European colonization In 1720, the British controlled
Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia,
Northern and much of Western Canada, but otherwise, nearly all of
Eastern Canada, from the
Labrador shore and on the
Atlantic coast to the
Great Lakes and beyond was under French domination. The gradual
conquest of New France by the
British Army, culminating in
James Wolfe's
victory at the
Plains of Abraham in 1759, deprived France of its North American empire. The
French of Canada, (the
Québécois or
habitants,
Acadians,
Métis, and others) remained. After the British conquest, French immigration to Canada continued on a small scale until the start of the
wars between France and Britain from 1792 to 1815. French books circulated widely, and the
French Revolution led many
conservative refugees to seek asylum in Canada. The
English-speaking population of Canada also grew rapidly after the
American Revolution. Francophone opinion among the rural inhabitants towards France turned negative after 1793. As
British subjects, the inhabitants, led by their
conservative priests and landowners, rejected the French Revolution's impiety, regicide, and anti-Christian persecution. The inhabitants supported the
British Empire in the
War of 1812 against the
United States. Many Canadians have also spoken French since their settlement began in 1534.
After Confederation In early Canadian history, foreign affairs were under the control of the
British government. Canada pushed against those legal barriers to further its interests.
Alexander Galt, Canada's informal representative in London, attempted to conclude a commercial treaty with France in 1878, but tariff preference for France violated British policy. The
Foreign Office in London was unsupportive of sovereign diplomacy by Canada, and France was moving to new duties on foreign shipping and was embarking toward a general policy of
Protectionism. Galt's efforts, however, set the stage for a successful treaty in 1893 negotiated by Sir
Charles Tupper (1821–1915), Canada's
High Commissioner in London. However, that treaty was signed by the British ambassador to France. In 1910, the
Province of Quebec dispatched its own representative to Paris,
Hector Fabre. The
federal government responded by asking him to become Canada's
agent-general in France. He and his successor,
Philippe Roy, represented both levels of government informally until 1912, when the new Canadian government asked Roy to resign from the Quebec position because of fears of a possible conflict of interest.
World Wars A realignment of the great powers made allies of Canada, which was part of the
British Empire, and France just in time for the two World Wars that would dominate the first half of the 20th century. The
Canadian Expeditionary Force spent much of the
First World War on French soil and helped France to repel the German invasion. It was in France, at
Vimy Ridge, that one of the most famous battles in
Canadian military history took place. In December 1917,
the accidental explosion of the French freighter
Mont Blanc, carrying five million pounds of explosives, devastated
Halifax, Nova Scotia, killing 2,000 and injuring 9,000. The SS
Mont-Blanc had been chartered by the
French government to carry munitions to the
Western Front; France was not blamed, and charges against its captain were dropped. ,
Prince Charles, Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper and President
Nicolas Sarkozy at the 65th anniversary commemoration of
Normandy landing on
D-Day During the
Second World War, Canada and France were initially allies against
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. After the
Fall of France in 1940, most Western governments broke off relations with the
Vichy regime, but Canada continued to have relations with Vichy until 1942. The Suez Crisis also contributed to the
adoption of a new Canadian flag without references to that country's past as a colony of France and Britain.
1967 controversy by de Gaulle In July 1967, while on an official state visit to Canada, the then president of France,
Charles de Gaulle, ignited a storm of controversy by exclaiming, before a crowd of 15,000 in
Montreal,
Vive le Québec Libre! (Long live free Quebec!). Coming on the centennial year of
Canadian Confederation, amid the backdrop of Quebec's
Quiet Revolution, such a provocative statement on the part of a widely respected statesman and liberator of France had a wide-ranging effect on Franco-Canadian relations and on relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada as well. De Gaulle, a proponent of
Quebec sovereignty, proposed, on several subsequent occasions, what he termed the "Austro-Hungarian solution" for Canada (based on the
Austria-Hungary dual-monarchic union shared between Austria and Hungary from 1867 to 1918), which appeared to be similar to the "
sovereignty association" model that was later championed by
René Lévesque. France's intervention in Canadian intergovernmental relations remained largely in the realm of diplomatic rhetoric. Indeed, as Quebec, under the reformist
Liberal government of
Jean Lesage, was turning away from a more isolationist past and attempting to find for itself a new place within the Canadian federation and the wider francophone world, a willing and enthusiastic de Gaulle was eager to give aid to Quebec's newfound nationalist ambitions.
Master Agreement The first step towards Quebec developing an "international personality" distinct from that of Canada, viewed by many as a stepping stone towards full
independence, was for Quebec to develop relations with other nations independent from those of Canada. That effort began in earnest after de Gaulle's return to power, when France and Quebec began regularly exchanging ministers and government officials. Premier Lesage, for example, visited de Gaulle three times between 1961 and 1965. Lesage's statement to the
Quebec National Assembly that the French Canadian identity, culture, and language were endangered by a "cultural invasion from the USA," which threatened to make Canada a "cultural satellite of the United States," mirrored exactly the
Gaullists' concern for France's cultural survival in the face on an English onslaught. In that light, France and Quebec set about in the early 1960s negotiating exchange agreements in the areas of education, culture, technical co-operation, and youth exchange. Under
Lester B. Pearson, the federal government had just appointed a
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and was taking other steps to ensure the place of French within Canada, would not stand for a province usurping a federal power (
foreign policy) and so signed a Master Agreement with France in 1965 that allowed for provinces to cooperate directly with France but only in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction (such as education).
"Quebec Mafia" The significant contingent of sovereigntists within the French government and the upper levels of the
French foreign and
civil services (especially Gaullists), who came to be known as the "Quebec Mafia" within the
Canadian foreign service and the
press, took full advantage of the Master Agreement of 1965 to further their vision for Canada.
Direct relations with Quebec Shortly after de Gaulle's 1967 Montreal address, the French Consulate-General in
Quebec City, already viewed by many as a
de facto embassy, was enlarged and the office of Consul General at Quebec was replaced, by de Gaulle's order, with that of Consul General to the
Quebec Government. At the same time, the flow of officials to Quebec City increased further, and it became accepted practice for high officials to visit Quebec without going to
Ottawa at all, despite Ottawa's repeated complaints about the breaches of diplomatic protocol. Many of the French officials, notably French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jean de Lipkowski, greatly angered and embarrassed the Canadian government by vocally supporting Quebec independence while they were in Canada. The media spoke of a "Quebec Mafia" in Paris. The Québec government maintained a Provisional Government Office in Paris.
La Francophonie One issue that sparked tensions between France and Canada began shortly after the creation of
la Francophonie, an international organization of wholly and partially French-speaking countries that is modelled somewhat after the
Commonwealth of Nations. While Canada agreed in principle to the organization's creation, it was dismayed by France's position that not only Quebec should participate as an equal, independent member, but also the federal government and, by omission, the other
Canadian provinces with significant French minorities could not. That was seen by many French-Canadians outside Quebec as a betrayal and was also seen by some Canadians as France supporting the
Quebec sovereignty movement. Some went as far as saying the Francophonie was created to help push the international recognition of Quebec, but the Francophonie was created to promote international co-operation between all French-speaking nations, including many newly independent
former French colonies in Africa. The first salvo in the Francophonie affair was launched in the winter of 1968, when
Gabon, under pressure from France, invited Quebec and not Canada or the other provinces to attend a February francophone education conference in
Libreville. Despite protests from the federal government, the Quebec delegation attended and was treated to full state honours. In retaliation, Pearson took the extraordinary step of officially breaking off relations with Gabon.
Pierre Trudeau, then
Justice Minister, accused France of "using countries which have recently become independent for her own purposes" and threatened to break diplomatic relations with France. The next such educational conference, held in 1969 in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa, known as
Zaire 1971–1997), would end in a relative win for the Canadian government. Congo-Kinshasa, which was a former colony of
Belgium, was not as susceptible to French pressure as Gabon was. At first, it sent an invitation only to the federal government, which happily contacted the provinces concerned (
Quebec,
New Brunswick,
Ontario, and
Manitoba) about organizing a single delegation. Quebec, which was dismayed over the lack of an invitation, complained to the French, who then put pressure on Congo-Kinshasa, which issued a second belated invitation to Quebec, offering as justification Quebec's attendance at the Gabon conference. Despite the last-minute offer, Canada and the provinces had already reached an agreement by which the provinces would attend as sub-delegations of the main Canadian delegation. The final rounds in the effort to include Canada, not Quebec separately, in la Francophonie would take place in the months leading up to the organization's founding conference in
Niger in 1969. It was that conference that would set the precedent that is still followed, and so France, Quebec, and Canada were not prepared to go home the losers. For its part, France demanded that Quebec – and only Quebec – be issued an invitation. Niger – influenced in no small part by a promise of four years of "special" educational aid, a grant of 20,000 tons of wheat, and a geological survey of Niger offered by Canadian special envoy
Paul Martin Sr. the month before – issued Canada the sole invitation and asked that the federal government bring with its representatives of the interested provinces. The invitation, however, left open the prospect of Quebec being issued a separate invitation if the federal and provincial governments could not come to an agreement. Much to the consternation of the French and the sovereigntists in the Quebec government, the federal and provincial governments reached an agreement similar to the arrangement employed in Congo-Kinshasa, with a federal representative leading a single delegation composed of delegates from the interested provinces. Under the arrangement, la Francophonie would grow to become a major instrument of
Canadian foreign aid along with the Commonwealth.
Normalized relations De Gaulle's resignation in 1969 and, more importantly, the
1970 election of the Liberals in Quebec under
Robert Bourassa gave impetus to the calls on both sides for the normalization of France-Canada relations. While the ultra-Gaullists and the remaining members of the "Quebec Mafia" continued occasionally to cause headaches for Canada, such as a 1997 initiative by "Mafia" members to have the
French Post Office issue a stamp commemorating de Gaulle's 1967 visit to Montreal, relations never again reached anything close to the hostility of the late 1960s. The Gaullist policy of "dualism" towards Canada, which called for distinct and separate relations between France and Canada and France and Quebec, has been replaced with a purposely ambiguous policy of
ni-ni, standing for (no interference but no indifference). While the French government continues to maintain cultural and diplomatic ties with Quebec, it is generally careful to treat the federal government with a great deal of respect. In 2012, French President
François Hollande explained that the
ni-ni policy states "the neutrality of France while ensuring France will accompany Québec in its destinies."
Saint Pierre and Miquelon boundary dispute The
maritime boundary between the tiny French islands of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of
Newfoundland and Labrador, and Canada has long been a simmering point of contention between the two countries. As each country expanded its claimed territorial limit in the second half of the 20th century, first to and then to , the claims began to overlap, and a
maritime boundary needed to be established. While the countries agreed to a moratorium on undersea drilling in 1967, increased speculation about the existence of large oil deposits combined with the need to diversify economies after the
regional cod fishery collapse triggered a new round of negotiations. In 1989, Canada and France put the boundary question to an international court of arbitration. In 1992, the
court awarded France a
exclusive economic zone surrounding the islands as well as a long, wide corridor to
international waters (an area totalling . This fell significantly short of France's claims, and the resulting reduction in fish quotas created a great deal of resentment among the islands' fishermen until a joint management agreement was reached in 1994. Former
Communications Security Establishment (CSE) agent, Fred Stock, revealed in the
Ottawa Citizen (May 22, 1999) that Canada had used the surveillance system known as
ECHELON to spy on the French government over the boundary issue. The application of
UNCLOS and Article 76 of the
Law of the Sea will extend the exclusive economic zone of states by using complex calculations. France is likely to claim a section of the
continental shelf south of the corridor granted by the 1992 decision, and a new dispute may arise between France and Canada.
Sarkozy, Harper, Charest, and trade policy In the 2007 and 2008, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, and Quebec Premier
Jean Charest all spoke in favour of a
Canada–EU free trade agreement. In October 2008, Sarkozy became the first French President to address the
National Assembly of Quebec.
Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau == Trade ==