.1% have French as their sole mother tongue and 2% have several mother tongues including French). Being in clear demographic growth, in 2011, English was the mother tongue of 8.3% of the Québécois population. 71% of Anglo-Quebecers consider themselves bilingual, that is to say that they consider themselves to have a good enough grasp on French to conduct a conversation. In addition to all of this, eleven Native American nations, who often have their own languages, are part of Quebec.

Quebecers defend the French language and the Francophonie in the face of the mostly English-dominated rest of North America. The Gendron Commission report of 1968 established the foundations for the white book of the government of Quebec’ linguistic policy. Dependent on commissions of inquiry, this policy statement is also accompanied the Charter of the French language -or “Bill 101”- since 1977.

“The campaign of systematic disinformation waged by English-language newspapers about Quebec began with the Charter and has never ceased to draw on the Charter; it gave rise to stubborn prejudices and maintains a profound ignorance of the reality of Quebec.”

French

French is the official language of Quebec. Québécois French is the most widely used variant. The Office québécois de la langue française oversees the application of the linguistic policy on the territory jointly with the Superior Council of the French Language and the Commission de toponymie du Québec. Their recommendations then become part of the debate on the standard for Quebec French and are represented in Le Grand Dictionnaire terminologique (GDT), the Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) and various other works. Through its linguistic recommendations, the GDT fights against the invasion of Frenglish into the French language. Since the 1970s, scientific research on the matter has been carried out by university organizations, including the Trésor de la langue française au Québec (TLFQ) and the Franqus group.

The French settlers who settled in New France came largely from the western and northern provinces of France. They generally spoke a variety of regional languages of the Oïl language family. Thus, creating the need for the colonists to “unify their patois” ("unite their dialects") and creating Quebec French. Québécois French became the vehicular language of New France, and it remained as such until the British’s conquest of New France.

The King's Daughters were sent to the New World to fix the gender imbalance in the colonies and boost population growth.

Early on, colonists borrowed words from Algonquin, a language they frequently interacted with, often to name and describe new aspects of geography, temperature, fauna or flora not present in the Old World. Then, Quebec French's evolution was affected by the French court due to the arrival of the King's daughters. These 800 women were mostly orphaned girls that had been adopted by the state as part of a program sponsored by King Louis XIV, and been educated in convents to become exemplary settlers and wives. Once their training was complete, between 1663 and 1673, they were sent to New France and married among the colonists, instilling the King's French into the population in the process.

In his 1757 Memoir on the State of New France, Bougainville writes:

“Canadians have natural spirit; they speak with ease, they cannot write, their accent is as good as in Paris, their diction is full of vicious phrases, borrowed from the language of the Indians or from marine terms, applied in the ordinary style."

The British conquest of 1759 turned the evolution of French in Quebec and North America upside down. By having ties severed with France, the French spoken in Quebec definitively separated from the French spoken in metropolitan France. Quebec French was then truly born, retaining the peculiarities of the old languages of Oïl (which were almost extinct in France at that point) and the King's French, and being both influenced and threatened by the language of the new English conquerors. Quebec's French continued to evolve in its own direction, retaining some aspects the non-isolated rest of the French-speaking world lost, and, over time, new influences and remoteness formed the regional accents and different dialects of Quebec French that we know today, such as Beauceron, Chaouin, Gaspésien, Jeannois, Joual, Magoua, Outaouais, Saguenéen, etc.

Historical fragility of French

During the days of New France, there began to be an extremely pronounced demographic increase of anglophones versus francophones in North America, a trend which continues to this day. In 1700, for every 250,000 English-speakers, there was 16,500 French-speakers.

After the conquest of 1759, this reality became more brutal for Quebec, which now had to avoid assimilation by the British Empire’s regime and survive culturally as well as linguistically.

Still today, as French’s demographic weight on the continent and in Canada continues to decline, Quebec faces the threat of assimilation. Since 2011, the population with French as their mother tongue on the Island of Montreal, Quebec’s metropolis, has fallen below 50%, with only 49% of the population being francophone due to a sharp increase in the immigrant allophone population (whose mother tongue is neither French nor English).

Safeguarding French

Efforts have been made to preserve the primacy of the French language in Quebec. Such efforts include: enstating the Charter of the French language, Quebec's participation in the Francophonie since 1971, French immigration to Quebec, etc. Several institutions seek to protect and promote French such as the Office québécois de la langue française, the Superior Council of the French Language, the Commission de toponymie du Québec, etc.

English

As of 2011, English is the mother tongue of nearly 650,000 Quebecers (8% of the population). These anglophones, sometimes called Anglo-Québécois, constitute the second largest linguistic group in Quebec. In addition, in 2001, roughly 50,000 people (0.7% of the population) considered their mother tongue to be both French and English. According to the latest censuses of 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, the percentage of anglophones in the population has more or less stabilized, but in absolute numbers, they are constantly increasing. Allophones, on the other hand, are increasing sharply in absolute numbers as well as in percentage. According to the 2016 census, 49.1% of people living in Quebec say they can conduct a conversation in English (English as mother tongue or as a second language). As for French-English bilingualism, 44.5% of people in Quebec state that they are bilingual, that is to say, able to conduct a conversation in both French and English.

English made its first appearance in Quebec in 1760, when the British invaded and conquered Canada (New France). Shortly afterwards, the first English and Scottish merchants came to settle in the cities of Québec City and Montreal. In 1784, United Empire Loyalists flooded Quebec following their expulsion from the Thirteen Colonies during the United States' War of Independence. This dramatically increased the number of English speakers in Quebec. These Loyalists, avoiding the French-speaking and Catholic countryside, settled mainly in then underdeveloped regions, such as the Eastern Townships and the Outaouais. The proclamation of the Act of Union of 1840 caused massive immigration from the British Isles to the Québécois territory, which introduced Celtic languages for the first time and increased the power of English. The influence of English and repeated attempts at linguistic assimilation of the French-speaking population had and continues to have a considerable impact on French-language culture in Quebec. Today, Anglo-Quebecers reside mainly in the west of the island of Montreal (West Island), downtown Montreal and the Pontiac.

Anglophones in Quebec have several institutions and infrastructural systems. At the school level, anglophones in Quebec have several school boards grouped together into the Association des commissions scolaire anglophones du Québec. In terms of media, anglophones own, among others, the Montreal Gazette, in Montreal, and the Chronicle-Telegraph, in Quebec City. Other organisations include the Quebec Writers' Federation, which is a group of English-speaking Quebec authors , and the Voice of English-speaking Quebec , which represents the interests of the English-speaking community in the Québec region.

Other languages

The term “allophone” is used to refer to people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English. We can distinguish two groups of allophones: people who speak indigenous languages, and those who speak so-called immigrant languages.

In the 2016 census, where one could note more than one language as their mother tongue, Quebec had 1,171,045 people (14.5% of the population) who reported a mother tongue that was neither French nor English, and 1,060,830 people (13.2% of the population) who did not declare French or English as a mother tongue at all. In this census, 47,025 (0.6% of the population) reported an aboriginal language as a mother tongue, while 1,124,020 (13.9% of the population) reported an immigrant language as a mother tongue.

Indigenous languages

Three families of indigenous languages exist in Quebec, which encompass eleven languages. Each of these languages belong to and are spoken by members of a specific indigenous ethnic group. Sometimes, the language in question is spoken natively by all members of the group, sometimes they are spoken only by a few individuals. These languages are also sometimes sub-divided into different dialects in the aboriginal communities.

A multilingual road sign in Mistissini, showing Cree, English and French.

• Algonquian language family
  • Abenaki (spoken by the Abenakis of Centre-du-Québec)
  • Algonquin (spoken by the Algonquins of the Outaouais)
  • Maliseet-passamaquoddy (spoken by the Maliseet of Bas-Saint-Laurent)
  • Mi'kmaq (spoken by the Micmacs of Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands)
  • the linguistic continuum of:
    • Atikamekw (spoken by the Attikameks of Lanaudière and Mauricie)
    • Cree (spoken by the Crees of Nord-du-Québec)
    • Innu-aimun (spoken by the Innu-Montagnais of the Côte-Nord and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean)
    • Naskapi (spoken by the Innu-Naskapi of the Côte-Nord)
• Inuit-Aleut language family
  • Nunavimmiutitut (Inuktitut dialect spoken by the Inuit of Nord-du-Québec)
• Iroquoian language family
  • Mohawk, also known as "agnier" (spoken by the Iroquois-Mohawks of Montérégie and the Laurentides)
  • Wendat (spoken by the Huron-Wendat of the Capitale-Nationale)

In the 2016 census, 50,895 people in Quebec said they knew at least one indigenous language. Furthermore, 45,570 people declared having an aboriginal language as their mother tongue. For 38,995 of them, it was the language most frequently spoken at home. Additionally, 1,195 people who did not have an aboriginal language as their mother tongue reported using an aboriginal language most often at home.

In Quebec, most indigenous languages are currently transmitted quite well from one generation to the next with a mother tongue retention rate of 92%.

Immigrant languages

In the 2016 census, 1,124,020 people declared having an immigrant language as their mother tongue in Quebec. The most cited languages are Arabic (2.5% of the total population), Spanish (1.9%), Italian (1.4%), Creole languages (mainly Haitian Creole) (0.8%) and Mandarin (0.6%).

Both the number and proportion of allophones have been increasing in Quebec since the 1951 census.

In 2015, the vast majority (89%) of young allophone students in Quebec attended French-language schools.

Economic diaspora

A Couche-Tard branch in Winnipeg.

Quebec has some associations with specific countries to enrich and maintain economic relations. There is, for example, the Fédération France-Québec and the francophonie for relations between Quebec and France. In addition, in Paris, a place du Québec was inaugurated in 1980 and renovated in 2011.. There is also an association from Quebec in Germany.

Many of Quebec’s national companies have expanded outside of Quebec for various reasons. The Bank of Montreal has branches in the United States and in the other Canadian provinces. Hydro-Québec, the state-owned electricity provider for Québécois, has contracts with much of the northeastern United States. The value of Hydro-Québec’s exports currently stands at approximately $1 billion per year. Bombardier is also present in many countries. Couche-Tard has a network of more than 6,000 branches around the globe. Desjardins has infrastructure to assist members no matter where they are in the world. In addition, in the U.S. state of Florida, 3 Desjardins branches exist to assist Québécois snowbirds.

In the realm of litterature and international publishing, the Québec Édition group is a committee created by the National Association of Book Editors dedicated to the international influence of French-language publishings from Quebec and Canada.

The world of song in Quebec has a modest size and impact at the international level. Quebec has produced a number of internationally renowned celebrities, including Alys Robi (1923 - 2011) and Céline Dion (1968 -), among others. The popular and long-running song competition Star Académie has created many celebrities, including some that originate from outside of Quebec.

Holidays and traditions

St-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations at Maisonneuve park in Montréal.

Quebec is home to a number of unique holidays and traditions not found anywhere else. St-Jean-Baptiste Day is Quebec’s national holiday and is one of Quebec’s biggest holidays. Festivities include parades, bonfires, fireworks, drinking, feasts, musical concerts, flag waving, contests and patriotic speeches. National Patriots' Day is also a unique public holiday, which honours the patriotes who fought the British in the Patriots' War with displays of the patriote flag, marches, music, public speeches, ceremonies and banquets.

Moving Day is a tradition where leases terminate on July 1rst. This creates a social phenomenon where everyone seems to be moving out at the same time. The Construction Holiday was born out of legislation which synchronized a two-week holiday in July for the entire construction industry. Other traditions include: the Temps des sucres (a time in March when people go to sugar shacks), Québécois snowbirds (people who migrate to Florida every winter), the Noël des campeurs (campgrounds celebrating Christmas in July), etc…

Quebecois can also have different ways of celebrating certain holidays. A good example is the Réveillon, a giant feast and party which takes place during Christmas Eve and New Years' Eve and goes on until midnight. Traditional dishes like tourtière or cipâte are offered, and rigaudon, spoon and/or violin may be played. April Fools’ Day is called Poisson d’Avril ("April’s Fish") because while pulling pranks is still important, there is another major tradition: sticking fish-shapped paper cutouts to people’s backs without them noticing. During Halloween, the sentence used instead of "trick-or-treat!" varies depending on the region.

Electricity

See also: List of generating stations in Quebec and Hydro-Québec

Quebec produces the vast majority of the hydroelectricity in Canada and is, on its own, one of the main hydroelectricity producers of the world, behind only China, Brazil and the United States. More than 99% of Quebec's electricity comes from renewable energy sources; in 2019, Quebec’s electricity production amounted to 214 terawatt-hours (TWh), 95% of which comes from hydroelectric power stations and 4.7% of which come from wind energy. Because of this, Quebec has been described as a potential clean energy superpower.

The public company Hydro-Québec is the main producer and provider of electricity in Quebec. Hydro-Québec operates 63 hydroelectric power stations and 28 large reservoirs; they guarantee a stable and flexible supply which adjusts according to demand. The TransÉnergie division operates the largest electricity transmission network in North America. Their network includes 34,361 km of lines and 17 interconnections with neighbouring markets, allowing for the export of 38.3 TWh in 2018 alone.

Connected articles

• Administrative divisions of Quebec
  • Administrative regions
  • List of regional county municipalities and equivalent territories in Quebec
  • Regional county municipalities and historic counties
• Geography of Quebec
  • List of mountain ranges of Quebec
  • List of rivers of Quebec
  • National Parks of Quebec
• Politics of Quebec
  • Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
  • Premier of Quebec
  • Quebec Legislature and National Assembly of Quebec
  • List of Quebec general elections
  • Government of Quebec
  • Sûreté du Québec
• Quebec law
  • Civil Code of Quebec

• Municipal administration
  • List of municipalities in Quebec
  • List of towns in Quebec
  • 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec
• Crown corporations
  • Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)
  • Hydro-Québec
  • Loto-Québec
  • Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC)
  • Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ)
  • Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ)
  • Télé-Québec
• Other
  • French Canadians and Quebec French
  • Quebec nationalism
  • Tourism in Quebec
  • Outline of Quebec
  • Index of Quebec-related articles

Demographics

Demographic weight: Quebec accounts for a little under 23% of the Canadian population. Quebec’s demographic weight in Canada has been gradually decreasing since 1971 when, back then, it was 28% of the population. In 2018, Quebec’s 3 most populated regions are Montreal (2,029,379), Montérégie (1,554,282) and Capitale-Nationale (745,135). Quebec’s 3 least populated regions are Nord-du-Québec (45,558), Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine (90,709) and Côte-Nord (91,213).

Age: In 2016, Quebec’s median age was 41.2 years old. According to Quebec’s age pyramid, the most numerous generation is the baby-boomers that are between 54 and 74 years of age. There are a few other less pronouced peaks, namely the one between 40 and 30 years old, associated with an increase in births in the 1980s, and the one around 2010, associated with an increase in births towards the end of the 2000s. An noticeable crater can be observed around the year 2000 because of a record-low amount of births. In 2020, 20.8% of Québécois are less than 20 years old, 59.5% are aged between 20 and 64 years old, and 19.7% are 65 years old or older. In 2019, Quebec witnessed an increase in the number of births compared to the year before (84,200 vs 83,840) and had a replacement rate of about 1,6 per woman. Replacement rates being below 2,1 is a something that is becoming the norm accross the world, and is already the norm in industrialised regions like Quebec. Quebec has a higher replacement rate than the Canadian average (1,47). Quebec's rate can also be both higher (ex. Switzerland (1,48), Portugal (1,42), Japan (1,36), Italy (1,29), etc.) or lower (ex. United States (1,73), New Zealand (1,75), Sweden (1,70), England (1,65), etc.) than other industrialised regions'. In Quebec, a lowered rate of giving birth has been mostly observed in people in their 20s. From 30 years of age and onwards, the rate is either increasing or stable. This demonstrates a trend towards wanting to form a family later in life. As of 2020, the average Québécois lifespan is 82.3 years. Between 2010 and 2019, there were between 1000 and 1600 deaths every week, with deaths being at their highest levels in January and their lowest levels in July.

Marriages: In 2019, 22,250 marriages were celebrated, about 600 less than in 2017 and 2018. These numbers illustrate a continuing trend where marriages are becoming less numerous; in 1970, the number of marriages hit a peak with more than 50,000 celebrations and the number has been slowly decreasing ever since. The average age for marriage is now 33.5 for men and 32.1 for women, an increase of 8.0 and 8.5 years respectively since 1970. Saturday is by far the most popular day to hold a wedding; 72% of marriages occur on a Saturday. Half of all marriages unite a man and woman with an age gap of 3 years or less. Though they are still uncommon, civil unions are becoming more and more popular.

Demographic growth: In 2019, Quebec registered the highest rate of population growth since 1972 (when quality data began to be recorded), with an increase of 110,000 people, mostly because of the arrival of a high number of non-permanent residents. The number of non-permanent residents has recently sky-rocketed from a little over 100,000 in 2014 to 260,000 in 2019. Quebec’s population growth is usually middle-of-the-pack compared to other provinces and very high compared to other developped countries (ex. United States, France, Germany, etc.) because of the federal government of Canada’s aggressive immigration policies. Since the 1970s, Quebec has always had more immigrants than emigrants. This can be attributed to international immigration as the number of people moving to Quebec from another province is always lower than the other way around. As of 2019, most international immigrants come from China, India or France.

Education and work: In 2016, 3 out of 10 Québécois possessed a postsecondary degree or diploma. While women were more likely to have a university degree (33% vs 26%) or college degree (21% vs 11%), men were more numerous in having received vocational training. In Quebec, couples where both parents work are far more likely to have children than couples where only one parent works or none of them do.

Households: In Quebec, most people are owners of the property that they live in. The vast majority of couples with or without children are property owners. Most one-person households, however, are renters. Single-parent homes are equally divided between being property owners or renters. From 1996 to 2016, the number of people per household has decreased from an average of 2.5 to 2.25. In 2016, the vast majority of low income households were one-person households. In 2016, 80% of both property owners and renters considered their housing to be "unaffordable".

Tableau

The Ten Most Populated Québécois Cities (2016)

Montréal Québec Laval		City	Region	Population	Gatineau Longueuil Sherbrooke
	1	Montréal	Montréal	1,762,976
	2	Québec	Capitale-Nationale	538,738
	3	Laval	Laval	431,208
	4	Gatineau	Outaouais	281,501
	5	Longueuil	Montérégie	245,033
	6	Sherbrooke	Estrie	165,005
	7	Saguenay	Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean	144,989
	8	Lévis	Chaudière-Appalaches	144,808
	9	Trois-Rivières	Mauricie	135,863
	10	Terrebonne	Lanaudière	113,226

Military

Wars Quebec was involved in

• Beaver Wars
• King William's War
• Queen Anne's War
• Dummer's War
• King George's War
• Father Le Loutre's War
• Seven Years' War
• War of 1812
• Patriots' War
• Fenian raids
• World War I
• World War II
• Cold War
• Korean War
• War in Afganistan

Québécois War Heroes

• Léo Major ("Le Rambo québécois"): War Hero
• George Beurling (Canada most famous World War 2 pilot)
• Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (Homme d'exploits, il est connu pour avoir lutté efficacement contre l'armée anglaise durant une grande partie de sa vie, détruisant plusieurs établissements ennemis, en plus d'avoir fondé des forts et exploré l'Amérique. Dans la mémoire collective, il est resté comme le plus grand héros de la Nouvelle-France. Il est le fondateur de la colonie de la Louisiane et des villes de Biloxi et de Mobile.)
• Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry (il devint rapidement un héros pour ses batailles décisives remportées lors de la Guerre de 1812 et sera le militaire canadien le plus respecté de son temps.)
• Ferdinand-Alphonse Oklowski (colonel qui dirige la deuxième insurection des patriotes)
• Soeur Agnès
• Marie-Barbe Loiselle
• Gilbert Boulanger ("L'Alouette"): Aviator
• Talbot Papineau
• COMMANDANT GUY BIÉLER
• Charles « Chubby » Gavan Power
• Paul Triquet
• Lucien Dumais
• BRIGADIER GÉNÉRAL DOLLARD MÉNARD
• Albéric Marin
• capitaine Omer Lévesque (est le pilote québécois le plus médaillé de l’histoire de l’aviation canadienne et l’un des rares à détenir le titre d’as de l’aviation de combat.)
• Jean-Charles Forbes
• Roméo Gagnon
• William McKenzie Thomson
• Dollard Ménard (lieutenant-colonel)
• Fernand Mousseau (participe à la libération de Paris)
• Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur (établit le controle canadien de la vallée d'Ohio)
• Roméo Sabourin (agent secret, tué par les allemands)
• Jacques-Charles de Sabrevois (officier des troupes de la marine) y en a d'autres comme lui
• Paul Triquet (Il est le seul Canadien-français décoré de la Croix de Victoria au cours de la campagne d'Italie.)
• Joseph Coulon de Villiers (tué par George Washington)
• François Le Verrier de Rousson (mousquetaire du roi)
• François Le Moyne de Bienville (défaite des iroquois, rare)
• Joseph Keable (premier canadien-francais à recevoir la croix de victoria)
• Léo Gariépy (est un soldat canadien ayant participé à la libération de Courseulles-sur-Mer lors du débarquement de Normandie.)
• Jean-Charles Forbes (beaucoup de distinctions de plusierus pays pour bravoure, honneur du québec)
• Robert-Shore-Milnes Bouchette (intervention lors de la guerre des patriotes)
• Jean-Victor Allard (premier francais-canadien chef-état major de la défense et général)

Quebec's Diaspora

Main article: Quebec diaspora

The earliest immigrants to the Canadian prairies were Canadien from Quebec. These individuals were usually involved in the fur trade and frequented the aboriginals of the area. Most Franco-Albertans, Fransaskois and Franco-Manitobans are descended from these emigrants from Quebec.

From the mid 1800s to the Great Depression, Quebec experienced the Grande Hémorragie ("Great Hemorrhaging"), a massive emigration of 900,000 people from Quebec to New England. French Canadians often established themselves in Little Canadas in many industrial New England centers like Lowell, Lawrence and New Bedford (Massachusetts); Woonsocket (Rhode Island); Manchester and Nashua (New Hampshire); Biddeford, Brunswick and Lewiston (Maine), among others. Of the 900,000 Québécois who emigrated, about half returned. Most of the descendants of those who stayed are now assimilated to the general American population, though a few Franco-Americans remain, speaking New England French.

Some tried to slow the Grande Hémorragie by redirecting people north, which resulted in the founding of many regions in Quebec (ex. Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, Val-d'Or, etc.) but also in Northeastern Ontario. The northeastern Franco-Ontarians of today, which are primarily concentrated in Timmins, Hearst, Moosonee and Sault Sainte Marie, among others, are the descendants of emigrants from Quebec who worked in the mines of the area.

In recent times, Québécois snowbirds often migrate to southern Florida during the winter, resulting in the emergence of temporary "Québécois regions" there.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Quebec

Religion in Quebec includes a diversity of religious groups and beliefs. Religion, more precisely the Roman Catholic Church, has long occupied a central and integral place in Quebec society since the arrival of the first French settlers in New France. However, since the Quiet Revolution and the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, there has been a real separation between state and religion, and society in general sees religion as a private matter. Nevertheless, Catholicism still represents the beliefs of 75% of the Quebec population in 2011. Many irreligious people also identify as catholic. The other religions present in Quebec include, in order of importance, Protestantism, all other forms of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Asian religious traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism) and First Nations traditions.

Catholicism

Main article: [[:The Catholic Church in Quebec]]

With a membership rate of 75% among the Québécois population, Catholicism is the main religion in Quebec, although the traditional practice is followed by 10% of believers in Quebec. From the beginning of Canada, and throughout French-Canadian history, catholicism and the Catholic Church have played a preponderant role in the social and political development of Quebec.

The first Québécois mass was celebrated by the priest accompanying Jacques Cartier on his voyage to the New World in 1535. Amerindians were evangelized by Catholic missionaries before the founding of parishes. In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu recited a royal proclamation by Louis XIII which banished all non-Catholics, including Huguenots, from New France. In 1658, the apostolic vicariate of Quebec was founded, followed by the Archdiocese of Quebec in 1674. The archbishop of Quebec, who today is the primate of the Catholic Church of Canada, was once part of the Sovereign Council of New France.

The extraordinary power that the Catholic Church once had in Quebec is reflected in all areas of culture, from language to the fine arts, theater, literature and film. The golden age for ecclesiastics would come in the mid-nineteenth century (around 1840) as this was a period during which the Church, influenced by ultramontanism, concretized its influence (see Clericalism in Quebec). The influence of the Church began to wane a hundred years later, when, after the Grande Noirceur, Quebec society was profoundly transformed by the Quiet Revolution. Created in 1966, the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec deals with current issues concerning ethical and moral values ​​(eg: gay marriage, euthanasia and abortion).

Many holy men and women have been recognized for their venerable actions. Brother André became the first saint of Québécois origin and was canonized in 2010, in Rome, presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.

• 
  François de Montmorency-Laval, the founder of the séminaire de Québec and of the apostolic vicariate of New France.
• 
  The Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, one of many churches that is a national historic site.
• 
  Brother André in the 1920s.
• 
  The Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church in Quebec City, the oldest church in Quebec.
• 
  The Saint-Benoît-Abbé church, designed with a more postmodernist style.

Protestantism

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is an important symbol of the protestant religion in Quebec.

This practice consisting of reformed catholicism has been present in Quebec for a long time. From the very beginning of Canada, several Huguenots of the calvinist religion were present in Quebec. Huguenots have been identified in almost all classes of society: settlers, fishermen, daughters of the king, etc. During the early French Regime, the number of protestant immigrants was estimated to be 1,450 people. In 1627, protestantism became no longer tolerated in New France.

After Quebec fell under British rule, the protestant religion, more particularly of the anglican faith, became a religion tolerated on Quebecois territory again. This was because the English immigrants who came to certain regions of Quebec followed this religion.

Other religions

The Amerindian religions of Quebec preceded Catholicism in Quebec.

While the first synagogue was established in Montreal in 1777, Jews remained a negligable religious group in Quebec until the early 20th century when a wave of Jewish immigrants settled in Montreal. The Jewish community of today, established mainly on the island of Montreal, now numbers about 120,000 people. In 2010, this community was made up of 26.1% traditionalist Jews, 24.3% orthodox, 15.2% conservative, 9% reconstructionist and reformist, and 25.4% of Montreal Jews say they have no religious affiliation.

During the 19th century, some French-Canadian families joined the English-speaking Protestant churches. In the 20th century, successive waves of immigrants from Africa, Asia, Greece, Ireland and Italy settled in Montreal, bringing their cultural and religious customs. Some religious communities, such as Eastern Christians, then established places of worship.

Churches

Main article: [[:Catholic establishments of Quebec]]

The Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

The oldest parish church in North America is the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. Its construction began in 1647, when it was then known under the name Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, and it was finished in 1664. Its first mass was celebrated by Father Vimont on December 24, 1650. This church obtained the status of cathedral in 1674, when François de Laval became archbishop of Quebec, and then the status of minor basilica in 1874. It was also rebuilt twice after the siege of Quebec in 1759 and the fire of 1922.

The most frequented place of worship in Quebec is the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. This basilica welcomes millions of visitors each year, especially during the novena of Saint Anne, on July 26. The Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré basilica is recognized for its numerous miracles, which is why thousands of crutches can be found at its entrance.

Saint Joseph's Oratory is the largest place of worship in the world dedicated to Saint Joseph. Located beside Mount Royal, it is known for its 283 steps, which pilgrims come to climb on their knees every year, reciting a prayer on each of the steps.

Many pilgrimages include places such as Saint Benedict Abbey, Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap, Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Marie-Reine-du-Monde de Montréal Basilica-Cathedral, Saint-Michel Basilica-Cathedral, Saint-Patrick's Basilica, etc.

Another important place of worship in Quebec is the anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was erected between 1800 and 1804. It was the first anglican cathedral built outside the British Isles.

In August 2019, the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, announced the allocation of $15 million to preserve the cultural heritage that the churches of Quebec embody, and $5 million for the requalification of places of worship.

Saints from Quebec

Saint Marie de l'Incarnation.

Among recent canonizations we find:

• Saint Brother André Bessette canonized in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI.
• Saint Kateri Tekakwitha canonized on October 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
• Saint Mary of the Incarnation canonized in 2014 by Pope François.
• Saint François de Laval canonized in 2014 by Pope François.

Tableau

Date	Description	Date	Description
1534	Quebec's coasts off the Saint Lawrence River and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence are explored and claimed as French territory by Jacques Cartier. This new land is called Canada.	1791	The Constitutional Act of 1791 is enacted and it divides the territory into Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (present-day Ontario). Lower Canada's lands are the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River and Labrador, with Anticosti Island. The territory extends very inland northwards and extends south until it hits the borders with the US, Ontario or New Brunswick.
1534-1603	With exploration and expansion, Canada's territory grows to encompass the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, as well as the entirety of Prince Edward Island.	1809	Newfoundlanders are no longer willing to supervise the coasts of Labrador. To solve this issue, and as a result of lobbying in London, the British give the coasts of Labrador to the dominion of Newfoundland. The inland border between the juristiction of Lower Canada and Newfoundland remains undefined.
1603-1673	Due to westward exploration and expansion, and conflicts with the United Kingdom, Canada is now composed of the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, as well as southern Ontario and northern New England.	1837-1838	The Patriots' War occurs, making borders temporarily uncertain.
1663	By the decree of King Louis XIV, the company of New-France cedes Canada to the King. He then proclaims Canada a royal province and creates the Conseil supérieur de Québec to administrate the new French province.	1840	In response to the Patriot's War, the British Parliament re-fuses Lower Canada and Upper Canada together, creating the Province of Canada. Lower Canada is renamed Canada East, and Upper Canada is renamed Canada West.
1673-1741	Due to more westward exploration and expansion, and conflicts with the United Kingdom, Canada is now composed of the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River, of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, southern Ontario, southern Manitoba and the north-eastern Midwest. It is in this period that Canada is at its largest.	1867	The Confederation of Canada takes places. The Province of Canada is divided back into two territories, and while Canada West is renamed Ontario, Canada East is renamed Quebec.
17??-1760	The British conquer Canada in 1760. The Canadien are put under a British military regime until the end of the Seven Years War in 1763.	1898	The Canadian Parliament enacts the Quebec Boundary Extension Act of 1898, which gives Quebec a part of Rupert's Land, a territory bought from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870. This expands the boundaries of Quebec northward.
1763	The Treaty of Paris formally transfers Canada to Britain after the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is enacted, which draws the Province of Quebec out of the conquered territory. The borders are now a fraction of what they used to be; they encompass the banks of the Saint Lawrence River and Anticosti Island.	1912	The Canadian Parliament enacts the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912, which gives Quebec another part of Rupert's Land: the District of Ungava. This extends the borders of Quebec northward all the way to the Hudson Strait.
1774	The Quebec Act of 1774 more or less restores the borders back to before the Conquest of 1760; to Canada's fullest extent. Instructions are issued to the governors of Newfoundland requiring them to supervise Labrador's coasts, even if the territory is part of the Province of Quebec.	1927	The British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council draws a straight-line border between northeastern Quebec and south Labrador. The Quebec government does not recognize the ruling of this council, resulting in a boundary dispute.
1783	The Treaty of Paris (1783) cedes the territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States.	Today	Quebec is now 1,542,056 km2. The Quebec-Labrador boundary dispute is still ongoing today.