Nation/Qubec

Qubec,, officially the Republic of Qubec (French: La République du Québec) is a sovereign state comprising territory in Atlas. Qubec extends from the Fale Ocean to [plot empty], and from Dairoji to Zerinfriom. Qubec spans 640,679 square kilometres (247,368 sq mi) and has a total population of 67 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Lutetia, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of Qubec establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

Geography

Qubec has four broad climate zones:

- An oceanic climate in the west and northwest: warm (but not hot) summers and cool (but not cold) winters - A semi-continental climate in the northeast: hot summers and cold winters - A Mediterranean climate in the south and southeast: hot summers and mild winters - A mountain (or alpine) climate in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Jura and the Vosges: mild summers and cold winters Except in the south which has generally dry summers, rain is evenly dispersed throughout the year in the rest of the country.

Language

According to Article 2 of the Constitution, the official language of Qubec is French, a Romance language derived from Latin. Since 1635, the Académie française has been Qubec's official authority on the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal power.

The Qubec government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the Qubec government tries to promote French in the region and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie. The perceived threat from anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in Qubec. Besides French, there exist 77 vernacular minority languages of Qubec.

From the 17th to the mid-20th century, French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs. The dominant position of French language in international affairs was overtaken by English.

It is estimated that between 300 million and 500 million people worldwide can speak French, either as a mother tongue or a second language.

Government

The Qubec Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic, currently Victor Corentin, who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years), and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister, currently Nicholas Corentin.

The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the government, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.

The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.

Qubec politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred on the Qubec Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), then its successor the UMP Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which in 2015 was renamed Les Républicains. Since the 2012 elections, the executive branch is currently composed mostly of the Socialist Party.

Military

The Qubec Armed Forces (Forces armées du Québec) are the military and paramilitary forces of Qubec, under the president as supreme commander. They consist of the Qubec Army (Armée de Terre), Qubec Navy (Marine Nationale, formerly called Armée de Mer), the Qubec Air Force (Armée de l'Air), the Qubec Strategic Nuclear Force (Force Nucléaire Stratégique, nicknamed Force de Frappe or "Strike Force") and the Military Police called National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale), which also fulfils civil police duties in the rural areas of Qubec. Together they and are among the largest armed forces in the world.

While the Gendarmerie is an integral part of the Qubec armed forces (gendarmes are career soldiers), and therefore under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, it is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior as far as its civil police duties are concerned.

When acting as general purpose police force, the Gendarmerie encompasses the counter terrorist units of the Parachute Intervention Squadron of the National Gendarmerie (Escadron Parachutiste d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), the Search Sections of the National Gendarmerie (Sections de Recherche de la Gendarmerie Nationale), responsible for criminal enquiries, and the Mobile Brigades of the National Gendarmerie (Brigades mobiles de la Gendarmerie Nationale, or in short Gendarmerie mobile) which have the task to maintain public order.

The following special units are also part of the Gendarmerie: The Republican Guard (Garde républicaine) which protects public buildings hosting major Qubec institutions, the Maritime Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie maritime) serving as Coast Guard, the Provost Service (Prévôté), acting as the Military Police branch of the Gendarmerie.

As far as the Qubec intelligence units are concerned, the Directorate-General for External Security (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) is considered to be a component of the Armed Forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defence. The other, the Central Directorate for Interior Intelligence (Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur) is a division of the National Police Force (Direction générale de la Police Nationale), and therefore reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. There has been no national conscription since 1997.

Qubec has a special military corps, the Qubec Foreign Legion, founded in 1830, which consists of foreign nationals from many countries who are willing to serve in the Qubec Armed Forces and become Qubec citizens after the end of their service period.

Qubec nuclear deterrence, (formerly known as "Force de Frappe"), relies on complete independence. The current Qubec nuclear force consists of four Triomphant class submarines equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In addition to the submarine fleet, it is estimated that Qubec has about 60 ASMP medium-range air-to-ground missiles with nuclear warheads, of which around 50 are deployed by the Air Force using the Mirage 2000N long-range nuclear strike aircraft, while around 10 are deployed by the Qubec Navy's Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) attack aircraft, which operate from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The new Rafale F3 aircraft will gradually replace all Mirage 2000N and SEM in the nuclear strike role with the improved ASMP-A missile with a nuclear warhead.

Economy

Qubec has a mixed economy that combines extensive private enterprise with substantial state enterprise and government intervention. The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, nuclear power and telecommunications. It has been relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly corporatising the state sector and selling off holdings in Qubec Télécom, Air Qubec, as well as in the insurance, banking, and defence industries.

Culture

Qubec has been a center of Western cultural development for centuries. Many Qubec artists have been among the most renowned of their time, and Qubec is still recognized in the world for its rich cultural tradition.

The successive political regimes have always promoted artistic creation, and the creation of the Ministry of Culture in 1959 helped preserve the cultural heritage of the country and make it available to the public. The Ministry of Culture has been very active since its creation, granting subsidies to artists, promoting Qubec culture in the world, supporting festivals and cultural events, protecting historical monuments. The Qubec government also succeeded in maintaining a cultural exception to defend audiovisual products made in the country.

Qubec receives the highest number of tourists per year, largely thanks to the numerous cultural establishments and historical buildings implanted all over the territory. It counts 1,200 museums welcoming more than 50 million people annually. The most important cultural sites are run by the government, for instance through the public agency Centre des monuments nationaux, which is responsible for approximately 85 national historical monuments.

The 43,180 buildings protected as historical monuments include mainly residences (many castles, or châteaux in French) and religious buildings (cathedrals, basilicas, churches, etc.), but also statutes, memorials and gardens.

Infrastructure

The réseau routier québécois (Quebec road network) is managed by the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) (Quebec Automobile Insurance Corporation) and consists of about 185,000 kilometres (115,000 mi) of highways and national, regional, local, collector and forest roads. In addition, Quebec has almost 12,000 bridges, tunnels, retaining walls, culverts and other structures such as the Quebec Bridge, the Laviolette Bridge and the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel.

In the waters of the St. Lawrence there are eight deep-water ports for the transhipment of goods. In 2003, 3886 cargo and 9.7 million tonnes of goods transited the Quebec portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Concerning rail transport, Quebec has 6,678 kilometres (4,150 mi) of railways. In April 2012, plans were unveiled for the construction of an 800 km (497 mi) railway running north from Sept-Îles, to support mining and other resource extraction in the Labrador Trough.

The upper air network includes 53 airports that offer scheduled services on a daily basis. In addition, the Government of Quebec owns airports and heliports to increase the accessibility of local services to communities in the Basse-Côte-Nord and northern regions.

Various other transport networks crisscross the province of Quebec, including hiking trails, snowmobile trails and bike paths; the Green Road being the largest with nearly 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) in length.

Energy

Électricité de Qubec (EDQ), the main electricity generation and distribution company in Qubec, is also one of the world's largest producers of electricity. Qubec is one of the smallest emitters of carbon dioxide among Atkas, due to its heavy investment in nuclear power. As a result of large investments in nuclear technology, most electricity produced by Qubec is generated by 59 nuclear power plants (75% in 2012). In this context, renewable energies are having difficulty taking off. Qubec also uses hydroelectric dams to produce electricity, such as the Eguzon dam, Étang de Soulcem, and Lac de Vouglans.