Samuel De Champlain and His Relations with the Natives

To learn more about Canadian or Quebec politics, both McGill University and Concordia University in Montreal offer wonderful political science degrees, that you may want to look into.

For further reading, Montreal's Concordia University has a wonderful women's studies program at the Simone do Beauvoir Institute

We now are setting the tone for the three female Governor Generals of Canada, two of which were from Montreal Quebec.

Before we go there, a history of the evolution of Canada is important to the understanding of the role of a governor general. We will look at three male governors at three different periods of Quebec and Canadian history. They mark the stage for governor generals. These men made decisions primarily on behalf of men. Women's issues were really not considered with any semblance of respect before the 20th century. The actions of these governors affected the lives of women and that is why they are chosen as a preamble before our women governor generals will be discussed.

Samuel De Champlain: Explorer, Fur Trader and Founder of New France

Champlain continued on his voyages and was absent from New France for four years, and so when he returned his settlement in 1633, he lost his post as Governor, but was given the commission of Lieutenant General of New France. Everyone in the colony from settler to fur trader still referred to him as the "our Governor" he remained that popular despite his demotion.

Champlain continued to build up his settlement and decided to "wage war with the Iroquois or bring them to reason." The Iroquois did not get along with the Natives of the area, and therefore had not made alliances with the French who where their allies. The Iroquois were a waring nation, the Natives that Champlain had aligned with were peaceful.

The popularity of the beaver continued long before an actual colony was considered

Remember during the early days of the fur traders there were no women or children. The men were sent from France to collect furs which was the fashion rage in France and the rest of Europe. The English were to do the same thing in what would latter be called Upper Canada (Ontario) and Quebec would be lower Canada before eventually being named Quebec. Champlain did have two families previously mentioned in his settlement.

Sources:

http://www.canadiana.ca/hbc/stories/coureurs1_e.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?Params=A1ARTA0007673&PgNm=TCE