Her reign has at times far surpassed that of all other British monarchs and the vast majority of other world leaders: from her coronation in 1952 until her death on Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II was sovereign at important social and historical times. To measure the duration of his reign, The duty presents five ways in which Quebec has evolved over the same period.
A (long) line of prime ministers
If Justin Trudeau was the 12the Prime Ministers of Canada under his rule, Quebec has even more: from Maurice Duplessis to François Legault, 17 Prime Ministers of Quebec have followed each other in all these years.
When Queen Elizabeth II took over as head of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth in Quebec, Maurice Duplessis and his party, the Union Nationale, were in their second term. Duplessis, re-elected in 1944, remained in power until his death in 1959. In Canada it was Louis St-Laurent, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and 17the Prime Minister of the country who was in office when Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen.
only one queen
With a reign of 70 years, Elizabeth II may have been the only queen known to a majority of Quebecers. According to the Quebec Institute of Statistics, 7.3 million of them are aged 69 or younger, which means that 86% of the population has known only the Queen as British monarch their entire life.
Furthermore, Canada will have known the Queen as a Confederation for almost half of its existence: the Queen will have been sovereign for 70 of the 155 years since its founding, or 45% of the country’s history since 1867.
A flood of cuts
A little retrospect: When the Queen ascended the throne in 1952, the sports landscape in Quebec looked very different. A decade prior to its debut as Monarch, the National Hockey League had only six teams. Then a new era begins for the Montreal Canadiens, with the promising Maurice Richard joining the team.
Prior to Elizabeth’s debut as monarch, the NHL’s most successful team had won six Stanley Cups. Her seventh trophy was won on April 16, 1953, just over a year after Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen following the death of her father.
Therefore, of the 24 Stanley Cups won by the team, 18 were won during the Queen’s reign.
Expo 67 and the Olympic Games
As a sign of the longevity of her reign, Elizabeth II traveled to Quebec to highlight some of the events that shaped the province’s history.
Although she only made a few visits there, she was there in particular for the inauguration of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959, Expo 67 and the Olympic Games in 1976 – these are also her three visits to the metropolis as Queen.
In 1964, Elizabeth II traveled to the Old Capital to celebrate the 100the Anniversary of the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences that led to the founding of the Confederacy. However, his visit took place in a climate of tension following threats from the Front de Liberation du Québec (FLQ). Only 23 years later did she travel there a second time, in 1987, as part of a trip through Canada. Queen Elizabeth II has made 22 official visits to Canada.
A revolution in healthcare
Another example of the longevity of his reign: that of Quebec’s citizens increased over the same period. At the time of his coronation, males in Quebec lived an average of 64 years and females 69 years.
A little over 70 years later, Quebec men and women live much longer on average: 84 years for women (15 years older) and 81 years for men (17 years older).
While several factors have contributed to this historic leap, one of the key drivers of this increased longevity is the development of the public health system. It was therefore after Elizabeth II’s beginnings as monarch that Quebec’s healthcare system as we know it today began to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s.
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