Quebec
Quebec is a Canadian province. In 2007 its population is more than 7 million people.[1]
History
The first explorers
The first European explorer to reach the province of Quebec was Jacques Cartier from France. Sailing into the St. Lawrence River, he planted a cross in Gaspé, on the south shore. The Cross officially gave France control over what would become Nouvelle France, its North American colony. Traveling up-river, Cartier established a settlement at Stadacona, near present-day Quebec City. The settlement was however abandoned in the following years, partly due to the cold winters. Another French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, would found the next settlement in 1608. From that day forward, the French presence in Quebec has continued until the present.
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.[2]
Geography
Cities
The ten largest cities by population in Quebec[3] are:
Bibliography
- Frommer's Montreal & Quebec City 2008 (2007) excerpt and text search
- Kokker, Steve. Lonely Planet Quebec (2002) excerpt and text search
History
- The Dictionary of Canadian Biography (1966-2006), thousands of scholarly biographies of notables who died by 1930
- Armstrong, Elizabeth H. The Crisis of Quebec, 1914-1918 (1937)
- Brecher, Frank W. Losing a Continent: France's North American Policy, 1753-1763 (1998)
- Cohen, Andrew, J. L. Granatstein, eds. Trudeau's shadow: the life and legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. (1999).
- Couture, Claude, and Vivien Bosley. Paddling with the Current: Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Etienne Parent, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Canada (1998)
- Dechêne, Louise. Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal (2003)
- Dickinson, John Alexander, and Brian Young. A Short History of Quebec (2003) excerpt and text search
- Eccles, W. J. The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760 (1983) online edition
- Greer, Allan The people of New France (1997)
- Greer, Allan. The patriots and the people: the rebellion of 1837 in rural Lower Canada (1993)
- Innis, Harold A. The Fur Trade in Canada (1930)
- Jaenen, Cornelius. Friend and Foe (1976) brief survey of French-Indian relations in the 16th & 17th centuries.
- Lanctot, Gustave. A History of Canada 3 vol Toronto. 1963. Volume One: From its Origins to the Royal Régime, 1663; online, Volume Two: From the Royal Régime to the Treaty of Utrecht, 1663-1713, online
- Linteau, Paul-André, René Durocher, Jean-Claude Robert, and Robert Chodos. Quebec: A History 1867-1929 (1983) Quebec Since 1930 (1991), standard 2 vol textbook.
- Manning, Helen Taft; The Revolt of French Canada, 1800-1835: A Chapter of the History of the British Commonwealth (1962) online edition
- McRoberts, Kenneth. Quebec: Social Change and Political Crisis. (1988).
- Moogk, Peter.; La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History (2000) to 1763 online edition
- Neatby, H. Blair. Laurier and a Liberal Quebec: A Study in Political Management (1973) online edition
- Saywell, John. ; The Rise of the Parti Québécois 1967-76 (1977) online edition
- Trofimenkoff, Susan Mann. Dream of Nation: A Social and Intellectual History of Quebec (1982)
- Trudel, Marcel. The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 (1973)
- Wade, Mason. The French Canadians, 1760-1945 (1955), standard history, 1136pp online edition
- Young, Brian, George-Etienne Cartier: Montreal bourgeois (1981)
notes
- ↑ See Population and Dwelling Counts, for Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2001 and 1996 Censuses
- ↑ Bertrand Marotte, "'I Am Canadian' - but not necessarily in Quebec marketing," in Globe and Mail December 7, 2007 at [1]
- ↑ See Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses.