French Canada

Because it has represented different realities at different points in time, the term French Canada can be interpreted in different ways. Chronologically they are:

1. The historical homeland of the French Canadian people, the St. Lawrence River valley, which was called le Canada in the time of New France, and corresponds to the southern part of modern Quebec excluding the Eastern Townships. Later, this Canada was renamed the Province of Quebec (1763), Lower Canada (1791), Canada East (1840), and finally the Province of Quebec (1867) again.
See French colonization of the Americas, New France, Quebec

2. All the communities where French Canadians have settled in North America. In this interpretation, Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Hawkesbury, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec, Manchester, New Hampshire, Burlington, Vermont are part of French Canada, while Pontiac, Stanstead and most First Nations in Quebec are not. French Canadian communities in the United States were called "Little Canadas".
*See Quebec, Canada, French Canadian diaspora, French in Canada

3. All the Canadian communities where there is a significant concentration of Francophone Canadians, that is, Canadian citizens who speak French and use it as their principal language. In that sense, it is Quebec, parts of New Brunswick, Eastern Ontario, Northern Ontario, and Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.
See also bilingual belt

These Canadian Francophones refer to themselves as Québécois in Quebec, Acadiens in the Canadian maritimes, Fransaskois in Saskatchewan, Franco-Manitobains in Manitoba, Franco-Ontariens in Ontario, Franco-Albertain in Alberta and Franco-Colombiens in British Columbia. With the exception of the Acadians who have a different history altogether, most French-Canadians originated from Quebec.