Introduction
Léger Marketing conducted a survey in 2024 on support for bilingualism in Canada.
Here are the main conclusions we draw from this important and revealing survey.
Official Bilingualism: A Minority Affair Without Major Support
Here are some figures on this issue:
35% of Canadians outside Quebec think official bilingualism is positive (versus 70% of Quebecers). 59% consider it negative or are indifferent.
35% of Canadians outside Quebec believe that Canada's official bilingualism is central to Canadian identity. This proportion is higher among Quebecers (60%).
For the majority (51%) of Canadians outside Quebec, it is not important for Canada to remain an officially bilingual country (versus 83% of Quebecers who think it is important).
Our conclusion: Support for official bilingualism outside Quebec is very fragile, and in the event of a referendum outside Quebec, it would likely be defeated.
Bilingualism and Bill 101 according to Canadians outside Quebec
The survey draws interesting parallels between official Canadian bilingualism and official unilingualism in Quebec.
Almost half of Canadians outside Quebec (49%) believe that official bilingualism in Canada exists only to satisfy a minority (much more than the 35% who consider it central to Canadian identity). For the majority (59%) of Canadians outside Quebec, it is not desirable for their province to become officially bilingual. Yet 65% of Canadians outside Quebec believe that Quebec should become officially bilingual.
Canadians outside Quebec are logical. Since they consider bilingualism to be a minority issue, they would like Quebec, but not their own province, to be officially bilingual. There's a lesson here for Quebecers wondering whether they should still support Bill 101—even if Quebec became bilingual, the rest of Canada would choose to remain unilingual in English.
The Decline of French
According to 34% of English-speaking Canadians, the proportion of French speakers in Canada has decreased over the past 50 years ago. French-speaking Canadians (71%) and Quebecers (65%) are more likely to think this way.
70% of Quebecers believe that French is threatened in Canada (compared to only 19% of respondents living in other provinces), and 63% believe that French is threatened in the province of Quebec (compared to only 11% of respondents living in other provinces).
With such figures, it's hardly surprising that Canadians outside Quebec oppose Bill 101—they simply don't see the need.
The Decline of English?
Presumably for the sake of symmetry, the survey also examined the vitality of English in Canada.
22% of respondents living in provinces other than Quebec believe that English is threatened in Canada (compared to only 5% of Quebecers). Nearly one in four non-Quebec respondents (38%) believe that English is threatened in the province of Quebec (compared to only 17% of Quebecers and 11% of French-speaking Canadians).
So, in percentage terms, for every French speaker outside Quebec who believes that English is threatened in Quebec, there are twice as many Canadians outside Quebec who believe that English is threatened in Canada.
This speaks for itself.
Conclusion
The Canadian Constitution, adopted by the Parliament of England in 1867, and amended and repatriated by the same Parliament in 1982, nowhere uses the term bilingual or bilingualism. And since patriation, the Canadian constitution has not been amended to do so. Reading this poll, one must conclude that this reflects the wishes of the population and was a wise decision.
In 1867 the requirement to adopt provincial legislation in french was only imposed on the province of Quebec (Article 133, British North America Act). Again reading this poll, this is probably still today the view of most canadians.
Marc Ryan
Author