Is bilingualism a ‘myth’? Poll shows divide between Quebec, other provinces

A new poll reveals a stark divide between Quebec and the rest of Canada about whether the country should be bilingual.

In a Leger poll conducted for The Canadian Press, only 43 per cent of respondents across Canada said they held a positive view of federal bilingualism — which was enshrined into law in 1969, making English and French Canada’s official languages. Eighteen per cent of respondents held a negative view.

However, in Quebec, 70 per cent of respondents said they view bilingualism positively; 11 per cent held the opposite opinion. Outside Quebec, the percentage of respondents who view official bilingualism positively was 35 per cent — and 23 per cent in Alberta, with Manitoba and Saskatchewan close behind.

Asked whether it’s important for Canada to remain officially bilingual, 83 per cent of Quebecers said it was; nearly half that number — 43 per cent — in the rest of Canada agreed.

“It’s the two solitudes expressed in a poll,” Sébastien Poitras, vice-president of public affairs at Léger, said in an interview.

“This value put forward by the Canadian government, that we’re a country with two official languages, and therefore have ‘coast-to-coast’ bilingualism, is a myth that doesn’t hold true in the rest of Canada,” Poitras said.

New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province; in Quebec, French is the only official language. Sixty per cent of respondents in Quebec said provinces other than New Brunswick and their own should be bilingual, while 26 per cent said the same in the rest of Canada.

Fifty-five per cent of respondents in Quebec said their province should have both French and English as official languages, compared to 22 per cent in the rest of the country. However, 65 per cent of Canadians outside