What does 2 mean as a place of birth on the Canada 1871 census?

Question

The third character under country or province of birth, that looks like the number 2. If it is a 2, I suspect it's meant to represent one of the provinces, but I'm not sure. Is it not a 2 at all? Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm incompetent when it comes to attaching images it seems, here's the link to the page I'm talking about
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1871&op=pdf&id=4395440_00197

Answer 1

It's not a 2 it's a Q for Quebec, the child Frank was born in Quebec. There are dittos for everyone else on the page, they were also born in Quebec. Until the 2nd line from the bottom where that person was born in Portugal, the last person was also born in Q.

It's just a different style of writing Q. As seen in the written word of Quebec at the top of the page.

Comments

Thanks for the best answer Matthew.

---

I still often write my Qs like that.

---

indeed, M has it spot on.

Answer 2

If you look at the heading, it is in B Division 2 in Quebec, so I would guess that's what the 2 stands for.

Answer 3

More about the information asked and how it was collected in the 1871 census can be found in the Enumerator instructions on Internet Archive. 
Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the first census of Canada, (1871) : Canada. Census Branch. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Answer 4

The question is already answered, but I wanted to add that it's a capital Q as specified by the Palmer method of cursive writing:

http://www.ancestryinsider.org/2008/07/indexing-tips-palmer-method.html

Not something we see much of now!