Broken Promises: Language Rights Following Confederation (1867-1967)

• Date: 22 August 2023
• Author: Michel Bastarache

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Broken Promises:

Language Rights Following

Confederation (1867–1967)

As mentioned in the previous chapter, Confederation was a solu-

tion devised to end the political deadlock between Canada East

and Canada West, which had paralyzed the United Province of

Canada. While the unif‌ication of the colonies had initially been

conceived to assimilate the French Canadians and remove their

demographic advantage, mass immigration waves in the following

decades changed the dynamics of power. While French Canadians

were still the majority in Canada East, the English inhabitants of

Canada West now outnumbered them.

e constitutional negotiations were held by thirty-six political

leaders; only four were francophones, and they were all from Quebec.

No French Canadian from Ontario or Acadian from the Maritimes

was invited even though francophones represented  percent of the

population. e superior inf‌luence of George-Étienne Cartier, who

had the support of the Catholic church, opened the door to the con-

tinuation of the practice of bilingualism post-Confederation. While

John A Macdonald, at the time the attorney general of Upper Can-

ada, would have preferred a legislative union, he realized this plan

would never get the approval of the French Canadians as it would

have deprived them of their political power within Canada East: