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Geography

In 2001, Francophone communities included 1,020,545 people having French as their mother tongue, accounting for 4.5% of the total population of Canada.

The Acadian and Francophone communities in Canada are spread over an immense territory. They share a common heritage of language and culture and their socio-economic level is largely the same. Yet, there are little or no apparent links between communities. They live in many different environments, some of which are relatively homogeneous. Their numbers are relatively high, there are many French institutions and everyday activities are carried out in French.

Located principally in New Brunswick, Ontario, and in the southwestern part of Nova Scotia, Francophones are also found in several other areas of the country. This founding culture often lives in rural areas, though some cities such as Saint Boniface and Vanier have long been at the centre of Francophone life. Other Francophones live in circumstances that do not provide them with a true grounding in French, even though they may enjoy advantages such as access to schools, cultural centres, churches, a few community organizations, and, less frequently, radio and newspapers. These are largely characteristics of life in the cities and large metropolitan areas, where they are in a minority.

Close to 60% of Francophones in Canada live in areas where they are more than 20% of the population and in these areas they can maintain their language and culture relatively easily. However, they are confronted with structural economic problems that have been heightened by the global reorganization of the 1980s. Francophones living in other regions are well-integrated economically and are masters of their own personal advancement. Their challenge is to be able to retain French in their day-to-day life in areas where French is distinctly in the minority. This profile, whose purpose is to measure the strength of the Francophone and Acadian communities around the country, aims to demonstrate this fact.

Knowing what distinguishes one type of French life from another is key to understanding the vitality of the French fact in Canada. Despite these distinctions, the links that exist among Francophones of the various regions, beyond distance and provincial boundaries, are many and strong. These links have an important role in defining French life; and are augmented by the ever increasing availability of new information and communications technologies.

In the last few decades, attention has focused on specific Francophone and Acadian communities in the provinces and territories. Their distinctive traits have been highlighted by emphasizing what makes them unique. The time has come to talk about these communities as constituting a unique system in Canada,that has resulted from family linkages and migration, the flow of information, cultural exchanges, the sharing of educational resources, the cooperative movement, and a solid and wide-ranging community life. As a legacy from the past, relations that bind Acadians and Francophones throughout Canada play a central role in daily community life and provide the means for their future development.

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