What If…..
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You know the language issue is the biggest and most damaging issue facing the comfortable sleeping English speaking community today and…………
There is a conflict going on between the Anglophone and Francophone communities that has been sustained for literally hundreds of years. The resolution to this conflict is not much closer to being attained today. Our approach with ARA has been to find accommodation. That’s why we have never said that we want to abolish bilingualism only to change its application.
The leadership of the French community rejects that for a couple of reasons.
First, to them it is the “thin edge of the wedge” toward an effort to abolish bilingualism because they don’t trust us.
Second, is that they do not have any incentive to do so because they have the upper hand today. Their position today allows them to hold a winning hand , access to a majority of the job market, huge funding by the federal government , control of the civil service, and control of their education and healthcare process. Much of which has been a product of bilingualism. Why would they want to change anything to accommodate Anglos?
So , someone asked me the other day, “what if” we just divided the province into two provinces north and south. One French and one English and be done with this constant bickering. If for no other reason, it’s interesting to look at that scenario.
The land area of New Brunswick is 73 thousand square km. There are 141 countries in the world smaller than New Brunswick. Dividing the province into north and south would be a win for the leadership of the Francophone community who have as an objective, to revenge the loss of Acadie a few hundred years ago. For the Anglophone community, it might be an opportunity to be free of the on going
push and pull over language.
The Northern province (Acadie) would be a French province while the south (New Brunswick) would have only English as its working language. That would mean each would be about 36,000 square kms. There are 123 countries in the world smaller.
The immediate response for most people would be to resist such an idea.
There is a feeling of relief though when you think of it. Francophones actually pushed for this separation back when they established their own political party in the 1970’s. So, it’s not a new idea.
You know the language issue is the biggest and most damaging issue facing the comfortable sleeping English speaking community today and…………
There is a conflict going on between the Anglophone and Francophone communities that has been sustained for literally hundreds of years. The resolution to this conflict is not much closer to being attained today. Our approach with ARA has been to find accommodation. That’s why we have never said that we want to abolish bilingualism only to change its application.
The leadership of the French community rejects that for a couple of reasons.
First, to them it is the “thin edge of the wedge” toward an effort to abolish bilingualism because they don’t trust us.
Second, is that they do not have any incentive to do so because they have the upper hand today. Their position today allows them to hold a winning hand , access to a majority of the job market, huge funding by the federal government , control of the civil service, and control of their education and healthcare process. Much of which has been a product of bilingualism. Why would they want to change anything to accommodate Anglos?
So , someone asked me the other day, “what if” we just divided the province into two provinces north and south. One French and one English and be done with this constant bickering. If for no other reason, it’s interesting to look at that scenario.
The land area of New Brunswick is 73 thousand square km. There are 141 countries in the world smaller than New Brunswick. Dividing the province into north and south would be a win for the leadership of the Francophone community who have as an objective, to revenge the loss of Acadie a few hundred years ago. For the Anglophone community, it might be an opportunity to be free of the on going
push and pull over language.
The Northern province (Acadie) would be a French province while the south (New Brunswick) would have only English as its working language. That would mean each would be about 36,000 square kms. There are 123 countries in the world smaller.
The immediate response for most people would be to resist such an idea.
There is a feeling of relief though when you think of it. Francophones actually pushed for this separation back when they established their own political party in the 1970’s. So, it’s not a new idea.