La Loi sur les langues officielles 1969: Réactions dans le Regina Leader Post

Abstract

This study is about the reactions of anglophones in Saskatchewan to the Official Languages Act of 1969. This study is based on a systematic analysis of 132 articles published in the Regina Leader Post between 1968 and 1969. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that influenced the opinions of anglophone Canadians in Saskatchewan to the Official Languages Act and to determine the role that the Regina Leader Post played throughout the debate on the Official Languages Act between 1968 and 1969. This study established that the actors of the debate on bilingualism were influenced by many factors. For example, supporters of the Official Languages Act saw bilingualism as a very important contributor to the unity of Canada. Supporters of bilingualism also argued that bilingual education was important for the development of a child who would one day find himself in a French-speaking province or seek a job in the public service of Canada. However, we also discovered from the Regina Leader Post that MPs, most notably former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker were very opposed to bilingualism. They saw the Official Languages Act as a plan by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to make Canada a “dual nation”. There was also concern from the Saskatchewan premier Ross Thatcher that the Official Languages Act would disadvantage Anglophone Saskatchewanians. From the research, we discovered that the Regina Leader Post played a very important role during the debate on the Official Languages Act of 1969. Between 1968 and1969 the word bilingualism appeared in Regina Leader Post 132 times; this simply means that the Regina Leader Post reinforced “bilingualism’s” place at the top of the political agenda during that period. From most of the editorials that we saw, the Regina Leader Post framed official bilingualism as an important contributor to the unity of Canada. The Regina Leader Post gave voice to supporters of bilingualism who were mostly elites. We also discovered that the Regina Leader Post described official bilingualism as a mark of success for prime minister Trudeau.