⚜️ The French Canada Thread | Discussion sur le Canada français ⚜️

[Loco101]

The Quebec Liberal Party now has Charles Milliard as its new leader. He seems to be much more liked than the previous two PLQ leaders. Some are comparing him to Mark Carney in terms of likeability and increasing the party's chances of being able to win in the next election. Time will tell.

The latest Pallas Data poll has things much closer than before:

https://lactualite.com/politique/sondage-pallas-data-qc125-lactualite-le-plq-a-trois-points-du-pq/

PQ: 30%

PLQ: 27%

PCQ: 16%

CAQ: 14%

QS: 10%


The PQ's support among francophones has fallen to 37%

---------------------

Support for sovereign is at the lowest it has been in the last couple of years.

If a referendum was held on the sovereignty of Quebec, would you vote for or against it?


For: 32%

Against: 60%

Undecided: 8%


Even among only francophones support has fallen:

For: 37%

Against: 53%

Undecided: 10%

[Loco101]

Léger poll released today. Support for Quebec sovereignty down and support basically tied between the PQ and PLQ. The Quebec Liberal Party's support is at a an 8 year high.

https://leger360.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Leger_PolitiqueQC_V1_4mars2026.pdf

PQ: 31%

PLQ: 30%

PCQ: 15%

CAQ: 13%

QS: 9%

Other: 1%


-----------------------------

Support for sovereignty for Quebec among those who are decided:


For: 29%

Against: 71%


9% are undecided

Interestingly even among PQ supporters 26% are against sovereignty. The vast majority of supporters of other political parties are against sovereignty.

Support for sovereignty in Quebec is believed to be at a 50 year low and possibly even greater.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

I was curious about Quebec politics and asked Gemini a pretty complicated political question. Does everyone here agree with this?

can the political parties of quebec at the provincial level be said to be similar to european political parties?

I finally figured out how to link to this conversation. Asked it some additional questions too:
https://gemini.google.com/share/57e6cab85c11

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Léger poll released today. Support for Quebec sovereignty down and support basically tied between the PQ and PLQ. The Quebec Liberal Party's support is at a an 8 year high.

https://leger360.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Leger_PolitiqueQC_V1_4mars2026.pdf

PQ: 31%

PLQ: 30%

PCQ: 15%

CAQ: 13%

QS: 9%

Other: 1%


-----------------------------

Support for sovereignty for Quebec among those who are decided:


For: 29%

Against: 71%


9% are undecided

Interestingly even among PQ supporters 26% are against sovereignty. The vast majority of supporters of other political parties are against sovereignty.

Support for sovereignty in Quebec is believed to be at a 50 year low and possibly even greater.

I wonder if the polling would be even higher since the recent byelections that gave Carney the majority. It seems the cause of federalism is alive and well in the beautiful province for the time being.

The people of Quebec really don’t seem to have an issue with Mark Carney’s French as they see him as the right man for the job in terms of more pressing matters to the Quebec economy.

Its far too early to predict who will win the Quebec election, but it’s no longer out of the realm of possibility for the Quebec Liberals to form the next government, especially with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s plummeting personal polling. Monsier Plamondon’s unfavourables are significantly higher among Francophones than usual for a PQ leader, but it’s still the PQ’s election to lose.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Wow, I had absolutely no idea that the French-language school system in NB would actually turn away a child who has both parents that speak only English.

That definitely not the case in Ontario. Here we have four school systems all operated separately. (English Public, English Catholic, French Public, French Catholic) Both the French Public and French Catholic district school boards in my region advertise heavily trying to attract children for Junior Kindergarten who can't speak French at all. And the English public and Catholic boards offer full French immersion programs! There are quite a few billboards, bus shelter ads, radio and TV ads that start in French but then switch to English telling parents that the French boards offers better and intense learning of French even if it is not spoken at home. While all four of our systems are publicly funded, there is competition between them to get students because it means more funding.

That’s pretty unbelievable that Ontario has much better French education in the public school system for Anglophones and non Francophones, than Canada’s only bilingual province… except after living here for almost a decade, I totally believe it. If NB made bilingualism work in a more uniting way, I think it would finally be seen as an asset by the anglophone majority, instead of a common scapegoat for all of Nouveau-Brunswick’s problems under the sun!

We get a lot of internet ads in French even here in Saint John, but maybe it’s more because I listen to so much French yé-yé music on YouTube lol. We do pay for a lot of French language content with our TV packages here’s tho, but it’s a shame that basically no content on French language TV channels in Canada have English closed captioning options.

It should go both ways, imo, bilingual subs as an option for all content in either official languages across the country… the CRTC just isn’t doing their job right if we’re living in the age of high technology and AI, but still relying on 1980s technology for closed captioning.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Wow, I had absolutely no idea that the French-language school system in NB would actually turn away a child who has both parents that speak only English.

Not sure how it is now but it used to be the same in NS (CSAP). I understand the rationale as there's also French immersion, and there will tend to be a big difference in French skills between a kid who was raised speaking it from birth and speaks it at home vs. one who is encountering it for the first time in school. A child starting out from zero will tend to be behind in a French language school and conversely a Francophone child will tend to be bored and out of sync with the other kids in immersion.

Some parents also viewed it like "free public school" and weren't interested so much in the French but felt the environment was better than the public school in their area. I think the French schools tend to have a wider catchment area in English cities as well.

One thing I thought was a bit unfair, and I wonder if they still do this, is they required the French-speaking parent to interview with the school. So you could have a situation of a French-speaking kid who was not eligible because one with one or more French-speaking parents were for one reason not in the picture. I think CSAP may also have preferred Acadian ancestry specifically, although I'd imagine they'd be happy to take other Francophone kids if their enrollment was low.

I would make a couple criticisms of the English system too. Languages are easiest for young children to pick up so it makes a lot of sense to introduce it at age 5 or 6 and not 13. And I think there used to be too much emphasis on textbook grammar type learning and not enough conversational material. But my window into this dates from a long time ago so maybe it's changed. AI tools and video conferencing would make it practical to hugely overall this. I always wondered if there could be more programs where kids in Quebec talk to kids elsewhere in Canada, in a mix of English and French.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by someone123

Not sure how it is now but it used to be the same in NS (CSAP). I understand the rationale as there's also French immersion, and there will tend to be a big difference in French skills between a kid who was raised speaking it from birth and speaks it at home vs. one who is encountering it for the first time in school. A child starting out from zero will tend to be behind in a French language school and conversely a Francophone child will tend to be bored and out of sync with the other kids in immersion.

Some parents also viewed it like "free public school" and weren't interested so much in the French but felt the environment was better than the public school in their area. I think the French schools tend to have a wider catchment area in English cities as well.

One thing I thought was a bit unfair, and I wonder if they still do this, is they required the French-speaking parent to interview with the school. So you could have a situation of a French-speaking kid who was not eligible because one with one or more French-speaking parents were for one reason not in the picture. I think CSAP may also have preferred Acadian ancestry specifically, although I'd imagine they'd be happy to take other Francophone kids if their enrollment was low.

I would make a couple criticisms of the English system too. Languages are easiest for young children to pick up so it makes a lot of sense to introduce it at age 5 or 6 and not 13. And I think there used to be too much emphasis on textbook grammar type learning and not enough conversational material. But my window into this dates from a long time ago so maybe it's changed. AI tools and video conferencing would make it practical to hugely overall this. I always wondered if there could be more programs where kids in Quebec talk to kids elsewhere in Canada, in a mix of English and French.

In NB French immersion doesn’t begin until grade 3, and they have a hard time retaining their students in the program through graduation. Moreover, in terms of the separate, French language school system, there’s no requirement for even one parent to be fluent in French… the only requirement is that both parents are not unilingual anglophones… or in other words, one parent must speak a native language other than English in order to enroll their children in the French school system.

IMO, NB should just largely scrap and replace the anglophone public school system with a mostly bilingual public school system that begins teaching kids French at the Kindergarten or even pre-K level. NB, as the only bilingual province in the country, should have the finest bilingual public education system in the country… we should be teaching kids in both official languages as soon as possible and set up every high school graduate in the province with the tools needed to continue studying and improving their French language skills. Instead, NB has one of the worst French Immersion school systems in the country, and anglophone parents cannot enroll their children in the French School system.

It goes without saying that the French public school system in NB is protected by the Charter and cannot be touched, but that has little to do with improving levels of bilingualism among anglophone NBers, since all Anglophones families are unable to enroll their children in the French school system.

Here in SJ, Centre scolaire Samuel-de-Champlain, is widely considered one of the best public schools in the entire region, but my kids won’t be able to attend that school unless their other parent is a Francophone or non native English speaker.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Moreover, in terms of the separate, French language school system, there’s no requirement for even one parent to be fluent in French… the only requirement is that both parents are not unilingual anglophones… or in other words, one parent must speak a native language other than English in order to enroll their children in the French school system.

This sounds very odd.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by someone123

This sounds very odd.

It's not what Le District scolaire francophone Sud says in answer to the question 'Who can attend a Francophone school in New Brunswick?'

In New-Brunswick where the official language of the majority is English, Canadian citizens have the right to have their children educated in French if one of these three situations applies:

• their first language learned and still understood is French; or
• they received their own primary education in Canada in French; or
• they have a child who has received or is receiving his or her primary or secondary education in French in Canada.

The right to receive an education in a minority language applies only when there is a sufficient number of children to justify schooling in that language. Where those numbers exist, governments must provide instruction in the minority language.

If you are not a right holder, you can still apply to send your child to a French-language school. The New-Brunswick Education Act states that a child with enough French language skills may be admitted to a school in that language.

Also, if a child speaks neither French nor English, he or she may be enrolled in a French school. French-language schools encourage applications from families that are new to New-Brunswick.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Seems Centre scolaire Samuel-de-Champlain has a new website. I'm pretty positive their website used to say students could be admitted if at least one parent spoke a first language other than English, but I can't seem to even find the admissions sections at all on their new website.

Perhaps this was a policy specific to Samuel-de-Champlain School in SJ that has since been changed... which would make sense to me, as there was a massive uptick in newcomers to Saint John in the last 5 years who spoke something other than English as their first language.

Regardless, there's a lot of room for improvement in terms of French language education in Canada's only bilingual province.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I wonder if the polling would be even higher since the recent byelections that gave Carney the majority. It seems the cause of federalism is alive and well in the beautiful province for the time being.

The people of Quebec really don’t seem to have an issue with Mark Carney’s French as they see him as the right man for the job in terms of more pressing matters to the Quebec economy.

Its far too early to predict who will win the Quebec election, but it’s no longer out of the realm of possibility for the Quebec Liberals to form the next government, especially with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s plummeting personal polling. Monsier Plamondon’s unfavourables are significantly higher among Francophones than usual for a PQ leader, but it’s still the PQ’s election to lose.

Predicting the upcoming election in Quebec is not something I'm willing to do at this point. The big factor will be if the CAQ can regain support now that Christine Fréchette is premier. PLQ leader Charles Milliard will have difficulty getting support from francophones but even small gains can make a huge difference in the outcome in terms of seats. The PQ went so hard on the referendum promise and talk on sovereignty hoping that support for it would rise but that hasn't happened. If PSPP and the PQ announce no referendum then it might help them a fair bit but that would be a major flip-flop from just recently.

Would many Quebecers want to have Liberals in power at both levels? That's another big question. The campaigning will make the difference.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

That’s pretty unbelievable that Ontario has much better French education in the public school system for Anglophones and non Francophones, than Canada’s only bilingual province… except after living here for almost a decade, I totally believe it. If NB made bilingualism work in a more uniting way, I think it would finally be seen as an asset by the anglophone majority, instead of a common scapegoat for all of Nouveau-Brunswick’s problems under the sun!

.

I should have emphasized that it's in much of Northeastern Ontario where it's like that. But not in a lot of the province. NE Ontario has a lot of similarities to New Brunswick.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

In NB French immersion doesn’t begin until grade 3, and they have a hard time retaining their students in the program through graduation. Moreover, in terms of the separate, French language school system, there’s no requirement for even one parent to be fluent in French… the only requirement is that both parents are not unilingual anglophones… or in other words, one parent must speak a native language other than English in order to enroll their children in the French school system.

IMO, NB should just largely scrap and replace the anglophone public school system with a mostly bilingual public school system that begins teaching kids French at the Kindergarten or even pre-K level. NB, as the only bilingual province in the country, should have the finest bilingual public education system in the country… we should be teaching kids in both official languages as soon as possible and set up every high school graduate in the province with the tools needed to continue studying and improving their French language skills. Instead, NB has one of the worst French Immersion school systems in the country, and anglophone parents cannot enroll their children in the French School system.

It goes without saying that the French public school system in NB is protected by the Charter and cannot be touched, but that has little to do with improving levels of bilingualism among anglophone NBers, since all Anglophones families are unable to enroll their children in the French school system.

I'm surprised that French Immersion doesn't begin there until Grade 3!

In Ontario, French Immersion begins at Junior Kindergarten. Ontario has full-day and fully funded school starting at JK. That means children start school the year they turn 4 years old. I'm not sure if any other province has anything equivalent.

There is immense support among francophones in my region in letting non-francophone children into French-language schools and not just suggesting that they should attend French-Immersion ones which are part of the English-language school boards.

Check this out for school boards and advertising:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/school-board-marketing-expenses-northern-ontario-1.6975051

Reading the entire article if you have the time.

Here's what each board in Northeastern Ontario spent on marketing in the last four years (from 2019-2023):

Conseil Scolaire Public du Nord-Est de l'Ontario: $1,069,052.
Conseil Scolaire Catholique de District des Grandes Rivières: $749,791.
Conseil Scolaire Catholique du Nouvel-Ontario: $460,881.34.
Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board: $432,567.89.
Northeastern Catholic District School Board: $235,598.12.
Conseil Scolaire Public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario: $228,154.75.
Algoma District School Board: $211,533.19.
Conseil Scolaire de District Catholique Franco-Nord: $198,262.
Rainbow District School Board: $171,850.36.
Near North District School Board: $157,243.36.
Sudbury Catholic District School Board: $127,652.
District School Board Ontario North East: $103,679.90.
Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board: $83,844.

Much of the advertising for the French-language boards was actually in English trying to attract students. The province funds each board by the number of students so there is competition to attract them. The English-language public boards spend the least on advertising overall although 10 years ago they also had much larger advertising budgets.

[Loco101]

Here's an ad from 2022 for the Northern Region of the French Catholic school board that covers the Cochrane and Temiskaming Districts:

The area between Cochrane and Hearst is majority francophone. This is NOT French Immersion. It's French-language school.



And here's an ad I found on YouTube for the same school board showing a child whose parents don't speak French but is attending French-language school and the Mother talking about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFYoDSM9o3w

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Bonne Fête nationale de l'Acadie! Happy Acadia Day!

[ToxiK]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Bonne Fête nationale de l'Acadie! Happy Acadia Day!