Hypothetically if Canada wasn't Canada, do you think Canada should Canada?
this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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You know that New Brunswick and Ontario have a bunch of francophone right ?
Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well.
And Alberta!
You know that New Brunswick and Ontario have a bunch of francophone right ?
Yes: 30.3% of New Brunswickers are French-speaking ^[1.1.1]^ (34.0% bilingual ^[1.1.3]^), which is 0.6% of the Canadian population ^[3]^, and 3.8% of Ontarians are French-speaking ^[1.1.2]^ (10.8% bilingual ^[1.1.4]^), which is 1.3% of the total Canadian population ^[4]^.
References
- Type: Website. Title: "Statistics on official languages in Canada". Publisher: "Government of Canada". Published (Edited): 20240814. Accessed: 2025-12-03T02:10Z. URI: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/official-languages-bilingualism/publications/statistics.html.
- Type: Table. Location: Table 1.
- 30.3% (231 850 Canadians) of New Brunswickers are French-speaking.
- 3.8% (533 560 Canadians) of Ontarians are French-speaking.
- 34.0% (250 120 Canadians) of New Brunswickers are bilingual.
- 10.8% (1 519 365 Canadians) of Ontarians are bilingual.
- Type: Table. Location: Table 1.
- Type: Article. Title: "Canada's population clock (real-time model)". Publisher: "Statistics Canada". Accessed: 2025-12-03T02:16Z. URI: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm.
- The population of Canada is 41 744 210.
- Type: Meta.
- 231 850 New Brunswickers are French-speaking ^[1.1.1]^. The population of Canada is 41 744 210 ^[2]^. Therefore, French-speaking New Brunswickers account for approximately 0.6% (
(231 850/41 744 210)×100 ~= 0.6%) of Canadians.
- 231 850 New Brunswickers are French-speaking ^[1.1.1]^. The population of Canada is 41 744 210 ^[2]^. Therefore, French-speaking New Brunswickers account for approximately 0.6% (
- Type: Meta.
- 533 560 Ontarians are French-speaking ^[1.1.2]^. The population of Canada is 41 744 210 ^[2]^. Therefore, French-speaking Ontarians account for approximately 1.3% (
(533 560/41 744 210)×100 ~= 1.3%) of Canadians.
- 533 560 Ontarians are French-speaking ^[1.1.2]^. The population of Canada is 41 744 210 ^[2]^. Therefore, French-speaking Ontarians account for approximately 1.3% (
Yes but those are specific ethnic populations with separate histories and cultures from Québec. Im an anglo Québécoise engaged to an Acadienne from New Brunswick. It's a completely different group.
Yes. We need all the cultural separation from the US we can get. Add indigenous languages too.
Yeah, we could go with the South Africa approach and just give a butt-ton of things official status.
You will either need to be French/English bilingual or English/Cree-Ojibway-Saulteaux-Coast Salish/Haida, etc bilingual.
Why you ask? Because Canada has walked the official bilingual state status for far too long to give it up on a whim.
[…] Why you ask? […]
Curiosity.
[…] Canada has walked the official bilingual state status for far too long to give it up on a whim.
Do you think it should, though?
Your quote
Disclaimer: This post is not an argument for nor against the separation of Quebec from Canada ^[1]^, nor the upholding of bilingualism in Canada ^[2]^.
Guess you didn't really mean that, eh?
Being bilingual is a huge asset for a person and even more so for a country.
Whether it "should" is irrelevant. It's always been multilingual, and expecting people to change is nonsense.
Yes.
Do you mind elaborating on your rationale? 🙂
I'm a bilingual french-english Canadian, raised outside of Quebec. French is my first language. Having access to both languages in school, at home, and in professional settings has created in me and my bilingual peers a strong sense of identity, a strong sense of empathy toward those who don't speak English as their first language, and it has allowed me to impart a sense of culture to my kids without anchoring it in religion.
That said, I have been through the 1995 separation referendum. I've also been harassed and mocked for speaking French. There are those who don't care about rich cultural lives, and they have no shame in asking brazen questions like this. Given the framing and feigned innocence of your question, I think you are one of those.
What is your motivation to stir such a sensitive question among Canadians?
Hypothetically, if Martians were to land on Earth, do you think we should welcome them?
Depends; are they bilingual?
I would take the top-5 languages spoken in Canada and make the country multilingual based off of that.
If that just so happens to include Cantonese and Hindi, so be it.
If it includes Cree and/or Inuktitut, even better.
Sure, have English as the baseline. A baseline should always be the most spoken common language. But having an few other languages as “official” - and supporting numerous others in the way Europe does - would make Canada far more inclusive and intellectually robust.
But what percentage of the overall population of Quebec speaks French? Above a high school level?
94%
Man, that 6% must have it rough. I'd rather not speak French living in France, because at least they aren't worried about being erased.
Source
Virtually everyone speaks french. I went there as a french and never had to speak another language. I'm surprised it's not a bit higher if anything
I suppose New Brunswick would still be bilingual, so why not. It would make sense to relax official language rights in the Charter a bit, though.