Why is Quebec the only mainly “French” province?

[jd3189]

My view of Canada has always been dominated by French culture. My extended family who lives up there are all concentrated in the Montreal area and I haven’t been to any other provinces aside from Quebec up to this point. There’s also the idea that Canada advertises itself as a bilingual nation, with importance stressed on both English and French.


However, from what I gather culturally ( in media, this forum, etc), most of the provinces outside of Quebec are English-based. What’s the story behind that?

[ReeceZ]

You do understand the response to this isn't simple or straight-forward.

[Chadillaccc]

France heavily colonized New France (Quebec) and then lost the war against the English who subsequently took basically the whole continent. They expelled most of the Acadians from Nova Scotia and Eastern New Brunswick, many of whom ended up in Louisiana and evolved into the Cajun (the adapted demonym from "Acadian") culture.

Quebec is the only province with the majority of its population being Francophone, however both Ontario and New Brunswick are heavily influenced by the French language and culture. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, being about 34% French and 66% English, and out of Ontario's 15 million people, about 1.3 million identify as French Canadian, and around 700 000 speak French as their first language. While New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, the country itself is officially bilingual at the federal level.

Additionally, Manitoba was settled earlier than the rest of the west of the country, initially by French settlers and fur traders. Many of these people led to the creation of the Metis community of Canada through genetic and cultural exchange with indigenous people. The population of the Metis community numbers about 700 000 mostly spread across the three Prairie Provinces. Louis Riel was a Metis from Winnipeg, founder of the province of Manitoba, and was the leader of two rebellions seeking independence (or at least autonomy) for Indigenous and Metis peoples. He was executed for treason, but is widely considered the provincial hero of Manitoba and is one of the most studied and storied individuals in Canadian history. In Winnipeg, the Francophone population is over 40 000. Despite significant demographic losses over the past three decades, it's still a fairly sizeable community.

Aside from those four provinces, there are smaller communities of Francophones across Alberta (81 000), British Columbia (71 000), Nova Scotia (35 000), and Saskatchewan (20 000). Even smaller communities in the rest of the provinces and territories, including remnants of the Acadians in Prince Edward Island (6 000) along with their countrymen in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Out of 38 million people in Canada, approximately 10 million speak French as their first language, which is why we are a bilingual country.



But of course, as mentioned above, there is no straight forward answer to your question. What I've provided here is an extremely basic overview based on my memory and ongoing studies of Canadian history and indigenous/metis ethnographies in university.

[Hali87]

Quebec has always been the primary French-Canadian province (at least since well before Confederation) and over time Quebec has become proportionately less English-speaking while the rest of Canada has become proportionately less French-speaking.

Federal services are offered in both English and French in all of Canada but day-to-day life is really only bilingual in a few cities (Montreal being the primary example). Bilingualism is such a visible part of the country's modern brand though that I can see where the surprise comes from. The relative importance of the French language outside of Quebec varies by province but tends to be stronger in the Eastern half of the country, though not so much in Toronto or the surrounding area.

[theman23]

The British won.

[kwoldtimer]

[QUOTE=theman23;8828775]The British won.[/QUOTE

Which leaves only the question of the Quebec anomaly, although, ironically, the same explanation applies ...

[Franco401]

This thread is gonna be like 20 posts answering this very Google-able question followed by 50 pages of vitriolic discussion about equalization, distinct culture and Bill 21. Mods get ready.

[MonctonRad]

Sadly, I think you are correct on this.

[theman23]

Originally Posted by Franco401

This thread is gonna be like 20 posts answering this very Google-able question followed by 50 pages of vitriolic discussion about equalization, distinct culture and Bill 21. Mods get ready.

Yeah.

Unless the OP doesn’t know how to operate a computer and is having his grandkids post messages for him, it’s a pretty damn stupid question to ask.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by theman23

Yeah.

Unless the OP doesn’t know how to operate a computer and is having his grandkids post messages for him, it’s a pretty damn stupid question to ask.

People aren't allowed to be curious?

Plus, he's American. He doesn't care about any hang-ups Canadians might have about such things.

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by theman23

Yeah.

Unless the OP doesn’t know how to operate a computer and is having his grandkids post messages for him, it’s a pretty damn stupid question to ask.

I could have done that, but I wanted to read what people here had to say about it.

I will say that I tried researching the reason why French isn’t as prominent as it once was in Louisiana and parts of the US that the French were present in ( like Missouri, Detroit, etc). Based on the responses so far, it seems that there has been a historical suppression of French everywhere on the continent.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by jd3189

I could have done that, but I wanted to read what people here had to say about it.

I will say that I tried researching the reason why French isn’t as prominent as it once was in Louisiana and parts of the US that the French were present in ( like Missouri, Detroit, etc). Based on the responses so far, it seems that there has been a historical suppression of French everywhere on the continent.

Perhaps a way to frame it is that British settlers in the British Empire (and their later descendants, Anglo-Americans and Anglo-Canadians) tried their damn hardest to assimilate/overpower away any pre-existing predominantly non-English speaking regions that they acquired. This included both indigenous languages as well as the languages of previous settlers (French, Dutch, Spanish)

In most cases, they succeeded (e.g. Dutch is no longer the lingua franca of New York state or the former areas of New Amsterdam, French no longer holds strong in Louisiana, Missouri, Detroit, and Texas, California etc. were turned into Anglophone places after the US acquired them from Mexico etc.).

However, the holdouts are the places where for one reason or another (political power, inconvenience, resistance), the English-speakers did not succeed in their project of new nation-building via language change, such as Quebec (obtained from New France but still French speaking) or Puerto Rico (obtained from Spanish Empire but still remained Spanish speaking).

So, it's notable that for instance Quebec but not Louisiana retained French or that Puerto Rico* but not Texas retained Spanish despite the power of Anglophone assimilation, because it provides an exception to the idea that English-speakers always won and could impose their will on others.

* I must admit I am more hazy about the details of the Puerto Rican case, but probably something also along the lines of critical mass or the difficulty of forcing everyone to learn to use English first over Spanish (as well as not being a state, it was less connected to and easily influenced by the mainland) made Puerto Rico hold out its unique identity whereas states like Louisiana, California, Texas could not keep themselves a state of non-English speakers in a sea of English speakers.

[Apey]

Originally Posted by Franco401

This thread is gonna be like 20 posts answering this very Google-able question followed by 50 pages of vitriolic discussion about equalization, distinct culture and Bill 21. Mods get ready.

Can I get an Amen on that! Couldn't have said it better myself! Sitting here on the sidelines with a six pack, pop-corn, waiting for the mud slinging to begin!

[JHikka]

The Expulsion of the Acadians is why Quebec is Canada's only French province.

And also because the British won.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by jd3189

Canada advertises itself as a bilingual nation, with importance stressed on both English and French.

? It does...?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

? It does...?

(Federal) governmentally, I think we can say that it does.

[Luisito]

It's a shame French isn't more wide spoken in other provinces. I have made it a point to speak French anytime I go to government offices here in Manitoba. I really need to practice it more. It's nice there are also French speaking communities near by to be able to hear and speak French in. I wish there were more.


The expulsion of the Acadians from the Maritimes is one the saddest episodes in Canadian history.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Luisito

I have made it a point to speak French anytime I go to government offices here in Manitoba.

I am curious to know how well it usually goes when you try that?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I am curious to know how well it usually goes when you try that?

A couple years ago, I needed to try to get my username back for the registration of my company's domain name. It's a corporation with a provincial charter. GoDaddy.ca which is the site we used to register it back in the day asked us for documents; we had to prove we were the corporation that did register the domain name at the time, so we supplied the original of the corporation's certificate of incorporation, a 100% official Government of Quebec document. (Which is what they wanted.)

They replied "this document seems to be written in some strange foreign language, we cannot do anything with it; please have it translated into English by a certified translator, at your own expense, then re-submit that translation, and we can move on with your file."

I didn't have the free time back then to go 7up Air Canada Guy on their case so I dropped it, and haven't been able to re-take control of my own domain name since.

In fact, this reminds me - I'll try again and won't let them get away with this this time.

The one document that they demand - our Certificate of Incorporation - I HAVE that document - it is an official document that has been emitted by the government of the second biggest province in the country in the one and only official language of the second biggest province in the country - I swear I'll ram it down their throat as is, I'm not going to pay a fucking translator.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I am curious to know how well it usually goes when you try that?

I have had no issues so far.