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French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the province of Quebec.
During the 17th century, French settlers originating mainly from the west and north of France settled Canada.G. E. Marquis and Louis Allen, "The French Canadians in the Province of Quebec" . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 107, Social and Economic Conditions in The Dominion of Canada (May, 1923), pp. 7–12. It is from them that the French Canadian ethnicity was born. During the 17th to 18th centuries, French Canadians expanded across North America and colonized various regions, cities, and towns. As a result, people of French Canadian descent can be found across North America. Between 1840 and 1930, many French Canadians emigrated to New England, an event known as the Quebec diaspora.
From 1535 to the 1690s, Canadien was a word used by the French to refer to the First Nations they had encountered in the St. Lawrence River valley at Stadacona and Hochelaga; however, First Nations groups did not refer to themselves as Canadien. At the end of the 17th century, Canadien became an ethnonym distinguishing the French inhabitants of Canada from those of France. At the end of the 18th century, to distinguish between the English-speaking population and the French-speaking population, the terms English Canadian and French Canadian emerged. During the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s to 1980s, inhabitants of Quebec began to identify as Québécois instead of simply French Canadian.
The first permanent European settlements in Canada were at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608 as fur trading posts. The territories of New France were Canada, Acadia (later renamed Nova Scotia), and Louisiana; the mid-continent Illinois Country was at first governed from Canada and then attached to Louisiana. The inhabitants of the French colony of Canada (modern-day Quebec) called themselves the Canadiens, and came mostly from northwestern France. The early inhabitants of Acadia, or Acadians ( Acadiens), came mostly but not exclusively from the Aquitaine.
Canadien explorers and fur traders would come to be known as coureurs des bois and voyageurs, while those who settled on farms in Canada would come to be known as habitants. Many French Canadians are the descendants of the King's Daughters ( Filles du Roi) of this era. A few also are the descendants of mixed French and Algonquian marriages (see also Metis people and Acadian people). During the mid-18th century, French explorers and Canadiens born in French Canada colonized other parts of North America in what are today the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Vincennes, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, the Windsor-Detroit region and the Canadian prairies (primarily Southern Manitoba).
After the 1760 British conquest of New France in the French and Indian War (known as the Seven Years' War in Canada), the French-Canadian population remained important in the life of the colonies. The British gained Acadia by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It took the 1774 Quebec Act for French Canadians to regain the French civil law system, and in 1791 French Canadians in Lower Canada were introduced to the parliamentary system when an elected Legislative Assembly was created. The Legislative Assembly having no real power, the political situation degenerated into the Lower Canada Rebellions of 1837–1838, after which Lower Canada and Upper Canada were unified. Some of the motivations for the union was to limit French-Canadian political power and at the same time transferring a large part of the Upper Canadian debt to the debt-free Lower Canada. After many decades of British immigration, the Canadiens became a minority in the Province of Canada in the 1850s.
French-Canadian contributions were essential in securing responsible government for the Canadas and in undertaking Canadian Confederation. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, French Canadians' discontent grew with their place in Canada because of a series of events: including the execution of Louis Riel, the elimination of official bilingualism in Manitoba, Canada's military participation in the Second Boer War, Regulation 17 which banned French-language schools in Ontario, the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and the Conscription Crisis of 1944.Paul-André Linteau, René Durocher, and Jean-Claude Robert, Quebec: a history 1867–1929 (1983) p. 261–272.P.B. Waite, Canada 1874–1896 (1996), pp 165–174.
Between the 1840s and the 1930s, some 900,000 French Canadians immigrated to the New England region. About half of them returned home. The generations born in the United States would eventually come to see themselves as French Americans. During the same period of time, numerous French Canadians also migrated and settled in Eastern and Northern Ontario. The descendants of those Quebec inter-provincial migrants constitute the bulk of today's Franco-Ontarian community.
Since 1968, French has been one of Canada's two official languages. It is the sole official language of Quebec and one of the official languages of New Brunswick, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. The province of Ontario has no official languages defined in law, although the provincial government provides French language services in many parts of the province under the French Language Services Act.
There are about seven million French Canadians and native French speakers in Quebec. Another one million French-speaking French Canadians are distributed throughout the rest of Canada. French Canadians may also speak Canadian English, especially if they live in overwhelmingly English-speaking environments. In Canada, not all those of French Canadian ancestry speak French, but the vast majority do.
Francophones living in Canadian provinces other than Quebec have enjoyed minority language rights under Canadian law since the Official Languages Act of 1969, and under the Canadian Constitution since 1982, protecting them from provincial governments that have historically been indifferent towards their presence. At the provincial level, New Brunswick formally designates French as a full official language, while other provinces vary in the level of French language services they offer. All three of Canada's territories include French as an official language of the territory alongside English and local indigenous languages; however, in practice, French-language services are normally available only in the capital cities and not across the entire territory.
| + French Canadian demography by religion ! rowspan="2" | Religious group ! colspan="2" | 2021 ! colspan="2" | 2001 | |
| Christianity | 3,111,025 | 4,086,585 | ||
| Islam | 8,805 | 5,325 | ||
| Irreligion | 1,744,545 | 551,100 | ||
| Judaism | 10,855 | 8,575 | ||
| Buddhism | 1,285 | 4,995 | ||
| Hinduism | 975 | 665 | ||
| Indigenous spirituality | 3,775 | 3,105 | ||
| Sikhism | 275 | 345 | ||
| Other | 29,650 | 7,700 | ||
| + French Canadian demography by Christian sects ! rowspan="2" | Religious group ! colspan="2" | 2021 ! colspan="2" | 2001 | |
| Catholic | 2,502,585 | 3,373,730 | ||
| Orthodox | 8,805 | 7,110 | ||
| Protestant | 350,365 | 628,275 | ||
| Other Christian | 249,270 | 77,470 | ||
There are various urban and small centres in Canada outside Quebec that have long-standing populations of French Canadians, going back to the late 19th century, due to interprovincial migration. Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario have large populations of francophones in communities such as Ottawa, Cornwall, Hawkesbury, Greater Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, Timiskaming, Welland and Windsor. Many also pioneered the Canadian Prairies in the late 18th century, founding the towns of Saint Boniface, Manitoba and in Alberta's Peace Country, including the region of Grande Prairie.
It is estimated that roughly 70–75% of Quebec's population descend from the French pioneers of the 17th and 18th century.
The French-speaking population have massively chosen the "Canadian" (" Canadien) ethnic group since the government made it possible (1986), which has made the current statistics misleading. The term Canadien historically referred only to a French-speaker, though today it is used in French to describe any Canadian citizen.
The majority of the French-Canadian population in the United States is found in the New England area, although there is also a large French-Canadian presence in Plattsburgh, New York, across Lake Champlain from Burlington, Vermont. Quebec and Acadian emigrants settled in industrial cities like Fitchburg, Leominster, Lynn, Worcester, Haverhill, Waltham, Lowell, Gardner, Lawrence, Chicopee, Somerset, Fall River, and New Bedford in Massachusetts; Woonsocket in Rhode Island; Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire; Bristol, Hartford, and East Hartford in Connecticut; throughout the state of Vermont, particularly in Burlington, St. Albans, and Barre; and Biddeford and Lewiston in Maine. Smaller groups of French Canadians settled in the Midwest, notably in the states of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota. French Canadians also settled in central North Dakota, largely in Rolette and Bottineau counties, and in South Dakota.
Some Metis still speak Michif, a language influenced by French, and a mixture of other European and Native American tribal languages.
Jantzen (2006) distinguishes the English Canadian, meaning "someone whose family has been in Canada for multiple generations", and the French Canadien, used to refer to descendants of the original settlers of New France in the 17th and 18th centuries.Jantzen (2006) Footnote 5: "Note that Canadian and Canadien have been separated since the two terms mean different things. In English, it usually means someone whose family has been in Canada for multiple generations. In French it is referring to "Les Habitants", settlers of New France during the 17th and 18th centuries who earned their living primarily from agricultural labour." "Canadien" was used to refer to the French-speaking residents of New France beginning in the last half of the 17th century. The English-speaking residents who arrived later from Great Britain were called "Anglais". This usage continued until Canadian Confederation in 1867. Confederation united several former British colonies into the Dominion of Canada, and from that time forward, the word "Canadian" has been used to describe both English-speaking and French-speaking citizens, wherever they live in the country.
Those reporting "French New World" ancestries overwhelmingly had ancestors that went back at least four generations in Canada.Jantzen (2006): "The reporting of French New World ancestries (Canadien, Québécois, and French-Canadian) is concentrated in the 4th+ generations; 79% of French-Canadian, 88% of Canadien and 90% of Québécois are in the 4th+generations category." Fourth generation Canadiens and Québécois showed considerable attachment to their ethno-cultural group, with 70% and 61%, respectively, reporting a strong sense of belonging.Jantzen (2005): "According to Table 3, the 4th+ generations are highest because of a strong sense of belonging to their ethnic or cultural group among those respondents reporting the New World ancestries of Canadien and Québécois."
The generational profile and strength of identity of French New World ancestries contrast with those of British or Canadian ancestries, which represent the largest ethnic identities in Canada.Jantzen (2006): For respondents of French and New World ancestries the pattern is different. Where generational data is available, it is possible to see that not all respondents reporting these ancestries report a high sense of belonging to their ethnic or cultural group. The high proportions are focused among those respondents that are in the 4th+ generations, and unlike with the British Isles example, the difference between the 2nd and 3rd generations to the 4th+ generation is more pronounced. Since these ancestries are concentrated in the 4th+ generations, their high proportions of sense of belonging to ethnic or cultural group push up the 4th+ generational results." Although deeply rooted Canadians express a deep attachment to their ethnic identity, most English-speaking Canadians of British or Canadian ancestry generally cannot trace their ancestry as far back in Canada as French speakers.Jantzen (2006): "As shown on Graph 3, over 30% of respondents reporting Canadian, British Isles or French ancestries are distributed across all four generational categories." As a result, their identification with their ethnicity is weaker: for example, only 50% of third generation "Canadians" strongly identify as such, bringing down the overall average.Jantzen (2006): Table 3: Percentage of Selected Ancestries Reporting that Respondents have a Strong* Sense of Belonging to the Ethnic and Cultural Groups, by Generational Status, 2002 EDS". The survey report notes that 80% of Canadians whose families had been in Canada for three or more generations reported "Canadian and provincial or regional ethnic identities". These identities include French New World ancestries such as "Québécois" (37% of Quebec population) and Acadians (6% of Atlantic provinces).See p. 14 of the report .
Academic analysis of French Canadian culture has often focused on the degree to which the Quiet Revolution, particularly the shift in the social and cultural identity of the Québécois following the Estates General of French Canada of 1966 to 1969, did or did not create a "rupture" between the Québécois and other francophones elsewhere in Canada. "Québec/Canada francophone : le mythe de la rupture" . Relations 778, May/June 2015.
Acadians residing in the provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia represent a distinct ethnic Acadian French culture. This group's culture and history evolved separately from the French Canadian culture, at a time when the Maritime Provinces were not part of what was referred to as Canada, and are consequently considered a distinct culture from French Canadians.
in Madawaska County, New Brunswick and Aroostook County, Maine may be identified with either the Acadians or the Québécois, or considered a distinct group in their own right, by different sources.
French Canadians outside Quebec are more likely to self-identify as "French Canadian". Identification with provincial groupings varies from province to province, with Franco-Ontarians, for example, using their provincial label far more frequently than Franco-Columbians do. Few identify only with the provincial groupings, explicitly rejecting "French Canadian" as an identity label. A population genetics ancestry study claims that for those French Canadians who trace their ancestry to the French founder population, a significant percentage, 53-78% have at least one indigenous ancestor.
Distinctions between French Canadian, natives of France, and other New World French identities is more blurred in the U.S. than in Canada; however, those who identify as French Canadian or Franco American generally do not regard themselves as French. Rather, they identify culturally, historically, and ethnically with the culture that originated in Quebec that is differentiated from French culture. In L'Avenir du français aux États-Unis, Calvin Veltman and Benoît Lacroix found that since the French language has been so widely abandoned in the United States, the term "French Canadian" has taken on an ethnic rather than linguistic meaning.
French Canadian identities are influenced by historical events that inform regional cultures. For example, in New England, the relatively recent immigration (19th/20th centuries) is informed by experiences of language oppression and an identification with certain occupations, such as the mill workers. In the Great Lakes, many French Canadians also identify as Métis and trace their ancestry to the earliest voyageurs and habitants; many also have ancestry dating to the lumber era and often a mixture of the two groups.
The main Franco-American regional identities are:
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