Québécois people

Quebecers or Quebeckers (Québécois in French, and sometimes also in English) are people associated with Quebec. The term is most often used in reference to descendants of the French settlers in Quebec and people of any ethnicity who live in the province. Self-identification as Québécois became dominant starting in the 1960s; prior to this, the francophone people of Quebec mostly identified themselves as French Canadians and as Canadiens before anglophones started identifying as Canadians as well. A majority in the House of Commons of Canada in 2006 approved a motion tabled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which stated that the Québécois are a nation within a united Canada. Harper later elaborated that the motion's definition of Québécois relies on personal decisions to self-identify as Québécois, and therefore is a personal choice. However, Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, a sovereigntist party which then held the majority of federal seats in Quebec, disputed this view, stating that the Bloc considered the term "Québécois" to include all inhabitants of Quebec and accusing the Conservatives of wishing to ascribe an ethnic meaning to it. Québécois (pronounced kebekwa); feminine: Québécoise (pronounced kebekwaz), (fem.: ), or (fem.: ) is a word used primarily to refer to a French-speaking inhabitant of the Canadian province of Quebec. Sometimes, it is used more generally to refer to any inhabitant of Quebec. It can refer to French spoken in Quebec. It may also be used, with an upper- or lower-case initial, as an adjective relating to Quebec, or to the French-Canadian culture of Quebec. A resident or native of Quebec is often referred to in English as a Quebecer or Quebecker. In French, Québécois or Québécoise usually refers to any native or resident of Quebec. Its use became more prominent in the 1960s as French Canadians from Quebec increasingly self-identified as Québécois. English expressions employing the term may imply specific reference to francophones; such as "Québécois music", "a Québécois rocker" or "Québécois literature".