Quebec Mercury

{{Short description|Defunct English language Quebec City newspaper}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Quebec Mercury | logo = | image = | caption = | type = | format = | owners = Thomas Cary Jr., Pierre-Édouard Desbarats | founder = Thomas Cary | publisher = Thomas Cary | editor = | president = | chief_editor = | associate_editor = | managing_editor = | advertisingdirector = | news_editor = | campus_editor = | campus_chief = | opinion_editor = | photo_editor = | staff_writers = | founded = 1805 | political_position = Conservative | language = English | ceased_publication = 1863 | relaunched = | headquarters = Quebec City, Lower Canada | circulation = | sister_newspapers = | ISSN = | oclc = | website = | free = }}

'''''The Quebec Mercury''''' was an English language weekly newspaper published in Quebec City from 1805 to 1863.

The ''Mercury'' was founded by publisher Thomas Cary in respect and veneration of Canada's link to the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-2200.01-e.html|title=The Quebec Mercury|work=Towards Confederation|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|access-date=2015-08-14}}</ref> From 1828 to 1848 the Mercury was owned jointly by Thomas Cary Jr. and Pierre-Édouard Desbarats.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Lebel | first = Jean-Marie |author2=Desbarats, Aileen | title = Pierre-Édouard Desbarats | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online | year = 1987 | url = http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2832 | access-date = 2009-04-26}}</ref> The newspaper generally represented the economic and political interests of the English merchants, while its rival ''Le Canadien'' (1806–1893) represented the economic and political interests of the French language moneyed groups. The ''Quebec Mercury'' was deeply conservative, advocated for the assimilation of French Canadians, and sought to Anglicise the colony. Cary perceived the rise of a French middle class and the French majority in the Assembly as a threat to the growth of Anglo-Canadian commercial interests.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Gauvin | first = Daniel | title = Thomas Cary | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online | year = 1987 | url = http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2793 | access-date = 2009-04-26}}</ref> The newspaper survived until the 1950s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/the_canadian_landscape___20090205443642/|title=The Canadian Landscape |work=Western News |date=February 5, 2009|last=Bentley|first=David |publisher=Library and Archives Canada|access-date=2009-04-26}}</ref>

Together, ''Le Canadien'' and the ''Mercury'' were the first truly political newspapers printed in Canada.

==See also== *List of newspapers in Canada

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{cite web|url=http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/newspaper/Quebec_Mercury_introduction.htm|title=Quebec Mercury, Poems in Early Canadian Newspapers|work=Canadian Poetry: An Electronic Resource|publisher=Canadian Poetry Press|access-date=2009-04-26|archive-date=2011-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612044743/http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/newspaper/Quebec_Mercury_introduction.htm|url-status=dead}} * [http://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/1875218 The ''Quebec Mercury''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706201358/http://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/1875218 |date=2011-07-06 }}, in the ''Collection numérique'' of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Category:Defunct weekly newspapers Category:Defunct newspapers published in Quebec Category:Newspapers published in Quebec City Category:English-language newspapers published in Quebec Category:Publications established in 1805 Category:1805 establishments in Lower Canada Category:1863 disestablishments in Canada Category:Publications disestablished in 1863 Category:Quebec Anglophone culture in Quebec City