Quebec

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Quebec (English version) or Québec (in French) is a province of Canada with more than 8 million people.[1]

Name and status

The official name is "Quebec" since Confederation in 1867; previous names include "New France," (to 1763), "Province of Quebec" (1763-91), "Lower Canada" (1791-1841), and "Canada East" in the Province of Canada (1841-67). The provincial government currently considers Québec to be a "distinct society" within Canada, a status that the federal government recognized in a statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in November 2006.[2] That status is reflected in many provincial policies, such as the stringent language laws that vigorously protect the use of French as the sole official language of the province. Québecois culture has also manifested itself in unique cultural, religious and legal institutions. The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s cast off Catholic traditionalism and modernized and secularized Quebec, and also set off a demand for equality within, or even independence from, Canada; in referenda, voters twice narrowly rejected seeking independence.

History

see Quebec, history

Language and identity

Unlike the rest of Canada, which is anglophone, the majority of Quebec's population speaks French - although due to immigration there are important communities speaking English, Italian, and Spanish. The issue of language has been a central political concern for over a century, and has heightened in intensity in recent decades as the provincial government has restricted the use of other languages in schools, business and signage.

Quebec has distanced itself from a Canadian identity, and businesses have followed suit. For example, in 2007 Bombardier's new national TV ad campaign extols the plane-and-train maker's Canadian identity, but omits any such reference in the French-language version. "Planes. Trains. Canadian Spirit" becomes "Planes. Trains. A Source of Pride" in the French TV spots ("Des avions. Des trains. Une fierté"). Advertisers have long realized that many of Quebec's francophone speakers are hostile to ads containing pro-Canada sentiments. Wal-Mart Canada's Quebec communications chief explains, "In many cases, if you have a prominent reference to Canada, half the population won't listen or will be irritated." Labatt's popular Blue brand of beer sports a Maple Leaf on its label, but in Quebec it is replaced with a red wheat sheaf. Molson Coors beer company did not run the famous "I Am Canadian" TV ads in Quebec; it sells its Molson Dry brand in Quebec while the Canadian brand is its flagship brew in the rest of Canada.[3]

Geography

Cities

The ten largest cities by population in Quebec[4] are:

  1. Montreal
  2. Quebec City
  3. Laval
  4. Gatineau
  5. Longueuil
  6. Sherbrooke
  7. Saguenay
  8. Levis
  9. Trois-Rivieres
  10. Terrebonne

Bibliography


Primary sources

  • Lamonde, Yvan and Corbo, Claude, eds. Le Rouge et le Bleu: Une Anthologie de la Pensée Politique au Québec de la Conquête à la Révolution Tranquille (1999). 576 pp.
  • Lévesque, René. "For an Independent Quebec." Foreign Affairs 1976 54(4): 734-744. The author was president of the Parti Québécois. Issn: 0015-7120 Fulltext: Ebsco
  • Primary sources--texts
  • Primary sources--statistics]

External links


Notes

  1. ↑ See Population and Dwelling Counts, for Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2001 and 1996 Censuses
  2. ↑ Quebec Nationalism article, CBC News backgrounder
  3. ↑ Bertrand Marotte, "'I Am Canadian' - but not necessarily in Quebec marketing," in Globe and Mail December 7, 2007 at [1]
  4. ↑ See Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses.
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