 |
|
ESSAY SAMPLE ON "QUEBEC, THE PROVINCE, THE PEOPLE, THE HISTORY" |
Quebec, The Province, The People, The History
Quebec is a province in eastern Canada, bordered on the north by Hudson Strait and
Ungava Bay; on the east by Labrador (Which is a part of Newfoundland), the Strait of
Belle Isle, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; on the south by New Brunswick, Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Ontario; and on the west by Ontario, James Bay, and
Hudson Bay.
The name Quebec is derived from an Algonquian term for "place where the river narrows,"
referring to the Saint Lawrence River near the site of present-day Quebec City, the
capital of the province.
Quebec is sometimes called "the Storied Province," Quebec became part of the Canadian
Confederation on July 1, 1867, as one of the four original provinces.
The province of Quebec was first colonized by France and was formally acquired by Great
Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. The mass majority of Quebec's population today
use French as their first language. Beginning in the 1960s the Quebecois (French-speaking
residents of Quebec) made strong efforts to preserve their French heritage as well as to
gain additional powers for the province, which led to conflicts with the national
government that have yet to be fully resolved. This is apparent in the recent
"Referendum" where theQuebecois tried to get Quebec special provincial concederations
based on the fact the mass majority of Quebec residents speak French.
Quebec is the largest of all the Canadian provinces. Its large area of 1,540,680 sq km
(594,858 sq MI) accounts for 15.5 percent of Canada's total area and includes 183,890 sq
km (71,000 sq MI) of inland freshwater surface. This is a major draw for Industry in
Quebec. Elevations in Quebec range from sea level to 1622 m (5322 ft), atop Mont
D'Iberville in the Torngat Mountains in the northeast. Anticosti Island and the Magdalen
Islands, (which are both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence), are part of Quebec, which has a
tidal shoreline of some 13,775 km (some 8560 MI).
Montreal is the leading industrial and commercial center and largest city in the
province of Quebec.
The climate of Quebec varies drastically. Quebec's climate is effected by regional
variations in altitude and by the pce's northern location, and its exposed position
between the cold waters of Hudson Bay and the cold ocean currents along the Labrador
coast. Montreal has an average January temperature of about -9? C (about 16? F) and an
average July temperature of about 22? C (about 72? F). The recorded temperatures in the
province have ranged from -54.4? C (-65.9? F), in 1923 at Doucet in the south, to 40? C
(104? F), in 1921 at Ville Marie in the southwest.
According to the 1991 census, Quebec had a population of 6,895,963 people, an increase
of 5.6 percent over 1986. The population density in 1991 was about 4 persons per sq km
(12 per sq MI); the distribution of population, however, was uneven, with the majority
concentrated in the extreme southeast of Quebec, mainly due to extreme temperature in the
north. French was the main native language of about 81% of the people; about 9% had
English as their only native language. Most of the English-speaking people live in
Montreal and the Eastern Townships, because English is very common here. Quebec's largest
cities are: Montreal, the largest city in Canada; Laval; Quebec City, the provincial
capital; Longueuil; Gatineau; and Montreal-Nord.
|
| Click here for more essays on QUEBEC, THE PROVINCE, THE PEOPLE, THE HISTORY |
|
|
|