Jacques Cartier

Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557, French navigator, first explorer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and discoverer of the St. Lawrence River. He made three voyages to the region, the first two (1534, 1535-36) directly at the command of King Francis I and the third (1541-42) under the sieur de Roberval in a colonization scheme that failed. On the first voyage he entered by the Strait of Belle Isle, skirted its barren north coast for a distance and then coasted along the west shore of Newfoundland to Cape Anguille. From there he discovered the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island and, sailing to the coast of New Brunswick, explored Chaleur Bay, continued around the Gaspé Peninsula, and landed at Gaspé to take possession for France. Continuing to Anticosti Island, he then returned to France. Hitherto the region had been considered cold and forbidding, interesting only because of the Labrador and Newfoundland fisheries, but Cartier's reports of a warmer, more fertile region in New Brunswick and on the Gaspé and of an inlet of unknown extent stimulated the king to dispatch him on a second expedition. On this voyage he ascended the St. Lawrence to the site of modern Quebec and, leaving some of his men to prepare winter quarters, continued to the native village of Hochelaga, on the site of the present-day city of Montreal, and there climbed Mt. Royal to survey the fertile valley and see the Lachine Rapids and Ottawa River. On his return he explored Cabot Strait, ascertaining Newfoundland to be an island. His Brief Récit et succincte narration (1545), a description of this voyage, was his only account to be published in France during his life. On his third trip he penetrated again to the Lachine Rapids and wintered in the same region, but gained little new geographical information. Roberval did not appear until Cartier was on his way home, and Cartier refused to join him. Although Cartier's discoveries were of major geographical importance and the claims of the French to the St. Lawrence valley were based on them, he failed in his primary object, the discovery of the Northwest Passage and natural resources. The region remained virtually untouched until the early 17th cent. The best edition of the voyages is H. P. Biggar, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier (1924).

(born 1491, Saint-Malo, Brittany, France—died Sept. 1, 1557, near Saint-Malo) French sailor and explorer. He was commissioned by Francis I to explore North America in the hope of discovering gold, spices, and a passage to Asia. Cartier's explorations of the North American coast and the St. Lawrence River (1534, 1535, 1541–42) did not produce the desired results, but they did lay the basis for later French claims to Canada.

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Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier (formerly known as Portneuf) is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1867. Its population in 2001 was 87,141.

Demographics

Ethnic groups: 99.1% White
Languages: 97.0% French, 2.0% English
Religions: 94.0% Catholic, 1.4% Protestant, 4.2% no religious affiliation
Average income: $28,030

Geography

The district includes the Regional County Municipalities of Portneuf and La Jacques-Cartier as well as the municipality of Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures. The main communities are Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Donnacona, Lac-Beauport, Neuville, Pont-Rouge, Shannon, Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, Saint-Raymond, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, and Deschambault-Grondines. Its area is 7,617 sq. km.

History

The electoral district was created in the British North America Act of 1867 as "Portneuf". It was renamed "Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier" on September 1, 2004.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of the Canadian House of Commons:

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Portneuf
1st	1867-1872		Jean-Docile Brousseau	Conservative
2nd	1872-1874		Esdras Alfred de St-Georges (first term)	Liberal
3rd	1874-1878
4th	1878-1882		Roch-Pamphile Vallée	Conservative
5th	1882-1887		Esdras Alfred de St-Georges (second term)	Liberal
6th	1887-1891
7th	1891-1896		Arthur Delisle	Liberal
8th	1896		Henri Joly de Lotbinière	Liberal
1896 By-election	1896-1900
9th	1900-1904		Michel-Siméon Deslisle	Liberal
10th	1904-1908
11th	1908-1911
12th	1911-1917
13th	1917-1921			Opposition
14th	1921-1925			Liberal
15th	1925-1926
16th	1926-1930		Herment Marcotte	Independent Liberal
17th	1930-1935		Jules Desrochers	Liberal
18th	1935-1936		Lucien Cannon	Liberal
1936 By-election	1936-1940		Pierre Gauthier	Liberal
19th	1940-1945
20th	1945-1949
21st	1949-1953
22nd	1953-1957
23rd	1957-1958
24th	1958-1962		Aristide Rompré	Progressive Conservative
25th	1962-1963		Jean-Louis Frénette	Social Credit
26th	1963-1965
27th	1965-1968		Roland Godin	Ralliement créditiste
28th	1968-1972
29th	1972-1974			Social Credit
30th	1974-1979		Pierre Bussières	Liberal
31st	1979-1980		Rolland Dion	Liberal
32nd	1980-1984
33rd	1984-1988		Marc Ferland	Progressive Conservative
34th	1988-1993
35th	1993-1997		Pierre de Savoye	Bloc Québécois
36th	1997-2000
37th	2000-2004		Claude Duplain	Liberal
38th	2004-2006		Guy Côté	Bloc Québécois
Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier
39th	2006-2008		André Arthur	Independent

Election results

Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier

Portneuf

See also

• List of Canadian federal electoral districts
• Past Canadian electoral districts

External links

• Riding history for Portneuf from the Library of Parliament
• Riding history for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier from the Library of Parliament