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, the inhabitants of the largest province in the country are slightly more in favor of both official languages than Canada when we remove Quebec from the equation.
This is revealed by data from a survey carried out by the Léger firm which was carried out among 1,536 Canadians, including 605 Ontarians. We learn 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, while 51% do not find 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. In addition, 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” (37%).
“The real surprise is the low support for bilingualism and the small proportion of individuals who find it important in Canadian identity,” notes sociology doctoral student at the University of Waterloo Jacob Legault-Leclair, who studies the question of the 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 underestimate the (figures) and that is a lack of understanding of the French-speaking demographic phenomenon in Canada. This lack of knowledge can influence opinions relating to bilingualism. If we don’t know what’s going on with French at home, we can expect that we will have a certain ignorance of opinions on bilingualism,” he observes.
Concerning the precariousness of French in Canada, 21% of respondents from 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 we only take into account the responses of French speakers. More Anglophones consider that English (23%) is more endangered than French (18%) in Canada.
“There is a gap between individuals’ perceptions of language issues and reality. There really is a chasm,” notes researcher Jacob-Legault Leclair.
With the arrival of many immigrants who speak neither French nor English, Léger asked if 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.
