Electoral compass: bilingualism in the public service divides Canadians

If Quebec mainly supports the requirement of bilingualism in the two official Canada languages ​​for federal senior officials, support is only third in the other provinces of Canada, according to data from the electoral compass.

To affirmation, Only people speaking both English and French should be considered for high -level positions within the federal governmentsupport is more than 72 % in Quebec, according to the most recent data consulted by Radio-Canada, Tuesday April 15 at the end of the morning.

These results are based on the choices of 302,654 respondents who participated in the electoral compass between March 25 and April 15, 2025.

In Quebec, questions that affect official languages ​​are always more popular, as for all French speakers in the country as a rule. They have a particular sensitivity because it is often they who face a lack of service in the official language of their choice or when it is civil servants who […] do not necessarily work in the official language of their choiceestimates the political scientist at the Royal Military College of Canada, Stéphanie Chouinard.

In Quebec, the idea of ​​official bilingualism is one of the symbols of their identity within Canada. It is certain that it will always be stronger than in the rest of Canada.

In the rest of the country, between 28 % and 33 % of respondents say they are favorable or rather favorable To this statement, the only one on bilingualism in Canada.

Ms. Chouinard refuses to see a disavowal vis-à-vis official bilingualism. The political scientist recalls in particular the results of a survey unveiled in 2022 by the police station of official languages ​​of Canada, in which we learned that 86 % of respondents by phone said they were Personally in favor of bilingualism for the whole of Canada.

According to the political science professor at Laval University, Yannick Dufresne, who helped create the electoral compass in 2010 and who is still involved in the project, this testifies to a different reaction according to the way in which bilingualism is approached outside Quebec.

If we speak of bilingualism as a symbol, the support is very very great because there is a thirst for any symbol that distinguishes Canada from the United States […]. But as soon as we talk about a restrictive aspect of bilingualism, whether it costs money or that there are people you choose for jobs compared to that, the support drops in the rest of Canada.

The Atlantic Paradox

In Ontario, Manitoba-Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, they are more than 50 % of respondents to be strongly or rather in disagreement With compulsory bilingualism of senior federal officials.

This is also the case in the Atlantic provinces, which surprises Ms. Chouinard who would have expected a stronger support given the presence of New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province of Canada, even if the political scientist at the Royal Military College of Canada recognizes that theIdea of ​​having services in both official languages ​​is still not unanimous in New Brunswick, despite the high proportion of Francophones and Acadians.

Mr. Dufresne admits, the available data do not yet make it possible to draw up a more precise portrait of the electoral districts. We will have to wait a little longer. But he remembers his surprise when he had done this exercise, during the last federal election in 2021, studying the only question on bilingualism which focused on the knowledge of the two official languages ​​for the judges at the Supreme Court of Canada.

One of the biggest surprises was to see that in the Ottawa region and New Brunswick, there are constituencies with a very very strong support and the constituencies most opposite to official bilingualism on different questions.

I think it is this anti-elite resentment, sometimes, that can be perceived in the stake of official bilingualism.

After having lived in Toronto and a lot worked with colleagues and Acadian students, Mr. Dufresne believes he has a good perspective to partly explain the current responses on bilingualism, taken from the electoral compass.

I think that bilingualism is perceived by a segment of the population as an element of elitism which is not available for all, which is not accessible to all and that some people have the privilege of talking about two languages […]. It is considered unfair. It took me a while before I understand that.

Myths that have a hard life

For Ms. Chouinard, this can also be explained by some myths that have a hard life on bilingualism within the federal apparatus.

There is a large distinction between this myth that all employees of the public service must be bilingual […] And what we see on the ground where in the background, there are large pockets of the Federal Public Service where we work very easily as a united, especially as an English -speaking university.

If the Canadian State supported its public service better to allow those who wish to go and acquire these skills [linguistiques]I think it would greatly help demystify the situation.

The next government will have a role to play, said the political scientist.

On the one hand, to continue to show transparency in relation to the place of the two official languages ​​within the public service, but also to have better support for civil servants who would like to become bilingual. Because the two official languages, we are not born with that! It is a skill that we develop and that we can continue to develop during our career.