Which former colony became Quebec when Canada was created in 1867?

Canada East became Quebec when the Province of Canada was divided at Confederation in 1867.

Canada East was the eastern half of the Province of Canada, created by the Act of Union in 1841 from the former colony of Lower Canada. It included most of the territory that now forms southern Quebec and was predominantly French-speaking, while Canada West corresponded broadly to present-day southern Ontario.

The Constitution Act, 1867 dissolved the Province of Canada and divided it into two new provinces: Ontario, formerly Canada West, and Quebec, formerly Canada East. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined them to form the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. Quebec therefore was not created from Rupert’s Land, Vancouver Island or New Caledonia; those names refer to different colonial or territorial histories.

The change also preserved important French-language and legal traditions. Quebec retained a civil-law system based on the old French tradition, while English and French received constitutional protection in the federal Parliament and Quebec’s legislature. Canada East is thus best understood as the pre-Confederation political name for the region that became Quebec.