Quebec which country

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Thank you. The struggle of this community to carve out a distinct identity in the midst of other English-speaking Canadians or even the growing immigrant population, its need to establish its dominance as one of the founding communities of Quebec, has often translated into a demand for Quebec separatism.

This does not necessarily mean that there is a demand for sovereignty — the Francophone community of Quebec and the political leaders supported by this community have time and again raised a demand for decentralization of the Canadian government.

This is also the cause of a rift between the French-speaking community of Quebec usually referred to as the Quebecois and the other residents who go by the name Quebecers. The dynamic growth of Canada as a diversity embracing, rich confluence of cultures has, however, made it a peace-loving and strong nation easily capable of reconciling such differences. The capital of Quebec is Quebec City — the oldest city of the country — which is now over years old. Around 33 million m 3 of wood is cut each year, 80 per cent of which is conifer.

Most of the cut wood is used for lumber and pulp manufacturing. For the last 20 years, a vast reforestation program has been underway. However, the number of trees planted annually has diminished since due to the adoption of new practices such as timber harvesting that protects advance regeneration.

Consequently, in , million seedlings were planted, compared with million in More than three quarters of these trees were planted in public forests and the majority were softwood. The pulp and paper industry in Quebec is among the 10 leading producers in the world and the second-largest exporter of newsprint in Canada. Over 23, workers are employed in this sector, producing about 42 per cent of Canada's paper.

Timber, wood pulp and newsprint together constitute 20 per cent of Quebec exports, 80 per cent of which goes to the US.

The lumber industry is another active sector. There are over 1, lumber processing plants, and the wood industry alone employs over 36, people. By , this number had been reduced to 1, fishermen.

Most owned boats that are less than 10 m long. Quebec's annual catch is only a fraction of that taken by the Atlantic Provinces. The main catches are groundfish and various molluscs and crustaceans.

The fishery now relies more on shellfish, which make up two-thirds of the catch. Groundfish now account for only 10 per cent of the catch and pelagic fish e. Quebec is the largest producer of electricity in Canada. Its installed generating capacity is 36, MW, or more than 30 per cent of the Canadian total, more than 99 per cent of the production is hydraulic.

In the s, the province tried to reduce its dependency on petroleum products. In petroleum accounted for 74 per cent of all energy used in the province. In , it was The hydro main project of the s was the James Bay project. It produces over 10, MW of electricity. A large portion of this electricity is exported to Ontario, New Brunswick and the northeastern United States. French and English merchants dreamed of a commercial empire along the St.

Although the North American commercial empire never materialized, the St. The opening of the St. The opening of the seaway in , while contributing to the development of North Shore ports, also led to the rapid growth of Ontario ports on the Great Lakes. In the mids, The railway network was mainly developed in southern Quebec, though the National Transcontinental Railway was an expensive, failed effort to open up frontiers in the north.

The construction of the Mirabel airport in the s was very controversial. Today, in retrospect, it seems that the detractors of the project were right: in , international flights were all dispatched back to Dorval airport, leaving only air freight to Mirabel.

Almost 85 per cent of the 10 million passengers who annually used Quebec's airports passed through Dorval and Mirabel. The province has 55, km of roads and 2, km of superhighways. More than 3. The political institutions of the province of Quebec have not fundamentally changed since Initially a French colony, Quebec was later administered directly by British authorities. In it became part of a legislative union, and in a member of the Canadian federation.

In Quebec did not sign Canada's repatriated Constitution, although it did sign an accord in to enter into Canada's constitutional agreement see Meech Lake Accord ; Meech Lake Accord: Document and another, the so-called Charlottetown Accord see Charlottetown Accord: Document , in However, neither of these was ratified and the latter was overwhelmingly rejected in a national referendum. The evolution of Quebec's institutions has thus not been marked by any legal discontinuity.

The most important institutions are the central political institutions. Quebec, like all constitutional regimes with a British tradition, has no rigid division of legislative and executive functions among its various agencies. Its political system is based on co-operation rather than on a separation of powers. In the s, efforts were made to ensure an equal number of voters per riding around 34, voters.

The National Assembly has the power to pass laws in areas defined as provincial jurisdiction by section 92 of the British North America Act.

The political party with a majority of seats in the National Assembly forms a government. The leader of the party becomes the premier of the province see Quebec Premiers: Table. The Queen's representative in the province is the lieutenant-governor. He or she is appointed by federal authorities in consultation with the province.

The role is mainly symbolic, but in some situations the lieutenant-governor may be called upon to settle a parliamentary issue. As the sovereign's direct and personal representative, the lieutenant-governor ensures the continuity of government. It is the Conseil executif that decides on the general orientation of government action. The 27 or so Cabinet ministers are appointed by the premier and are bound by the principle of ministerial solidarity.

Since the s, major reforms have transformed the operations of these central bodies. The National Assembly's rules of procedure were modernized and adapted to Quebec's circumstances: a total of 11 parliamentary standing committees have been established and debates are now televised. The Conseil executif is operating more and more with the assistance of departmental standing committees, each headed by a minister of state. A priorities committee provides better planning, and a treasury board, headed by a minister, is responsible for formulating and implementing the government's financial policies.

From the Conquest of and the Royal Proclamation of , and basically until , Quebec was a British colony. In , with the Constitutional Act , the frontiers of the colony were reduced to what is essentially southern Quebec today. The colony was also granted an elected Assembly. But the territory, like any other British colony, was directly and undemocratically governed from the metropolis through a governor named by London and a body of Councils also composed of non-elected members.

The Assembly had limited powers. Because French-Canadians had developed a distinct identity by the end of the 18th century, the struggle for democracy became, at least for half a century, synonymous with nationalism. After the Rebellion of , Quebec was amalgamated with Upper Canada Ontario in and became part of a legislative union. After the failure of that union, Quebec became in a province of the Canadian federation.

For many French-speaking Canadians who supported the British North America Act of , Confederation was based on the principle of a federation of nations, namely the British and the French both the French and the British excluded the First Nations. But that interpretation of Confederation was never shared by a majority of English-speaking Canadians. They tended to see Canada as a homogeneous nation composed of different regions represented by the provinces.

This unresolved debate about the nature of the federation has been at the core of every political and constitutional crisis in Canada and the province of Quebec since Two years later a major crisis in Quebec-Canada relations occurred when Quebec did not sign Canada's repatriated Constitution initiated by Pierre Elliott Trudeau government.

The second crisis occurred between and during the debate about the Meech Lake Accord. In the Charlottetown was rejected, although for different reasons, by both Quebec and the rest of Canada.

In , a second referendum in Quebec on sovereignty was barely won by the federalist side After the Conquest and during the 19th century, the French referred to themselves as "les Canadiens" and described the "others" as "les Anglais. This contributed to the emergence of a separatist movement and a "Quebec only" identity. From to provincial politics were dominated by the Conservative Party. The conservatives ruled for all but five of those years, and from to The power of the Conservative Party symbolized the alliance between the Church and business, and a commitment to a socially conservative society led by private enterprise.

Wilfrid Laurier 's victory at the federal level in propelled the provincial Liberals to power in They remained in power for half a century, except between and , until The Liberals maintained the alliance between the Church and private enterprise. The Church was given a free hand in social affairs and education while the political and economical spheres were left to politicians and businesspeople.

The domination of the Liberals was interrupted in when Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale party took power. That party resulted from the merger of the provincial Conservative Party and a group of young Liberal dissidents active during the Depression.

The Godbout government was perhaps the most socially progressive provincial government of the century in Quebec. But its accomplishments were overshadowed by Second World War when the federal government used its special wartime powers to intervene in provincial affairs.

In the domination of the Liberal Party since really came to an end. With only 35 per cent of the popular vote, Maurice Duplessis was re-elected and this time governed until The Duplessis government was characteristic of the Cold War, right wing and vehemently anti-Communist. Opposition to his extremely conservative style of government in the s prepared the field for the reforms of the s.

When a group of young liberals led by Jean Lesage took power in it was the beginning of a new era and the period of reforms known as the Quiet Revolution.

The Church was replaced by the provincial state in social affairs and the state intervened in the economy to promote the interests of French-speaking business.

The emphasis on the provincial state corresponded with a change in the self-identification of many French-Canadians in Quebec. Historians still debate the nature and effects of the Quiet Revolution. For some experts, the Quiet Revolution was a period of immense change that at last brought Quebec into the modern world. For others, the alliance of the Church and business, beginning from at least the second half of the 19th century, was a typical contradiction of modernity.

To these observers, the changes of the s, despite their magnitude, were simply a realignment of political and social forces in an already modern society. Ironically, a few months before the provincial election in Quebec, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau had proclaimed the death of 'separatism' in Quebec.

Others have argued that it was a form of secession. Despite the fact that the question seemed moderate, the federalist No side won convincingly by almost 60 per cent to 40 per cent. It was thus a government of the PQ in power in when Pierre Elliott Trudeau patriated the constitution from Britain. Robert Bourassa , who had patiently rebuilt his control over the provincial Liberal Party after his astonishing defeat in , became once again the premier of Quebec in But this second mandate was also very controversial, with the Oka crisis in the summer of , just after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, and the no less catastrophic failure of the Charlottetown Accord in Parizeau resigned, and Lucien Bouchard was sworn in as leader.

Bernard Landry became the province's leader in Charest remained in power for nine years and was re-elected twice. In the spring of , a proposal to increase tuition fees was met with outrage by students, who took to the streets in protest. They were joined by other groups of citizens in a general expression of frustration with the government. Her term, however, lasted only 18 months.

On 7 April , Philippe Couillard became the 31st premier of Quebec after 13 months as Liberal leader. Quebec has 75 representatives in the federal House of Commons and 24 members in the Senate. The federal and Quebec authorities coordinate their activities, not without difficulty, through about joint committees and a number of federal-provincial conferences. It is in international relations, however, that Quebec has asserted itself. In Quebec opened two offices abroad and, in , a trade officer was appointed to France.

Later, in , the first Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs now Relations internationales was created.