The Province of Quebec is located within the nation's east-central area. It is the only province in Canada which is mainly a Francophone population and is the only province whose sole official language is French.
Quebec is the largest province in the country as designated by area. It is the 2nd biggest administrative division. The only larger place is the territory of Nunavut. On the west of Quebec the province of Ontario forms the border together with James Bay and Hudson Bay. Towards the east are the provinces of New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador;towards the north is Ungaya Bay and Hudson Strait. The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is likewise on the eastern border. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York are the US states located to the south of the province. The province of Quebec also shares maritime borders together with PEI, Nunavut and Nova Scotia.
Quebec is the 2nd most populace province after Ontario. The majority of the inhabitants in the province live near the Saint Lawrence River within urban locations between Quebec City and Montreal. There are English-speaking communities and institutions concentrated in the west of the island of Montreal. English speaking areas are likewise major within the Eastern Townships, the Outaouais and the Gaspe areas. The northern half of the province is occupied by the Nord-du-Quebec area and this district is sparsely populated and is inhabited largely by Aboriginal people.
The official opposition social democratic Parti Quebecois advocates national sovereignty for the province and secession from Canada. Sovereignty plays a big role within Quebec politics. In 1980 and 1995 Sovereignist governments have held referendums on independence. Each time they were voted down by the voters, though, the latter was defeated by a really small margin. During 2006, the Canadian House of Commons passed the Quebecois nation motion. This was a symbolic motion that recognized the "Quebecois as a nation within a united Canada."
There are an abundance of substantial natural resources that have long been the mainstay of the province's economy. Other major industries with major operations in the province of Quebec consist of biotechnology, information and communication technologies, aerospace and the pharmaceutical industry. Next only to the province of Ontario, these various industries have each contributed to making the province of Quebec become the second province that is most economically influential.
The economy is mainly market-based, advanced and open. Based on the year 2009 numbers, the per capita GDP of the province was US$32,408. These figures place the province of Quebec at par with Spain, Italy and Japan but remain less compared to the Canadian average GDP of US$37,830 per capita. Quebec's economy is ranked 37th biggest within the globe just after Greece. In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it is placed the 21st biggest.
Described as a clean energy superpower, the province has seen a big shift in the balance of energy over the last 30 years. In the year 2008, the main form of energy was electricity at 41.6% followed by 38.2% of oil and 10.7% of natural gas. After Brazil, the USA and China, Quebec is the 4th biggest producer of hydroelectricity in the globe. During 2008, sources show that the province of Quebec depends practically exclusively on this particular source of renewable energy for its electricity needs.