Quebec, The Province, The People, The History :: essays research papers

Quebec, The Province, The People, The History     Quebec is a province in eastern Canada, bordered on the north by HudsonStrait and Ungava Bay on the east by Labrador (Which is a part of juvenilefoundland),the Strait of Belle Isle, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the south by NewBrunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Ontario and on the westby Ontario, James Bay, and Hudson Bay.     The name Quebec is derived from an Algonquian term for "place where theriver 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 ofthe Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, as one of the four originalprovinces.     The province of Quebec was first colonized by France and was formallyacquired by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. The mass l egal age ofQuebecs population today use French as their first language. Beginning in themid-sixties the Quebecois (French-speaking residents of Quebec) made strong efforts topreserve their French heritage as well as to gain additional powers for theprovince, which led to conflicts with the national government that hire yet tobe fully resolved. This is app bent in the recent "Referendum" wheretheQuebecois tried to get Quebec special provincial concederations based on thefact the mass majority of Quebec residents speak French.     Quebec is the largest of all the Canadian provinces. Its large area of1,540,680 sq km (594,858 sq MI) accounts for 15.5 percent of Canadas total areaand includes 183,890 sq km (71,000 sq MI) of inland freshwater surface. This isa major stray for Industry in Quebec. Elevations in Quebec range from sea levelto 1622 m (5322 ft), atop Mont DIberville in the Torngat Mountains in thenortheast. Anticosti Island and the Magdalen Islands , (which are both in theGulf of St. Lawrence), are part of Quebec, which has a tidal shoreline of some13,775 km (some 8560 MI).     Montreal is the leading industrial and commercial center and largestcity in the province of Quebec.     The climate of Quebec varies drastically. Quebecs climate is effectedby regional variations in altitude and by the pces northern location, and itsexposed position between the cold waters of Hudson Bay and the cold oceancurrents along the Labrador coast. Montreal has an average January temperatureof 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 -54.4C (-65.9 F), in 1923 at Doucet in the south, to 40 C (104 F), in 1921 at