Her reign has surpassed, sometimes by far, those 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 during important social and historical. To measure the duration of his reign, The duty presents five ways in which Quebec has evolved during this same period.
A (long) succession of prime ministers
If Justin Trudeau was the 12e Prime Minister of Canada under his reign, Quebec has even more: from Maurice Duplessis to François Legault, 17 Quebec Prime Ministers have succeeded each other during all these years.
When Queen Elizabeth II took over as head of the United Kingdom and the 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 17e 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 will have been the only queen that the majority of Quebecers will have known. According to data from the Quebec Institute of Statistics, 7.3 million of them are aged 69 and under, which means that 86% of the population has known only the Queen as British monarch during of his whole life.
In addition, Canada will have known the Queen for almost half of its existence as a confederation: the Queen will have been sovereign for 70 of the 155 years since its creation, or 45% of the country’s history since 1867.
A flurry of cuts
A little flashback: when the queen acceded to the throne in 1952, the Quebec sports landscape was still very different. A decade before his debut as monarch, the National Hockey League had only six teams. A new era then opens for the Montreal Canadiens, with the promising Maurice Richard who joins the team.
Prior to Elizabeth’s debut as monarch, the NHL’s most successful team had already won six Stanley Cups. Their seventh cup was won on April 16, 1953, just over a year after Elizabeth II was proclaimed queen on the death of her father.
Of the 24 Stanley Cups won by the team, 18 were therefore won during the Queen’s reign.
Expo 67 and the Olympics
A sign of the longevity of her reign, Elizabeth II traveled to Quebec to highlight some events that shaped the history of the province.
Although she only made a few visits there, she went there in particular for the inauguration of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, Expo 67 and on the occasion of the 1976 Olympic Games — these are also her three visits to the metropolis as queen.
In 1964, Elizabeth II traveled to the Old Capital to mark the 100e anniversary of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, which led to the founding of Confederation. However, his visit took place in a climate of tension following threats made by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). It was only 23 years later that she went there a second time, in 1987, as part of a cross-Canada visit. Queen Elizabeth II has made official visits to Canada 22 times.
A healthcare revolution
Another example of the longevity of his reign: that of Quebec citizens increased during the same period. At the time of his coronation, Quebec men lived on average 64 years, and women 69 years.
Just over 70 years later, Quebec men and women are living much longer on average: 84 years for women (15 years older) and 81 for men (17 years older).
While several factors have contributed to this historic leap, the evolution of the public healthcare system is one of the crucial points of this increased longevity. It was therefore after the beginnings of Elizabeth II as monarch that Quebec health care as we know it today took shape, during the 1960s and 1970s.