Editing French language in Canada (section)

===Canada as a federal state===
In 1791, Parliament repealed the Quebec Act and gave the king authority to divide the Canadian colony into two new provinces: [[Upper Canada]], which later became Ontario, and [[Lower Canada]], which became Quebec.
 
In 1867, three colonies of British North America agreed to form a federal state, which was named [[Canada]]. It was composed of four provinces: 
* [[Ontario]], formerly Upper Canada
* [[Quebec]], formerly Lower Canada
* [[Nova Scotia]]
* [[New Brunswick]], former Acadian territory

In Quebec, French became again the official language; until then it was the [[vernacular language]] but with no legal status.<ref>Atlas Universalis (1996) Tome 4, pp. 840–842</ref><ref>Atlas Universalis (1996) Tome 19, pp. 397–404</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bourhis |first1=Richard Y. |last2=Lepicq |first2=Dominique |date=1993 |chapter=Québécois French and language issues in Quebec |title=Trends in Romance Linguistics and Philology. |volume=5: Bilingualism and Linguistic Conflict in Romance |editor-first1=Rebecca |editor-last1=Posner |editor-first2=John N. |editor-last2=Green |publisher=Mouton De Gruyter |location=New York |isbn=311011724X}}</ref>