What is Quebec's role in confederation?

Quebec is the second-most populous province in Canada with about 8.9 million people, the largest province by area at 1.54 million square kilometres, and the only Canadian province where French is the sole official language under provincial law (the Charter of the French Language, Bill 101, 1977). Quebec has a distinctive constitutional, cultural, and linguistic role in Canadian Confederation. The province joined Confederation on July 1, 1867 as one of the four founding provinces.

Quebec is sometimes called a 'distinct society' within Canada. The 1987 Meech Lake Accord (which failed in 1990 after Manitoba and Newfoundland did not ratify) and the 1992 Charlottetown Accord (rejected by referendum) both attempted to constitutionalise Quebec's distinct society status. The federal House of Commons passed a motion on November 27, 2006 recognising 'the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada', a non-binding political recognition rather than a constitutional change. Two referendums on Quebec sovereignty (1980 and 1995) both resulted in No votes, with the 1995 result a narrow 50.58 to 49.42 per cent margin.

Quebec has unique institutions and arrangements within Canada. Quebec is the only province with a Civil Code (the Civil Code of Quebec, in force January 1, 1994, replacing the Civil Code of Lower Canada of 1866) rather than English common law. Quebec operates its own pension plan (the Quebec Pension Plan, separate from the federal Canada Pension Plan since 1966), administers its own provincial income tax (the only province where Revenu Quebec rather than the Canada Revenue Agency collects provincial tax), and runs its own immigration programme under the Canada-Quebec Accord on Immigration of 1991.

Quebec's three guaranteed Senate seats (24 of the 105 senators must be from Quebec, set by section 22 of the Constitution Act, 1867) and three Supreme Court of Canada seats (set by section 6 of the federal Supreme Court Act) ensure Quebec representation in federal institutions. The Reference re Senate Reform decision of 2014 confirmed that any change to Quebec's Senate or Supreme Court guarantees requires unanimous consent of Parliament and all provinces. Quebec uses the section 33 notwithstanding clause more often than any other jurisdiction, including in Bill 21 (the Act respecting the laicity of the State, 2019) and Bill 96 (the French-language law, 2022).