Geography

Located in the northeast of the North American continent, Canada's largest province covers an area of 1,667,926 km2 (643,819 sq. mi.). It is twice the size of Texas and seven times the size of the United Kingdom.
Québec's immense territory stretches for nearly 2,000 km (1,250 miles) from north to south, and 1,500 km (930 miles) from east to west. It extends from the fertile St. Lawrence Lowlands bordering four US states (New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine), to the vast expanse of Baffin Island and the northern boreal seas. Québec borders Ontario on the west and New Brunswick on the east.
Québec has an astounding diversity of landscapes. Its vast expanse of boreal forest, taiga and tundra is scattered with a million lakes and rivers, comprising a fresh water network of 180,000 km2 (69,500 sq. mi.). Its rugged Gaspé Peninsula and island-scattered North Shore reach into the majestic Gulf of St. Lawrence.
One of the world's major rivers, the St. Lawrence also shapes the topography of Québec's southern regions. Its fertile plain stretches between the Canadian Shield to the north and the Appalachian Mountains to the south.
Québec's Laurentians are some of the oldest mountains on the planet. Québec's two highest mountains are Mont D'Iberville (1,622 m/5,320 feet) in the Torngat chain bordering Labrador, and Mont Jacques-Cartier (1,268 m/4,160 feet) in the Chic-Chocs range on the Gaspé peninsula.

Climate

Québec has three distinct climates: the humid continental climate in the region covered by boreal forest (south of the 50th parallel), the subarctic climate in the taiga region (between the 50th-58th parallels), and the arctic climate of Nunavik, the tundra region above the 58th parallel, home of the Inuit.
Québec's southernmost climate is marked by seasonal extremes of temperature. A rigorous snowy Winter, with an average annual snowfall of over 3 metres (10 feet), gives way to an exhilarating spring and a hot summer, extinguished by a crisp and flamboyant autumn.

Population

French-speaking Quebecers:
Québec's more than 7 million inhabitants make up a mainly French-speaking society. Many of the roughly 6 million French-speakers are descended from colonists who came from France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, Quebecers are meeting the challenge of living in French and maintaining a French-speaking society in North America, which is home to 300 million English-speakers.

English-speaking Quebecers:
English-speaking Quebecers are descended mainly from British immigrants, but also from other ethnic groups seeking a better life in North America. Other immigrants left the United States after the American War of Independence, out of loyalty for the mother country. At present, there are more than 590 000 English-speakers in Québec, who live above all in the Montréal area. They enjoy various recognized rights, such as an English-language school system from kindergarten up to and including university, a hospital network, means of communication and so on.

Immigrants:
The population of Québec also includes some 600,000 immigrants who have come from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia since the beginning of the century. They have contributed significantly to Québec's cultural diversity and vitality. Québec admitted almost 40,000 immigrants every year.

The first inhabitants:
There are some 82,825 Native peoples in Québec, descendants of North America's first inhabitants. Of this number, 72,770 are Amerindians and 10,055 are Inuit.

Economy

Over the last number of years, Québec has had a strong economic performance. The largest Canadian province, Québec has a gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $265 billion Canadian, 70 % of which comes from the service sector. The GDP is equivalent to approximately US$205 billion or $EUR165 billion.

International Comparisons:
Although it is not a country, the province of Québec has an economy whose scope compares with that of Portugal. Its economy therefore ranks 41st in the world, and 21st in terms of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Furthermore, Québec's GDP per person, it can be compared to that of Germany and Italy and even surpasses that of Spain.

History

Québec's first inhabitants were Indians and Inuit who migrated from Asia thousands of years ago, before the continents drifted apart. The first Europeans to visit the shores of Québec's fertile St. Lawrence Gulf were Basque whalers and cod fishermen. Commissioned by François I, the King of France, Jacques Cartier landed in the Gaspé in 1534. After Cartier claimed possession of this immense territory for France, the European presence in New France began to grow.
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain anchored on the north shore of the St. Lawrence in a place the Indians called Kébec. He founded a trading post on the Place Royale, in what was to become Québec City. Soon after, French coureurs de bois arrived, eager to trade in precious furs.
In 1642 Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, landed with a group of French colonists at what is now in Old Montréal. There he founded a small Catholic mission named Ville Marie. From 1660 to 1713 the settlement of New France accelerated as France established colonies in Acadia (now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and along the shores of the St. Lawrence. By the late 18th century, Ville Marie had grown from a trading post into the thriving port of Montréal.
During the French and English War, the armies of British Major General James Wolfe attacked Québec City on September 13, 1759 and defeated the French troops of Commander Louis Joseph de Montcalm. This Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which both generals lost their lives, altered the destiny of New France. Four years later, under the Treaty of Paris, the King of France granted to "His Royal Majesty, the sole ownership of Canada and all its dependencies." This transfer of power and territory from France to England sparked a flood of new colonists from England, Ireland and Scotland.
The Canadian Constitution Act of 1791 established two provinces: Upper Canada (primarily English-speaking Ontario), and Lower Canada (primarily French-speaking Québec) with Québec City as its capital. The British army crushed the Québec Patriot Rebellion of 1837-1838 and in 1841, the Act of Union united Upper and Lower Canada. In 1867, the signing of the British North America Act established the Confederation of Canadian Provinces including Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
By 1830, Montréal - the "Paris of the North"- had become Canada's major industrial center, welcoming waves of European immigrants fleeing war and misery in their homelands.
In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened Montréal up to the world, and in 1967, the world came to Montréal. In the 1970's, debates over the supremacy of the French language crystalized around the province. In 1976, the Parti Québécois was voted into power, led by charismatic René Lévesque. In 1980, in a popular referendum, Québec voters rejected the proposition of sovereignty-association with the federal government of Canada. In October, 1995 a second referendum on Québec independence was also defeated by a narrow margin.

Economy

Educational Spending Relative to the GDP

In 2001, Québec spent a larger portion of its GDP on education (7.0%) than the rest of Canada (5.9%) and the other OECD countries (5.8%). In fact, only Korea, the United States and Denmark spent a larger portion of their GDP on education than Québec. The other 26 countries examined by the OECD spent a smaller portion of their GDP on education.