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rfmcdonaldA recent news article reminded me of the fact that, although Canada's Francophones are overwhelmingly and increaisngly concentrated in Québec and New Brunswick (and Franco-Ontarians, there's still significant Francophone minorities elsewhere.
Although the ethnogenesis of the Acadians took place in the west of the modern province of Nova Scotia, the ethnic cleansing of the Acadians by the British at the beginning of the Seven Years War forever disrupted this minority, creating an overwhelming Anglophone majority and a small but concentrated Francophone minority.
There's still ongoing assimilation, however, with the beginnings of an absolute decline in Francophone numbers.
Francophone communities in rural Nova Scotia are disappearing through urbanization and out-migration just like their Anglophone counterparts, while Halifax's Francophone community, growing thanks to urbanization and in-migration, is quite heterogeneous thanks to its diverse origins and not very resistant to assimilation. I'm inclined to think that the Francophone communities will continue to diminish as the old communities wither away and the new communities behave like other immigrant minorities, but perhaps I'll be proven wrong. Perhaps.
Hearing French spoken at the Nova Scotia legislature may be less of a novelty if an Acadian MLA gets his way.>
Michel Samson, Liberal MLA for Richmond, wants the legislature to offer simultaneous translation so he and other French-speaking MLAs can debate or ask questions in their mother tongue.
The issue came up Wednesday in a rare French-only exchange during question period.
Samson posed a question in French, asking whether the minister of Acadian affairs supported his idea of having French translated into English during those occasions when he and other Acadians want to use French in the house.
Earlier this week Graham Steele, who is also finance minister, said simultaneous translation would likely be too expensive.
"I know many members of the house won't understand what the honourable member just said, but they can see he's very worked up about it," Steele said Wednesday.
If MLAs want a translation service, he said, he'll look into it on one condition.
"Whatever the cost turns out to be, equivalent cuts must be found elsewhere in the assembly's budget. We are not in a position to be adding new things regardless of what the cost might be," Steele said.
Although the ethnogenesis of the Acadians took place in the west of the modern province of Nova Scotia, the ethnic cleansing of the Acadians by the British at the beginning of the Seven Years War forever disrupted this minority, creating an overwhelming Anglophone majority and a small but concentrated Francophone minority.
While the number of Acadians has been stable during the last 45 years, the population of non-francophones has grown. Thus the percentage of francophones has steadily decreased. From 1951 to 1996, the percentage dropped from 6.1 to 4 percent. The greatest decrease in percentage was between 1971 and 1981, which reflects a decrease in absolute numbers during that time.
Francophones are 15 percent of the population in four of Nova Scotia’s 18 counties. The Acadian population is highly concentrated and Acadians are in the majority in some municipalities. Their impact and presence in the daily life of Nova Scotia’s Acadian areas is much stronger than their percentage of the provincial population would suggest.
There's still ongoing assimilation, however, with the beginnings of an absolute decline in Francophone numbers.
[I]n 1951, the number of Nova Scotians who listed French as their mother tongue stood at 38,943, or 6.1 per cent of the population. By 2006, that number had slid to 33,705 - or 3.7 per cent of the population.
"The results conclude that French is, for the most part, a language of solidarity - and is relegated to private uses in this province," the report's co-author, Kenneth Deveau, told a crowd gathered Monday at the Halifax campus of the Université Sainte-Anne.
"English clearly remains the status language when one considers the degree with which it dominates the public sphere."
The study, funded by Canadian Heritage and Acadian Affairs, found that Nova Scotia's Acadians and francophones are optimistic about their "community's vitality."
But the report, which involved a survey of 600 Acadians and francophones, concludes that such optimism may not be fully warranted.
"In spite of recent progress, the linguistic assimilation rate for francophones of this province is at such a level that the community will not be able to maintain itself indefinitely," the report concludes.
"It's a scary prospect," Deveau added in an interview.
Francophone communities in rural Nova Scotia are disappearing through urbanization and out-migration just like their Anglophone counterparts, while Halifax's Francophone community, growing thanks to urbanization and in-migration, is quite heterogeneous thanks to its diverse origins and not very resistant to assimilation. I'm inclined to think that the Francophone communities will continue to diminish as the old communities wither away and the new communities behave like other immigrant minorities, but perhaps I'll be proven wrong. Perhaps.
