Quebec
Quebec (
pronounced [kwə'bεk] or [kə'bεk]) (
French:
Québec, pronounced [kebεk]) is a
Canadian province, in
Eastern Canada, surrounded by the
province of
Ontario, the
James Bay and the
Hudson Bay to the west, by the
Ungava Bay to the north, by the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the provinces of
New Brunswick and
Newfoundland and Labrador to the east, and by the
United States (the states of
New York,
Vermont,
New Hampshire and
Maine) to the south.
The province of Quebec is the largest province geographically in
Canada (only the territory of Nunavut is larger). It is the second most populated province, and most of its inhabitants live close to the banks of the
Saint Lawrence River; the north portion of the province is sparsely populated.
The
official language of Quebec is
French; it is the sole Canadian province whose population is mainly
French Canadian, and where
English is not an official language. Quebec is also the sole territory north of the
Caribbean Sea - aside from
France itself, and the thinly populated archipelago of
St-Pierre and Miquelon - where French is spoken by a majority of the population. Part of
New France until 1760, Quebec became a province within the
Canadian Confederation at its founding in 1867.
While the province's formidable natural resources have long been the mainstay of its economy, Québec has renewed itself to become a key player in the knowledge economy: information and communication technologies, aerospace, biotechnology and health industries. It has also developed close relations with the northeastern states of the United States.
The province occupies a vast territory (nearly three times the size of
France), most of which is very sparsely populated. More than 90 percent of Quebec's area lies within the
Canadian Shield and includes the greater part of the
Labrador Peninsula. In 1870, Canada purchased
Rupert's Land from the
Hudson's Bay Company and over the next few decades the
Parliament of Canada transferred portions of this territory to Quebec that would more than triple the size of the province.
[Library of the Parliament of Canada, [1].] In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first
Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the
aboriginal Cree. This was followed by the addition of the
District of Ungava through the
Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the aboriginal
Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec.
The most populated region is the
St. Lawrence River valley in the south, where the capital,
Quebec City, and the largest city,
Montreal, are situated. North of Montreal are the
Laurentians, a mountain range, and to the east are the
Appalachian Mountains which extend into the
Eastern Townships and
Gaspésie regions. The
Gaspé Peninsula juts into the
Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east.
The northern region of
Nunavik is
subarctic or
arctic and is mostly inhabited by
Inuit. A major
hydro-electric project is found on the La Grande and Eastmain rivers in the James Bay region (the
La Grande Complex) and on the
Manicouagan River, north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Climate
Quebec has three main climate regions. Southern and western Quebec, including most of the major population centres, have a
humid continental climate (
Koppen climate classification Dfb) with warm, humid summers and long, cold winters. The main climatic influences are from western and northern
Canada which move eastward and from the southern and central
United States that move northward. Due to the influence of both storm systems from the core of
North America and the
Atlantic Ocean, precipitation is abundant throughout the year, with most areas receiving more than 1,000 mm (40 inches) of precipitation, including over 300 cm (120 inches) of snow in many areas. Severe summer weather (such as
tornadoes and
severe thunderstorms) are far less common than in southern
Ontario, although they occasionally occur.
Most of central Quebec has a
subarctic climate (Koppen
Dfc). Winters here are long and among the coldest in eastern Canada, while summers are warm but very short due to the higher latitude and the greater influence of
Arctic air masses. Precipitation is also somewhat less than farther south, except at some of the higher elevations.
The northern regions of Quebec have an
arctic climate (Koppen
ET), with very cold winters and short, much cooler summers. The primary influences here are the
Arctic Ocean currents (such as the
Labrador Current) and continental air masses from the
High Arctic.
10 largest municipalities by population
Quebec's highest mountain is Mont D'lberville.
First Nations: Before 1500
Algonkian,
Iroquoian and Inuit groups were the first peoples to populate what is now Quebec. Their lifestyles and cultures reflected the land on which they lived. Seven Algonkian groups lived nomadic lives based on hunting, gathering, and fishing in the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield: (James Bay
Cree,
Innu,
Algonquins) and Appalachian Mountains (
Mi'kmaq,
Abenaki). Iroquoians (
Huron,
Mohawk) lived more settled lives, planting squash and maize in the fertile soils of St. Lawrence Valley. The Inuit continue to fish, whale, and seal in the harsh Arctic climate along the coasts of Hudson and Ungava Bay. These peoples traded furs and foodstuff, and sometimes warred with each other.
The name "Quebec", which comes from an Algonquin word meaning "strait" or "narrowing", originally meant the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River off what is currently Quebec City. There have been variations in spelling of the province:
* Quebecq — Levasseur, 1601
* Kébec — Lescarbot, 1609
* Québec — Champlain, 1613
Early European exploration: 1000–1600
Viking longboats from
Scandinavia carried the first
Europeans to the Arctic shores of the
Ungava Peninsula around 1000 CE.
Basque whalers and fishermen traded furs with Saguenay natives throughout the 1500s.[
2]
The first French explorer to reach Quebec was
Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross either in the
Gaspé in 1534 or at
Old Fort Bay on the
Lower North Shore. He sailed into the
St. Lawrence River in 1535 and established an ill-fated colony near present-day Quebec City at the site of
Stadacona, a village populated by Iroquois.
Samuel de Champlain was part of a 1603 expedition from France that traveled into the
St. Lawrence River. In 1608, he returned as head of an exploration party and founded
Quebec City with the intention of making the area part of the
French colonial empire. Champlain's
Habitation de Quebec, built as a permanent fur trading outpost, was where he would forge a trading, and ultimately a
military alliance, with the
Algonquin and
Huron nations. Natives traded their furs for many French goods such as metal objects, guns, alcohol, and clothing.
Helen Desportes, born July 7, 1620, to French habitants Pierre Desportes and his wife Françoise Langlois, was the first child of European descent born in Quebec.
From Quebec,
Voyageurs,
Coureurs des bois, and Catholic missionaries used river
canoes to explore the interior of the North American continent, establishing fur trading forts on the
Great Lakes (
Étienne Brûlé 1615),
Hudson Bay (
Radisson and
Groseilliers 1659-60),
Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers (
La Salle 1682), as well as the
Prairies and
Missouri River (
de la Verendrye 1734-1738).
After 1627, King
Louis XIII of France introduced the
seigneurial system and forbade settlement in
New France by anyone other than
Roman Catholics.
Sulpician and
Jesuit clerics founded missions in
Trois Rivières (Laviolette) and Montréal or Ville-Marie (
de Maisonneuve and
Jeanne Mance) to convert
New France's
Huron and
Algonkian allies to
Catholicism. The seigneurial system of governing New France also encouraged immigration from the motherland.
New France became a Royal Province in 1663 under King
Louis XIV of France with a
Sovereign Council that included
intendant Jean Talon. This ushered in a golden era of
settlement and colonization in New France, including the arrival of les "
Filles du Roi". The population would grow from about 3,000 to 60,000 people between 1666 and 1760. Colonists built farms on the banks of St. Lawrence River and called themselves "
Canadiens" or "
Habitants". The colony's total population was limited, however, by a winter climate significantly harsher than that found in France; by the spread of diseases; and by the refusal of the French crown to allow
Huguenots, or French Protestants, to settle. The population of New France lagged far behind that of the
13 Colonies to the south, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Fall of New France
By the 1750s, the population of the rival British colonies to the south had surpassed 1 million, compared to barely 60,000 for New France.
In 1753 France began building a series of forts in the British
Ohio Country. They refused to leave after being notified by the Brittish Governor and in 1754
George Washington launched an attack on the French
Fort Duquesne (now
Pittsburgh) in the
Ohio Valley in an attempt enforce the British claim to the territory. This frontier battle set the stage for the
French and Indian War in North America. By 1756, France and Britain were battling the
Seven Years' War worldwide. In 1758, the
British mounted an attack on
New France by sea and took the French fort at
Louisbourg.
On 13 September 1759, General
James Wolfe defeated General
Montcalm on the
Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City. France ceded its
North American possessions to
Great Britain through the
Treaty of Paris (1763). By the
British Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of New France) was renamed the Province of Quebec.
In 1774, fearful that the French-speaking population of Quebec (as the colony was now called) would side with the rebels of the
Thirteen Colonies to the south, the British Parliament passed the
Quebec Act giving recognition to French law, Catholic religion and French language in the colony; before that Catholics had been excluded from public office and recruitment of priests and brothers forbidden, effectively shutting down Quebec's schools and colleges. The first British policy of assimilation (1763-1774) was deemed a failure. Both the petitions and demands of the Canadiens' élites, and Governor
Guy Carleton, played an important part in convincing London of dropping the assimilation scheme, but the looming American revolt was certainly a factor. By the Quebec Act, the Quebec people obtained their first Charter of rights. That paved the way to later official recognition of the
French language and
French culture. The Act allowed
Canadiens to maintain French
civil law and sanctioned the freedom of religious choice, allowing the
Roman Catholic Church to remain. It also restored the
Ohio Valley to Quebec, reserving the territory for the fur trade.
The act, designed to placate one North American colony, had the opposite effect among its neighbors to the south. The Quebec Act was among the
Intolerable Acts that infuriated
American colonists, who launched the
American Revolution. A
1775 invasion by the American
Continental Army met with early success, but was later repelled at
Quebec City. However, the
American Revolutionary War was ultimately successful in winning the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. With the
Treaty of Paris (1783), Quebec would cede its territory south of the
Great Lakes to the new United States of America.
The Patriotes' Rebellion in Lower Canada
Like their counterparts in
Upper Canada, in 1837,
English and
French speaking residents of Lower Canada, led by
Louis-Joseph Papineau and
Robert Nelson, formed an armed resistance group to seek an end to British colonial rule. They made a Declaration of rights with equality for all citizens without discrimination, and a Declaration of Independence in 1838. Their actions resulted in the
Lower Canada Rebellion. An unprepared
British Army had to raise a local
militia force and the rebel forces were soon defeated after having scored a victory in
Saint-Denis, Quebec, east of
Montreal.
Act of Union
After the rebellions,
Lord Durham was asked to undertake a study and prepare a
report on the matter and to offer a solution for the British Parliament to assess. The final report recommended that the population of Lower Canada be assimilated. Following Durham's
Report, the British government merged the two colonial provinces into one
Province of Canada in 1841. However, the union proved contentious. Reformers in both Canada West (formerly Upper Canada) and Canada East (formerly Lower Canada) worked to repeal restrictions on the use of the French language. The two colonies remained distinct in administration, election, and law. In 1849, Baldwin and LaFontaine, allies and leaders of the Reformist party, obtained the grant (from
Lord Elgin) for responsible government and returned the French language to legal status.
Canadian Confederation
In the 1860s, the delegates from the colonies of British North America (Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland) met in a series of conferences in Charlottetown, Quebec City, and London to discuss a broader union. As a result of those deliberations, in 1867 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British North America Act, providing for the Confederation of most of these provinces. The former Province of Canada was divided into its two previous parts as the provinces of
Ontario (Upper Canada) and Quebec (Lower Canada).
New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia joined Ontario and Quebec in the new Dominion of Canada. (Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland entered Confederation later, in 1873 and 1949, respectively.)
The "Quiet Revolution"
The
conservative government of
Maurice Duplessis and his
Union Nationale dominated Quebec politics from 1944 to 1960 with the support of the Catholic church.
Pierre Trudeau and other liberals formed an intellectual opposition to Duplessis's repressive regime, setting the groundwork for the
Quiet Revolution under
Jean Lesage's
Liberals. The Quiet Revolution was a period of dramatic social and political change that saw the decline of Anglo supremacy in the Quebec economy, the decline of the
Roman Catholic Church's influence, the
nationalization of
hydro-electric companies under
Hydro-Québec and the emergence of a separatist movement under former Liberal minister
René Lévesque.
The Quiet Revolution has been described by some people as the time when everyone stopped going to church; so that by the end of 1963 the Catholic churches were virtually empty. Whether this is a factual comment or simply an expression of the felt change that Quebec was going through at the time, it provides a telling commentary to the widespread change that the people in Quebec underwent during the Quiet Revolution.
|
The slogan on the current Quebec license plate, first introduced in 1978, is "Je me souviens"; French for "I remember". |
It has been Quebec's motto since Confederation. Beginning in 1963, a
terrorist group that became known as the
Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) launched a decade of bombings, robberies and attacks on government offices, resulting in at least five deaths. In 1970, their activities culminated in events referred to as the
October Crisis [
3] when
James Cross, the British trade commissioner to Canada, was kidnapped along with
Pierre Laporte, a provincial minister and Vice-Premier, who was murdered a few days later. In their published Manifesto, the terrorists stated: "In the coming year Bourassa (Quebec Premier) will have to face reality; 100,000 revolutionary workers, armed and organized."
At the request of Premier
Robert Bourassa, Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau invoked the
War Measures Act. Once the War Measures Act was in place, arrangements were made for all detainees to see legal counsel. In addition, the Quebec
Ombudsman [
4], Louis Marceau, was instructed to hear complaints of detainees and the Quebec government agreed to pay damages to any person unjustly arrested. On February 3, 1971,
John Turner, the
Minister of Justice of Canada, reported that 497 persons had been arrested under the War Measures Act, of whom 435 had been released. The other 62 were charged, of which 32 were crimes of such seriousness that a
Quebec Superior Court judge refused them bail. The crisis ended after a few weeks after the death of Pierre Laporte at the hands of his captors. The fallout of the crisis marked the zenith and twilight of the FLQ which lost membership and public support.
In 1977, the newly elected
Parti Québécois government of
René Lévesque introduced the
Charter of the French Language. Often known as
Bill 101, it defined French as the only official language of Quebec.-
The Parti Québécois and constitutional crisis
Lévesque and his party had run in the 1970 and 1973 Quebec elections under a platform of separating Quebec from the rest of Canada. The party failed to win control of Quebec's National Assembly both times - though its share of the vote increased from 23% to 30% - and Lévesque himself was defeated both times in the
riding he contested. In the 1976 election, he softened his message by promising a referendum (plebiscite) on
sovereignty-association rather than outright separation, by which Quebec would have independence in most government functions but share some other ones, such as a common currency, with Canada. On November 15, 1976, Lévesque and the Parti Québécois won control of the provincial government for the first time. The question of
sovereignty-association was placed before the voters in the
1980 Quebec referendum. During the campaign,
Pierre Trudeau promised that a vote for the NO side was a vote for reforming Canada. Trudeau advocated the
patriation of Canada's Constitution from the
United Kingdom. The existing constitutional document, the
British North America Act, could only be amended by the
United Kingdom Parliament upon a request by the Canadian parliament.
Sixty percent of the Quebec electorate voted against the proposition. Polls showed that the overwhelming majority of English and immigrant Quebecers voted against, and that French Quebecers were almost equally divided, with older voters less in favour, and younger voters more in favour. After his loss in the referendum, Lévesque went back to Ottawa to start negotiating a new constitution with Trudeau, his minister of Justice
Jean Chrétien and the nine other provincial premiers. Lévesque insisted Quebec be able to veto any future constitutional amendments. The negotiations quickly reached a stand-still.
Then on the night of November 4, 1981 (called by some separatists
La nuit des longs couteaux or the "Night of the Long Knives"'),
Pierre Elliott Trudeau met all the provincial premiers except
René Lévesque to sign the document that would eventually become the new Canadian constitution. The next morning, they put Lévesque in front of the "fait accompli." Lévesque refused to sign the document, and returned to Quebec. In 1982, Trudeau had the new constitution approved by the British Parliament, with Quebec's signature still missing (a situation that persists to this day). The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed Trudeau's assertion that every province's approval is not required to amend the constitution.
In subsequent years, two attempts were made to gain Quebec's approval of the constitution. The first was the
Meech Lake Accord of 1987, which was finally abandoned in 1990 when the provinces of
Manitoba and
Newfoundland refused to support it. This led to the formation of the
Bloc Québécois party in
Ottawa under the leadership of
Lucien Bouchard, who had resigned from the federal cabinet. The second attempt, the
Charlottetown Accord of 1992, was rejected by 56.7% of all Canadians and 57% of Quebecers. This result caused a split in the
Quebec Liberal Party that led to the formation of the new
Action Démocratique (Democratic Action) party led by
Mario Dumont and Jean Allaire.
On October 30, 1995, with the
Parti Québécois back in power since 1994, a
second referendum on sovereignty took place. This time, it was rejected by a slim majority (50.6% NO to 49.4% YES); a clear majority of French-speaking Quebecers voted in favour of sovereignty.
The referendum was enshrouded in controversy. Federalists complained that an unusually high number of ballots had been rejected in pro-federalist areas, notably in the largely Jewish and Greek riding of Chomedey (11.7 % or 5,500 of its ballots were spoiled, compared to 750 or 1.7% in the general election of 1994) although Quebec's chief electoral officer found no evidence of outright fraud. The Government of Canada was accused of not respecting provincial laws with regard to spending during referendums (leading to a corruption scandal that would become public a decade later, greatly damaging the Liberal Party's standing), and to having accelerated the naturalization of immigrant people living in the province of Québec (43,850 immigrants were naturalized in 1995, whereas the average number between 1988 and 1998 was 21,733).
The same night of the referendum, an angry
Jacques Parizeau, then premier and leader of the "Yes" side, declared that the loss was due to "
money and the ethnic vote". Parizeau resigned over public outrage and as per his commitment to do so in case of a loss.
Lucien Bouchard became Quebec's new premier in his place.
Federalists accused the separatist side of asking a vague, overly complicated question on the ballot. Its English text read as follows:
Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?After winning the next election, Bouchard retired from politics in 2001.
Bernard Landry was then appointed leader of the
Parti Québécois and premier of Quebec. In 2003, Landry lost the election to the
Quebec Liberal Party and
Jean Charest. Landry stepped down as PQ leader, and in a crowded race for the party leadership,
André Boisclair was elected to succeed him. The PQ has promised to hold another referendum should it return to government.
The
Lieutenant Governor represents
Queen Elizabeth II as
head of state. The head of government is the
Premier (called
premier ministre in French) who leads the largest party in the
unicameral National Assembly or
Assemblée Nationale, from which the Council of Ministers is appointed.
Until 1968, the Quebec
legislature was
bicameral, consisting of the
Legislative Council and the
Legislative Assembly. In that year the Legislative Council was abolished, and the Legislative Assembly was renamed the National Assembly. Quebec was the last province to abolish its legislative council.
The government of Quebec awards an order of merit called the
National Order of Quebec. It is inspired in part by the
French Legion of Honour. It is conferred upon men and women born or living in Quebec (but non-Quebecers can be inducted as well) for outstanding achievements.
|
Montreal, North America's francophone Metropolis |
The St. Lawrence River Valley is a fertile agricultural region, producing
dairy products,
fruit,
vegetables,
foie gras,
maple syrup (Quebec is the world's largest producer), and
livestock.
North of the St. Lawrence River Valley, the territory of Quebec is extremely rich in resources in its coniferous forests, lakes, and riversâ€"pulp and
paper,
lumber, and
hydroelectricity are still some of the province's most important industries.
High-tech industries are very important around Montreal. It includes the aerospace companies like jet manufacturer
Bombardier, the jet engine company
Pratt & Whitney, the flight simulator builder
CAE and defence contractor
Lockheed Martin, Canada. Those companies and other major subcontractors make Quebec the fourth biggest player worldwide in the aviation industry. Quebec's separatist debate has influenced many corporations to move their Canadian headquarters from Montreal to Toronto.
|
Château Frontenac, the world's most photographed hotel, is iconic to the province of Québec. |
Quebecers comprise the largest French-speaking society in the
Americas. Most
French Canadians live in Quebec, though there are other concentrations of French-speakers throughout Canada with varying degrees of ties to Quebec.
Montreal is the vibrant cosmopolitan cultural heart of Quebec. History made Quebec a place where cultures meet, where people from all over the world experience America, but from a little distance and through a different eye. Often described as a crossroads between Europe and America, Quebec is home to a people that are connected to the strong cultural currents of the
United States,
France, and the
UK all at the same time.
Quebec is also home to 11 aboriginal nations and to a large
English-speaking minority of approximately 600,000 people.
Quebec's
fertility rate is now among the lowest in Canada. At 1.48, it is well below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. This contrasts with the fertility rate before 1960 which was among the highest of the industrialized countries.
Although Quebec represents only 24% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec.
Quebec has a high-school dropout rate of 16%, the second highest such percentage in all of Canada.[
5]
Population of Quebec since 1851
| Year | Population | Five Year
% change | Ten Year
% change!Rank Among
Provinces | | 1851 | 892,061 | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| 1861 | 1,111,566 | n/a | 24.6 | 2 |
| 1871 | 1,191,516 | n/a | 7.2 | 2 |
| 1881 | 1,359,027 | n/a | 14.1 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1,488,535 | n/a | 9.5 | 2 |
| 1901 | 1,648,898 | n/a | 10.8 | 2 |
| 1911 | 2,005,776 | n/a | 21.6 | 2 |
| 1921 | 2,360,665 | n/a | 17.8 | 2 |
| 1931 | 2,874,255 | n/a | 21.8 | 2 |
| 1941 | 3,331,882 | n/a | 15.9 | 2 |
| 1951 | 4,055,681 | n/a | 21.8 | 2 |
| 1956 | 4,628,378 | 14.1 | n/a | 2 |
| 1961 | 5,259,211 | 13.6 | 29.7 | 2 |
| 1966 | 5,780,845 | 9.9 | 24.9 | 2 |
| 1971 | 6,027,765 | 4.3 | 14.6 | 2 |
| 1976 | 6,234,445 | 3.4 | 7.8 | 2 |
| 1981 | 6,438,403 | 3.3 | 6.8 | 2 |
| 1986 | 6,532,460 | 1.5 | 4.8 | 2 |
| 1991 | 6,895,963 | 5.6 | 7.1 | 2 |
| 1996 | 7,138,795 | 3.5 | 9.3 | 2 |
| 2001 | 7,237,479 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 2 |
Source: Statistics Canada [
6]
Ethnic origins
| Ethnic Origin | Population!Percent |
|---|
| Canadian | 4,897,475 | 68.73% |
| French | 2,111,570 | 29.63% |
| Irish | 291,545 | 4.09% |
| Italian | 249,205 | 3.50% |
| English | 218,415 | 3.07% |
| Scottish | 156,140 | 2.19% |
| North American Indian | 130,165 | 1.83% |
| Québécois | 94,940 | 1.33% |
| German | 88,700 | 1.24% |
| 82,450 | 1.16% |
| Haitian | 74,465 | 1.05% |
The information regarding ethnicities at the left is from the
2001 Canadian Census.The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g., "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category "French" and the category "Canadian".) Groups with greater than 70,000 responses are included.
Religious groups
Quebec is unique among the provinces in its overwhelmingly
Roman Catholic population. This is a legacy of colonial times; only Catholics were permitted to settle in the
New France colony.
* 90.2%
Christian** 83.3%
Roman Catholic** 4.7%
Protestant** 1.4%
Eastern Orthodox** 0.8% other Christian
* 1.5%
Muslim* 1.2%
Jewish* 7.1% non-religious
Quebec is the only Canadian province where French is the only official language. In 2001 the population was:
* French speakers: 82.0%
* English speakers: 7.9%
* Others: 10.1% (Italian 5.2%, Spanish 2.3%, Arabic 1.9%, and others)
[
7]
The motto of Quebec is
Je me souviens (I remember), which is carved into the Parliament Building façade in Quebec City and is seen on the coat of arms and licence plates.
 |
The Fleurdelisé leads a ship to harbour near Quebec City |
The graphic emblem of Quebec is the
fleur-de-lis, usually white on a blue background, as on the
flag of Quebec, the
Fleurdelisé. As indicated on the government of Quebec's Web site, the flag recalls the French
Royal banner said to have accompanied the army of
General Montcalm, Marquis de Saint-Véran during the victorious battle of Carillon in 1758. While the fleur-de-lis, a symbol of France's
Ancien Régime, may be thought of "counter-revolutionary" in France today, it is a cherished symbol in Quebec (which was never ruled by the French Republic) and is prominent in its
coat of arms.
The floral emblem of Quebec is the
Iris versicolor. It was formerly the
Madonna lily, to recall the fleur-de-lis, but has been changed to the iris, which is native to Quebec.
The avian emblem of Quebec is the
snowy owl.
In addition to the other emblems, an insect emblem has been chosen by popular vote in October 1998 during a poll sponsored by the
Montreal Insectarium: The
White Admiral (
Limenitis arthemis) [
8] won with 32 % of the 230 660 votes. The butterfly was in competition with four other candidates: the Spotted
ladybird beetle (
Coleomegilla maculata lengi), the Ebony Jewelwing
damselfly (
Calopteryx maculata), a species of
bumble bee (
Bombus impatiens) and the six-spotted
tiger beetle (
Cicindela sexguttata sexguttata). The
Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs supports and finances actions to officially recognize the White Admiral as the insect emblem.
The patron saints of French Canada are
Saint Anne and
John the Baptist.
La Saint-Jean,
June 24, is Quebec's national day and has been officially called the
Fête nationale du Québec since 1977. The song "
Gens du pays" by
Gilles Vigneault is often regarded as Quebec's unofficial anthem.
*
Alliance Quebec*
Anglo-Quebecer*
Canada*
Charter of the French Language*
Cinema of Quebec*
Civil Code of Quebec*
Education in Quebec*
État québécois*
French in Canada*
A few acres of snow*
Irish Quebecer*
Jews in Canada*
List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols*
List of Quebec cathedrals*
List of cities in Canada*
List of communities in Quebec*
List of county seats in Quebec*
List of Lieutenant Governors of Quebec*
List of Premiers of Quebec*
List of Quebec actors*
List of Quebec authors*
List of Quebec counties (historic)
*
List of Quebec county regional municipalities (current)
*
List of Quebec premiers*
List of Quebec provincial highways*
List of Quebec regions*
List of Quebec universities*
List of Quebecers*
List of Quebec-related topics*
Musicians of Quebec*
National Assembly of Quebec*
National Order of Quebec*
New France*
Office québécois de la langue française*
Politics of Canada*
Quebec French*
Quebec general elections*
Quebec's Autoroute system*
Scots-Quebecer*
Timeline of Quebec history*
Scouting in Québec
*
Government of Quebec*
Symbols and emblems of Quebec *
Bonjour Québec, Quebec government official tourist site
*
Laws to protect the endangered French languages*
CBC Digital Archives - Quebec Elections: 1960-1998*
Agora, online encyclopaedia from Quebec
History:*
Quebec History, online encyclopaedia made by Marianapolis College
*
History of the 1759 British invasion of Quebec*
The 1837-1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada, Images from the McCord Museum's collections
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Bibliothèque nationales du Québec Map Collection, 5,000 digitized maps
nds-nl:Québec (perveensie)
