Item: i92825

Authentic Medal of:

Canada – Quebec Province – Agriculture
Bronze Medal 49mm (59.98 grams)
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION PROVINCE OF QUEBEC A. GERBIER, Crowned shield with lion within.
EXPOSITION AGRICOLE ET INDUSTRIELLE PROVINCE DE QUEBEC, Wreath.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Quebec is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Central Canada, the province shares land borders with Ontario to the southwest, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast, and a coastal border with Nunavut; it also borders the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York to the south. Quebec is the largest province by area, at 1,542,056 km² (595,391 sq mi), and the second-largest by population, with 8,164,361 people. Much of the population live in urban areas along the St. Lawrence River, between the most populous city, Montreal, and the province’s capital city, Quebec City. Quebec is also the home of the Québécois, recognized as a nation by both the provincial and federal governments.

Quebec’s official language is French, with 94.6% of the province’s population reporting knowledge of the language. Québécois French is the local variety, and there are 14 regional accents deriving from it. Among other things, Quebec is well-known for producing nearly 72% of the world’s maple syrup, for its comedy and for making hockey one of the most popular sports in Canada. It is also renowned for its unique and vibrant culture; the province has its own celebrities, and produces its own literature, music/songs, films, TV shows, festivals, folklore, art, and more. Moreover, it has its own cuisine and national symbols.

Between 1534 and 1763, Quebec was called Canada and was the most developed colony in New France. Following the Seven Years’ War, however, Quebec became a British colony in the British Empire: first as the Province of Quebec (1763–1791), then Lower Canada (1791–1841), and lastly Canada East (1841–1867), as a result of the Lower Canada Rebellion. It was, finally, confederated with Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in 1867, beginning the Confederation of Canada. Until the early 1960s, the Catholic Church played a large role in the development of social and cultural institutions in Quebec. However, the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s-1980s increased the role of the Government of Quebec in controlling political, social, and future developments of the state of Quebec.

The Constitution Act, 1867 incorporated the present-day Government of Quebec, which functions within the context of a Westminster system and is both a liberal democracy and a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Premier of Quebec, presently François Legault, acts as head of government and holds office by virtue of commanding the confidence of the elected National Assembly. Québécois political culture mostly differs on a nationalist-vs-federalist continuum, rather than a left-vs-right continuum. Quebec independence debates, in particular, have played a large role in politics, with Parti Québécois governments having held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995.

Quebec society’s cohesion and specificity is based on three of its unique statutory documents: the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Charter of the French Language, and the Civil Code of Quebec. Furthermore, unlike in the rest of Canada, law in Quebec is mixed: private law is exercised under a civil-law system, while public law is exercised under a common-law system. Its economy is diversified and post-industrial; sectors of the knowledge economy such as aerospace, information and communication technologies, biotechnology, and the pharmaceutical industry play leading roles. Quebec’s substantial natural resources, notably exploited in hydroelectricity, forestry, and mining, have also long been a mainstay. The province’s 2018 output was CA$439.3 billion, making it the second-largest Canadian province or territory by GDP.

Canada is a country, consisting of ten provinces and three territories, in the northern part of the continent of North America. It extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles) in total, making it the world’s second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada’s common border with the United States forms the world’s longest land border. Canada is sparsely populated overall, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra as well as the mountain range of the Rocky Mountains; about four-fifths of the population live near to the southern border. The majority of Canada has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer.

The land now called Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the region’s Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost North American territories until left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, three colonies joined to form the autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the new self-governing Dominion. In 1931, Britain granted Canada near total independence with the Statute of Westminster 1931 and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II being the current head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries, with a population of approximately 35 million as of 2015. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada’s long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.

Canada is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally, and the eighth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth Realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.