KidZone Geography - Canadian Provinces
Quebec, Canada

Quebec map© Contributed by Leanne Guenther

Quebec is the largest Canadian province (in terms of area) and can be found on the map east of Ontario.  Quebec City is the capital of Quebec.  The main language spoken in Quebec is French.

Quebec joined the Canadian Confederation in 1867.

Check out our brief photo tour of Quebec if you'd like to see more of the scenery of the province or if you need photos for a school project.

You can find out a lot of interesting information about the province at www.gouv.qc.ca

olympic park, montreal

© Leanne Guenther
Olympic stadium - Montreal, Quebec

Free Printable Worksheets:

Free On-Line Activities:


Quebec mapThe Provincial Flag

The Quebec provincial flag was adopted on January 21, 1948.  The flag depicts a white cross and 4 'fleurs-de-lis' on a blue background.  The fleurs-de-lis had been used as the royal seal on the banners of French kings since the 1100's.


Quebec flowerThe Provincial Flower

The blue flag iris is the flower native to Quebec that most closely resembles the fleur-de-lis.  It replaced the Madonna Lily as Quebec's provincial flower in 1999.


The Provincial Bird

Quebec bird

© Leanne Guenther
at the Calgary Zoo

The snowy owl winters throughout all of Quebec and nests in the northern tundra region during the summer.  It was adopted as Quebec's provincial bird in 1987.

The snowy owl is 'a raptor' or meat eating bird.  Unlike most owls, it hunts during the day as well as the night, feeding mostly on lemmings.

There is a strong, 'separatist' movement in Quebec, including a strong provincial party that usually makes up the majority of the government members.  This movement wishes to be their own country, apart from Canada.  The main issues are language and culture.  They are concerned their French speaking culture is being overshadowed by the majority English speaking culture of Canada.  In 1995, there was a 'referendum' (vote of all the people) in Quebec about whether the people wished to separate.  The vote to stay a part of Canada won by a very small majority (50.56%).  No one knows what would have happened if the majority had wanted to separate -- the vote simply reflected the wishes of the people and was not legally binding.  However, in a democratic country like Canada, the wishes of the people have great influence!


 

Other Links you might like: