Yesterday, the people of Quebec headed to the voting booths for their provincial elections.  Due to the extremely cold weather, voter turnout was not great, but a majority liberal government was elected.  Besidesthe independent candidates, candidates from 9 different political parties could be found on the ballot.  These parties are Action démocratique du Québec, Parti durable du Québec, Parti indépendantiste, Parti libéral du Québec, Parti marxiste-léniniste du Québec, Parti québecois, Parti république du Québec, Parti vert du Québec and Québec solidaire.  As can be seen, many of the parties are quite liberal and you even have separatist parties as is often the case with provinces or regions like Québec that have such strong cultural roots that are not very much in line with the rest of the country.  

Québec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after France ceded the colony of Canada to Great Britain through the Treaty of Paris, thereby ending the Seven Years’ War.  The only official language in the province of Québec is French and just like France, it has a civil law legal system.  Civil law legal systems as opposed to Anglo-Saxon common law systems are often found in Europe as they derive from Roman law.  And nationalism plays a very large role in its politics.  The Canadian House of Commons has officially recognized the province as ‘a nation within a united Canada”.