New Poll Finds Official Bilingualism in Canada is a ‘Myth’

A recent poll highlights a significant split between Quebec and the rest of Canada regarding the idea of bilingualism in the country.

According to a Leger poll conducted for The Canadian Press, only 43 percent of respondents nationwide expressed a positive opinion towards federal bilingualism, which was officially established in 1969, recognizing English and French as the country’s official languages. Meanwhile, 18 percent of respondents held a negative view on the matter.

In Quebec, however, 70 percent of respondents viewed bilingualism positively, with only 11 percent holding an opposing view. Outside Quebec, the percentage of respondents favoring official bilingualism dropped to 35 percent, with Alberta at 23 percent and Manitoba and Saskatchewan following closely behind.

When asked about the importance of Canada remaining officially bilingual, 83 percent of Quebecers affirmed its significance, while only 43 percent in the rest of Canada agreed.

“It’s a reflection of the two solitudes captured in a poll,” Sébastien Poitras, vice-president of public affairs at Léger, commented in an interview. He added, “This notion promoted by the Canadian government that we are a country with two official languages and, therefore, have ‘coast-to-coast’ bilingualism is a myth that doesn’t resonate in the rest of Canada.”

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New Brunswick stands as Canada’s sole officially bilingual province, while in Quebec, French holds the sole official language status. Sixty percent of Quebec respondents believed that provinces beyond New Brunswick and Quebec should be bilingual, compared to 26 percent in the rest of Canada.

Fifty-five percent of Quebec respondents expressed support for having both French and English as official languages in their province, whereas only 22 percent in the rest of the country shared this view. Nonetheless, 65 percent of respondents outside Quebec believed that the province should be bilingual.

“For the rest of Canada, official bilingualism is not seen as a positive attribute,” Mr. Poitras remarked. Additionally, 41 percent of total respondents, with 60 percent in Quebec, identified official bilingualism as core to Canadian identity, while 49 percent in the rest of the country perceived it as catering solely to a minority.

Mr. Poitras pointed out that federal bilingualism fails to evoke much interest among Canadians outside Quebec, stating that “just over half of anglophones say it’s not important” when considering the importance of Canada’s official bilingualism.

Concerning the survival of French, 70 percent of Quebec respondents expressed concern about its viability in Canada, a sentiment shared by only 19 percent in the rest of the country. Delving into the survival of French in Quebec specifically, 63 percent of Quebecers believed it was at risk, contrasting with 11 percent in the rest of Canada. Notably, 38 percent of respondents outside Quebec felt that English was under threat in the province, while only 17 percent of Quebec respondents agreed.

The Léger survey, conducted online with 1,536 respondents between June 14 and 17, 2024, does not carry a margin of error as the sample was non-probabilistic. Leger estimates that a probabilistic poll with a similar sample size would have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.