Which explorer was the first to navigate the St. Lawrence River and set eyes on present-day Québec City and Montréal?

The Discover Canada study guide identifies the country's three founding peoples as Aboriginal, French and British, and notes that for 400 years, settlers and immigrants have contributed to the diversity and richness of the country. Jacques Cartier stands at the very opening of the French chapter of that story. He was the first European to navigate the St. Lawrence River — the great waterway that links the Atlantic Ocean with the interior of the North American continent — and the first to set eyes on the locations that would later grow into Québec City and Montréal.

Cartier's voyages, undertaken on behalf of the King of France, opened the river route that later French explorers, missionaries, traders, soldiers and settlers would follow deep inland. The St. Lawrence corridor became the spine of what would later be known as New France, and the two sites Cartier documented eventually grew into the political and commercial capitals of French Canada: Québec City, perched on the cliffs above the river, and Montréal, the great inland port at the practical limit of ocean-going navigation upriver.

The guide reminds every prospective citizen that to understand what it means to be Canadian, it is important to know about our three founding peoples — Aboriginal, French and British. Cartier's navigation of the St. Lawrence is the moment the French presence formally begins on these shores. The French language, the civil-law tradition, the parish settlements along the river, the bilingual character of Parliament, and the great cities of the lower St. Lawrence valley all trace back to the door Cartier opened when he sailed up that river for the first time.

Knowing that Jacques Cartier was the first European to navigate the St. Lawrence matters because the French presence he opened is one of the three founding peoples the citizenship test expects you to recognize alongside Aboriginal and British peoples. His voyages explain why Québec City and Montréal exist where they do, why French and English have equal status in Parliament, and why Canada's identity is shaped by deep French roots as well as British and Aboriginal ones. The river Cartier charted remains a working national artery — connecting Québec and Ontario to the Atlantic — and the cities he first sighted are still two of the most important in the country today.