(; also known as Quebecers or Quebeckers in English) are people associated with
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. The term is most often used in reference to either descendants of the French settlers in Quebec or people of any ethnicity who live and trace their origins to the province of
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
.
Self-identification as Québécois became dominant starting in the 1960s; prior to this, the francophone people of Quebec mostly identified themselves as
French Canadians and as ''Canadiens'' before anglophones started identifying as Canadians as well. A majority in the
House of Commons of Canada in 2006 approved
a motion tabled by
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Stephen Harper, which stated that the Québécois are a
nation
A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
within a united Canada.
[Michael M. Brescia, John C. Super. ''North America: an introduction''. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Pp. 72.] Harper later elaborated that the motion's definition of Québécois relies on personal decisions to
self-identify as Québécois, and therefore is a personal choice.
Nomenclature
''Québécois'' (pronounced );
feminine: ''Québécoise'' (pronounced ), ' (fem.: '), or ' (fem.: ') is a word used primarily to refer to a French-speaking inhabitant of the
Canadian province
Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...
of
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. Sometimes, it is used more generally to refer to any inhabitant of Quebec. It can refer to
French spoken in Quebec. It may also be used, with an upper- or lower-case initial, as an adjective relating to Quebec, or to the French-Canadian
culture of Quebec. A resident or native of Quebec is often referred to in English as a Quebecer or Quebecker. In French, ''Québécois'' or ''Québécoise'' usually refers to any native or resident of Quebec.
[ "''Specialt.'' (répandu v. 1965). Du groupe ethnique et linguistique canadien français composant la majorité de la population du Québec. Littérature québécoise; cinéma québécoise."] Its use became more prominent in the 1960s as
French Canadians from Quebec increasingly self-identified as Québécois.
English usage
English expressions employing the term may imply specific reference to francophones; examples include "Québécois music","a Québécois rocker" or "Québécois literature".
Ethnic designation in French
Dictionaries
The dictionary ''Le
Petit Robert
''Le Petit Robert de la Langue Française'' (), known as just ''Petit Robert'', is a popular single-volume French dictionary first published by Paul Robert in 1967. It is an abridgement of his eight-volume ''Dictionnaire alphabétique et analo ...
'', published in France, states that the adjective ''québécois'', in addition to its territorial meaning, may refer specifically to francophone or French Canadian culture in Quebec. The dictionary gives as examples ''cinéma québécois'' and ''littérature québécoise''.
However, an ethnic or linguistic sense is absent from ''Le
Petit Larousse'', also published in France, as well as from French dictionaries published in Canada such as ''Le Dictionnaire québécois d'aujourd'hui'' and ''Le Dictionnaire du français Plus'', which indicate instead ''Québécois francophone'' "francophone Quebecer" in the linguistic sense.
The online dictionary ''Grand dictionnaire terminologique'' of the
Office québécois de la langue française mentions only a territorial meaning for ''Québécois''.
Other opinion
Newspaper editor
Lysiane Gagnon has referred to an ethnic sense of the word ''Québécois'' in both English and French.
Etymology
The name ''Québec'' comes from an
Algonquin word meaning 'narrow passage' or 'strait'. The name originally referred to the area around
Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
where the
Saint Lawrence River narrows to a cliff-lined gap. French explorer
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...
chose this name in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the administrative seat for the French colony of
Canada, New France, Canada and
New France
New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
. The
Province of Quebec was first founded as a
British colony in the
Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the
Treaty of Paris formally transferred the
French colony of
New France
New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
to Britain after the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
. Quebec City remained the capital. In 1774,
Guy Carleton obtained from the British Government the
Quebec Act, which gave
Canadiens most of the territory they held before 1763; the right of religion; and their right of language and culture. The British Government did this to in order to keep their loyalty, in the face of a growing menace of independence from the 13 original British colonies.
Québécois as an ethnicity
As shown by the 2016
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
census, 58.3% of residents of Quebec identify their ethnicity as
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
, 23.5% as
French and 0.4% as
Acadian
The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...
. Roughly 2.3% of residents, or 184,005 people, describe their ethnicity as ''Québécois''.
Québécois identity
The term became more common in English as ''Québécois'' largely replacing ''
French Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
'' as an expression of cultural and national identity among French Canadians living in Quebec during the
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. The predominant French Canadian nationalism and identity of previous generations was based on the protection of the
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...
, the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, and Church-run institutions across Canada and in parts of the United States. In contrast, the modern Québécois identity is secular and based on a
social democratic
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
ideal of an active Quebec government promoting the French language and French-speaking culture in the arts, education, and business within the
Province of Quebec. Politically, this resulted in a push towards more autonomy for Quebec and an internal debate on
Quebec independence and identity that continues to this day. The emphasis on the French language and Quebec autonomy means that French-speakers across Canada now self-identify more specifically with provincial or regional identity-tags, such as ''acadienne'', or ''franco-canadienne'', ''franco-manitobaine'', ''franco-ontarienne'' or ''fransaskoise''. Terms such as
Franco-Ontarian
Franco-Ontarians ( or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2021, according to the Government of Ontario, ther ...
and
Franco-Manitoban are still predominant. Francophones and anglophones use many terms when discussing issues of francophone linguistic and cultural identity in English.
Québécois nation
The political shift towards a new
Quebec nationalism in the 1960s led to Québécois increasingly referring to provincial institutions as being national. This was reflected in the change of the provincial ''Legislative Assembly'' to ''
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
'' in 1968. Nationalism reached an apex in the 1970s and 1990s, with contentious constitutional debates resulting in close to half of all of French-speaking Québécois seeking recognition of nation status through tight referendums on
Quebec sovereignty in 1980 and 1995. Having lost both referendums, the sovereigntist
Parti Québécois government renewed the push for recognition as a nation through symbolic motions that gained the support of all parties in the National Assembly. They affirmed the right to determine the independent status of Quebec. They also renamed the area around Quebec City the ''
Capitale-Nationale'' (national capital) region and renamed provincial parks ''Parcs Nationaux'' (national parks). In opposition in October 2003, the Parti Québécois tabled a motion that was unanimously adopted in the National Assembly affirming that the Quebec people formed a nation.
Bloc Québécois leader
Gilles Duceppe scheduled a similar motion in the House of Commons for November 23, 2006, that would have recognized "Quebecers as a nation".
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Prime Minister
Stephen Harper tabled the ''
Québécois nation motion'' the day before the Bloc Québécois resolution came to a vote. The English version changed the word ''Quebecer'' to ''Québécois'' and added "within a united Canada" at the end of the Bloc motion.
The
"Québécois nation" was recognized by the
House of Commons of Canada on November 27, 2006. The Prime Minister specified that the motion used the ''"cultural"'' and ''"sociological"'' as opposed to the ''"legal"'' sense of the word ''"nation"''. According to Harper, the motion was of a symbolic political nature, representing no constitutional change, no recognition of Quebec sovereignty, and no legal change in its political relations within the federation. The
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
has further elaborated, stating that the motion's definition of Québécois relies on personal decisions to
self-identify as Québécois, and therefore is a personal choice.
Despite near-universal support in the House of Commons, several important dissenters criticized the motion. Intergovernmental Affairs minister
Michael Chong resigned from his position and abstained from voting, arguing that this motion was too ambiguous and had the potential of recognizing a destructive
ethnic nationalism in Canada.
Liberals were the most divided on the issue and represented 15 of the 16 votes against the motion. Liberal MP
Ken Dryden summarized the view of many of these dissenters, maintaining that it was a game of semantics that cheapened issues of national identity. A survey by
Leger Marketing in November 2006 showed that Canadians were deeply divided on this issue. When asked if Québécois are a nation, only 53 per cent of Canadians agreed, 47 per cent disagreed, with 33 per cent strongly disagreeing; 78 per cent of French-speaking Canadians agreed that Québécois are a nation, compared with 38 per cent of English-speaking Canadians. As well, 78 per cent of 1,000 Québécois polled thought that Québécois should be recognized as a nation.
Québécois in census and ethnographic studies
The Québécois self-identify as an ethnic group in both the English and French versions of the Canadian census and in demographic studies of ethnicity in Canada.
In the 2016 census, 74,575 chose Québécois as one of multiple responses with 119,985 choosing it as a single response (194,555 as a combined response).
In the 2001 Census of Canada, 98,670 Canadians, or just over 1% of the population of Quebec identified "Québécois" as their ethnicity, ranking "Québécois" as the 37th most common response. These results were based on a question on residents in each household in Canada: ''"To which ethnic or cultural group(s) did this person's ancestors belong?"'', along with a list of sample choices ("Québécois" did not appear among the various sample choices). The ethnicity ''"Canadien"'' or Canadian, did appear as an example on the questionnaire, and was selected by 4.9 million people or 68.2% of the Quebec population.
In the more detailed ''Ethnic Diversity Survey'',
Québécois was the most common ethnic identity in Quebec, reported by 37% of
Quebec's population aged 15 years and older, either as their only identity or alongside
other identities.
[
] The survey, based on interviews, asked the following questions: ''"1) I would now like to ask you about your ethnic ancestry, heritage or background. What were the ethnic or cultural origins of your ancestors? 2) In addition to "Canadian", what were the other ethnic or cultural origins of your ancestors on first coming to North America?"''
[
] This survey did not list possible choices of ancestry and permitted multiple answers.
In census ethnic surveys, French-speaking Canadians identify their ethnicity most often as
French, ''Canadien'', ''Québécois'', or
French Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
, with the latter three referred to by Jantzen (2005) as "French New World" ancestries because they originate in Canada. Jantzen (2005) distinguishes the English ''Canadian'', meaning "someone whose family has been in Canada for multiple generations", and the French ''Canadien'', used to refer to descendants of the original settlers of
New France
New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Those reporting "French New World" ancestries overwhelmingly had ancestors that went back at least 4 generations in Canada: specifically, 90% of ''Québécois'' traced their ancestry back this far. Fourth generation Canadiens and Québécois showed considerable attachment to their ethno-cultural group, with 70% and 61% respectively reporting a strong sense of belonging.
The generational profile and strength of identity of French New World ancestries contrast with those of British or Canadian ancestries, which represent the largest ethnic identities in Canada. Although deeply rooted Canadians express a deep attachment to their ethnic identity, most English-speaking Canadians of British ancestry generally cannot trace their ancestry as far back in Canada as French-speakers. As a result, their identification with their ethnicity is weaker tending to have a more broad based cultural identification: for example, only 50% of third generation "Canadians" strongly identify as such, bringing down the overall average. The survey report notes that 80% of Canadians whose families had been in Canada for three or more generations reported "Canadian and provincial or regional ethnic identities". These identities include "Québécois" (37% of Quebec population), "Acadian" (6% of Atlantic provinces) and "Newfoundlander" (38% of Newfoundland and Labrador).
Special terms using 'Québécois'
French expressions employing "Québécois" often appear in both French and English.
*''
Parti Québécois'': Provincial-level political party that supports Quebec independence from Canada
*''
Bloc Québécois'': Federal-level political party that supports Quebec independence from Canada
*''Québécois de souche'' ("old-stock Quebecker"): Quebecer who can trace their ancestry back to the regime of
New France
New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
*''Québécois
pure laine'': "true blue" or "dyed-in-the-wool" Quebecker
*''Québécois francophone'': "francophone Quebecer"
*''Québécois anglophone'': "anglophone Quebecer"
*''néo-Québécois'' ("new Quebecers"): immigrant Quebecers
*''Le Québec aux Québécois'' ("Quebec for Québécois", or "Quebec for Quebecers"): slogan sometimes chanted at Quebec nationalist rallies or protests. This slogan can be controversial, as it might be interpreted both as a call for a Quebec controlled by ''Québécois pure laine'', with possible xenophobic connotations, or as a call for a Quebec controlled by the inhabitants of the province of Quebec, and free from outside interference.
See also
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Language demographics of Quebec
*
Culture of Quebec
*
Cuisine of Quebec
*
Symbols of Quebec
*
English-speaking Quebecers
*
Quebecer (disambiguation)
*
Quebec (disambiguation)
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Quebecois people
French-speaking ethnicities in Canada