Louise writes from North America

Louise has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship

BBC Scotland reporter Louise Stewart has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to travel in North America and study the historic links with Scotland.

She will be looking at the impact Scots migrants have had on the culture there and will be travelling to New York, North Carolina, Washington, Boston and Canada.

MONTREAL

I leave Nova Scotia behind and fly to Quebec City. Having lunch at a pavement cafe, I am struck by just how French Quebec is.

It's celebrating its 400th anniversary this year - it's like a little part of Europe has been transplanted into North America.

The French have a huge influence here - it's the first language and many people only speak limited English.

So at first it's not obvious the impact the Scots have had. However, it becomes clear as I visit the Plains of Abraham, the property of Martin Abraham - known as l'Ecossais (the Scot) - where the largest regiment at the Battle of 1759 were the 78th Fraser Highlanders.

In fact, following the Seven Years War (1757-1763) hundreds of members of the Highland Regiments settled here and adapted easily, switching from their native Gaelic to French.

The Russian ice hockey team gave their fans something to celebrate

Later, I visit St Andrew's Church, founded by the very same Highlanders, which is the oldest Presbyterian Church in Canada.

With the sun shining it's difficult to imagine just how harsh the winter conditions are here. But Quebec certainly experiences extreme weather - from 30C in summer to minus 30C in winter, accompanied by months of heavy snow.

Given the climate, it's understandable why winter sports, including curling, are big here. But none are as big as ice hockey. It's the main sport here, every child plays it in school and its players enjoy the same celebrity status as premier league footballers at home.

It has a huge following - the thousands of fans who had gathered in Halifax have, like me, now migrated to Quebec. They're here for the International Hockey Championship and I'm lucky enough to get a ticket for the final between Canada and Russia - the biggest rivals in the game.

It's a tense match - Canada are two goals up at one stage, but in extra time Russia scores making it 4-5 and taking the title. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russians have only won one hockey World Championship gold medal, so the Russian fans make the most of this victory and celebrate late into the night.

These Scots literally helped build the city and they've left a lasting legacy

Scots have also had a major impact on trade and industry here in Canada. The country's economy was largely built on the fur trade and Highlanders played a key role in the industry.

But, the pre-eminence of Scots in the business world of Quebec is most obvious in Montreal, which is Canada's second largest city.

Throughout the 19th Century individuals like James Findlay, Peter Redpath and James McGill, amongst many others, dominated the business scene here and many lived in the Golden Square Mile, where 70% of Canada's wealth was concentrated at that time.

They weren't just involved in the fur trade but all commercial enterprises, especially banking and insurance industries, as well as transport.

These Scots literally helped build the city and they've left a lasting legacy which is evident when I take a guided tour of McGill University, which is Canada's leading university. It was built on the estate owned by James McGill, who was originally from Glasgow, back in 1821.

Originally built on the outskirts of town where students were picked up by sleds in the snow, the campus is now prime property in downtown Montreal on the side of Mount Royal.

Although it was founded by McGill, as I walk around the campus the guide points out the Redpath Museum of Natural History, as well as the Macdonald engineering and science buildings, where the atomic age was born when Ernest Rutherford devised the model of the first atom and subsequently won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908.

The Black Watch in Canada has members from all over the world

Another leading businessman whose legacy can be seen all around the city is Sir William Macdonald.

He was born into a prominent Scottish family on Prince Edward Island. But he left and moved to Montreal quickly becoming the leading manufacturer of tobacco in Canada.

He's believed to have been the richest man in the country by 1885 and, like his contemporary Andrew Carnegie, then spent the rest of his life distributing his money to good causes. The Macdonald-Stewart Foundation is still dedicated to that today - supporting education, medicine and the arts.

I meet its executive director, Bruce Bolton, who was formerly director of the Stewart Museum, which is supported by the same organisation, having been founded by David Stewart - the third generation of Scots to continue the work of WC Macdonald here.

In its rare book library he shows me the minutes of the last meeting of the Scottish Parliament before it was dissolved in 1701.

Bruce was also the former Commanding Officer of The Black Watch of Canada and takes me to visit the Black Watch Armoury where he shows me the Officer's Mess, which I imagine is just like a 19th Century Highland Officers' Mess complete with Ram's Head Snuff Mulls and bagpipes, which were played at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Black Watch here is proud of its Scottish traditions but the members now come from all over the world and a third of the pipe band are French speakers.

He also introduces me to Moira Barclay Fernie who moved here from Edinburgh in 1965. She is a past president of the St Andrew's Society of Montreal and is only the second female president of the society since it was established in 1835.

The first was appointed in 1983 - quite an achievement given many St Andrew's Societies, particularly in the US, still don't even admit women.

But, Canadians believe that's what sets them apart from other countries with huge migrant populations - they pride themselves on being inclusive and have become a truly multi-cultural society.