A little bit of History

Discovered by John Cabot in 1497, Canada would be "re-discovered" by several people: for example, Verrazano, who paid only a short visit in 1524, but still managed to get a bridge named after himself in New York.

Jacques Cartier, from St. Malo, came over three times.  During his second visit, he happened upon a long river, and being a little short on creativity, he named it the Saint Lawrence, since it was the saint's holy day.  In 1608, Samuel de Champlain explored a little further. By now, colonies were beginning to show up. Two years later, Henry Hudson was ecstatic to find himself on the shore of a huge bay. He looked to the left and to the right, and finding himself alone, he decided to name it after himself. What an ego! In 1620, New France had only 60 citizens. By 1653 it had grown to 2,000.

Friction with the English began when Richelieu sent missionaries, and Mazarin named Jean Talon as Governor of the province. Talon began developing towns and set up a communication system. Trouble didn't take long.

Petty squabbles with the English soon became a war.  Acadia was occupied and became a British possession in 1713. In 1744, hostilities resumed, and a few year later, the Acadians were driven off their land. It was the Expulsion. Many were deported, others escaped to Louisiana or returned to France where they populated Belle-Ile. The English allied themselves with the Iroquois, the French with the Huron. In 1759, The French army, commanded by Montcalm (he must not have been completely calm) was defeated at  Québec and, in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France lost nearly all of its possessions, but got to keep Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon as a consolation prize.

Canada now had 70.000 inhabitants, most of them French. In 1774, the Québec Act gave them political and religious rights and guaranteed their legal existence. The English were in a bit of a tough spot ; having a few little problems with their American colonies, they were worried about a possible alliance with the French Canadians.  They figured it just about right, because when the rebel American forces attacked Quebec, they got no help at all.

The English colonization really took hold in 1783 with the influx of the United Empire Loyalists, American colonists still loyal to the Crown.

In 1812-1814, there was yet another Anglo-American war.  At the end of this one, the current border with the USA was established.

Around this time, Canada was divided in two : Lower Canada, dominated by French Canadians, and Upper Canada, with an English-speaking majority.  Each province had its own parliament. In 1823, the two provinces revolted against authoritarian rule from London, but they were squashed. The provincial parliaments were replaced by a single parliament, with equal representation from both communities, but the French language lost its legal recognition.  It would take eight years of effort, with the help of liberal minded English-speaking citizens to re-establish these rights.

July 1st, 1867, Canada became a "British Dominion"  with the confederation of its provinces, and that date is now officially celebrated as Canada Day. Around that time, with the contribution of Scottish and Irish immigration, the population of Upper Canada exceeded that of French Canada for the first time. In 1931, the country achieved independence, but is still an important part of the British Commonwealth.

The red and white Canadian maple leaf flag  was picked in 1965, to replace the Union Jack.

But let's get back to the 19th of July, in Montréal.