Dominion of Quebec (The North American War)

Dominion of Quebec
Capital: Quebec

Major cities: Montreal

Independence from Great Britain: July 1, 1867

Languages: English, French (both official), various aboriginal languages

Currency: Pound

History
The Dominion of Quebec was formed out of the Upper half of the Canadas with the dissolution of the British North American colonies in 1867. Upper and Lower Canada parted ways almost entirely in recognition of the sizeable French-speaking population of Upper Canada, descended from some of the first French settlers in North America. Upper Canada itself emerged from New France, a former overseas province won from France in the mid-18th century. Since that time, Upper Canada had seen an influx of English-speaking settlers of British extraction, so Upper Canadian independence wasn't a wholly francophone affair. Instead, the Dominion of Quebec was created as a distinctly British-style dominion but which acknowledged the domestic fusion of British and Quebecois cultures.

Politics
Like the other former British North American colonies, the Dominion of Quebec is a constitutional monarchy headed by the monarch of Great Britain, represented in Quebec by a governor-general approved by the prime minister. A two-house federal legistlature is seated in Quebec city, headed by the prime minister (head of the majority political party). Quebec is ruled neither via provinces nor counties like the other British North American dominions, but through the more traditional Quebecois system of parishes, which oddly only cover the southern, more heavily populated parts of the country. The northern territories are inhabited mostly by aboriginal peoples and seasonal white loggers and fur trappers; they are ruled through the minister for the interior through commissioners and federal police based at the small northern settlements. The parishes are governed by a combination of leading Catholic priests and federal commissioners, a nod to the traditional Quebecois system of government.

Population
The population of Quebec consists of sizeable communites of both English-speaking people of British descent and the French-speaking Quebecois, descended from the original French settlers. Both English and French are official languages of the Dominion. The majority of the year-round inhabitants of northern Quebec are aboriginal peoples and Inuit, who continue to carry out their traditional nomadic lifestyles in the northern forests, although their interests usually do not factor into government-funded logging operations, which frequently displace tribes from their home territories.

Economy
Montreal and Quebec city are important waystations on the St. Lawrence trade route, making commerce an important source of income for Quebec's economy. Coal mining and heavy industry is based farther up the St. Lawrence, centered around Trois-Rivieres. Most of the rest of southern Quebec is devoted to family-based farming, while the north offers extensive logging and a lucrative trade in furs with the native peoples.

Defense
Almost from the founding of the first French settlements, the territory of southern Quebec found itself subject to repeated, devestating attacks from the south. The last of these occurred in the late mid-19th century as a series of 'unsanctioned' sorties across the border by hardline American expansionists. Since then, the volunteer professional army has maintained a strong presence at posts throughout the parishes south of the St. Lawrence, and inhabitants of the southern parishes continue to practice in the militias. A small nacy is based at Quebec city and operates patrols at the mouth of the St. Lawrence as well as policing the trade route down the length of the river. The northern territories are policed by the federal police, essentially a paramilitary entity responsible for maintaining law and order among the white loggers and trappers, ensuring the authority of the federal commissioners, and preventing violence from native peoples, especially when more are displaced by logging.