Ontarians are less in agreement with the Canadian average on the importance of bilingualism in Canada and judge that French and English are on the same footing in terms of precariousness. However, residents of the largest province in the country are slightly more in favor of both official languages when Quebec is removed from the equation.
This is what is revealed by data from a survey conducted by the Léger firm among 1,536 Canadians, including 605 Ontarians. It shows that one in two Ontarians considers it important that Canada remains bilingual, while 43% believe that it is not. On the other hand, Ontario has greater support for official bilingualism than all the provinces outside Quebec, with 51% not finding it important, compared to 43% who say the opposite.
53% of Ontarians say they disagree with the idea that their province should become officially bilingual. Furthermore, more Ontarians agree with the statement that official bilingualism “exists only to satisfy a minority” (46%) than that it “is at the heart of Canadian identity.”
“The real surprise is the low support for bilingualism and the low proportion of individuals who find it important to Canadian identity,” notes Jacob Legault-Leclair, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Waterloo, who studies the issue of Francophonie in the Canadian and Quebec context.
For the latter, these figures demonstrate a certain lack of awareness of bilingualism and an indifference towards the Francophonie, pointing to the fact that only 32% of people living outside Quebec believe that the number of Francophones has decreased compared to 50 years ago.
“While the figures are very clear. In Canada, from 1971 to 2021, the proportion of French speakers went from 27.5% to 22%. Outside Quebec, it decreased by almost half, from 6.1% to 3.5%,” the researcher explains.
“But people, they underestimate (the figures) and that is a lack of knowledge of the Francophone demographic phenomenon in Canada. This lack of knowledge can influence opinions regarding bilingualism. If we do not know what is happening with the French fact at home, we can expect that we will have a certain lack of knowledge of opinions on bilingualism,” he observes.
Regarding the precariousness of French in Canada, 21% of respondents in Ontario consider that the language of Molière is in danger while an identical number consider that English is threatened. Across Canada, 31% consider French to be in danger, but this number rises to 82% when only the responses of Francophones are taken into account. More Anglophones consider that English (23%) is more in danger than French (18%) in Canada.
“There is a gap between individuals’ perceptions of language issues and reality. There really is a gulf,” notes researcher Jacob-Legault Leclair.
With the numerous arrivals of immigrants who speak neither French nor English, Léger asked whether it was still relevant to have two official languages. 44% of Ontarians say yes (compared to 49% of Canadians) while 37% say no.
The survey was conducted between June 14 and 17 online. The margin of error is at most ±2.50%, (19 times out of 20) for the Canadian sample.
