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Sources

For the first edition of this document, the brief historical notes on the Francophone and Acadian communities of Canada are mainly taken from historical recollections of Francophone experiences in the provinces and territories compiled by the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development. They are posted on the Committee’s Web site. Philippe Falardeau’s review, entitled Hier la francophonie, published by the FCFA du Canada as part of its Dessein 2000 Project, and Yves Frenette’s La brève histoire des Canadiens français recently published by the Éditions Boréal, were also sources of inspiration. Finally, several texts compiled by Joseph Yvon Thériault in Francophonies minoritaires au Canada-L’État des lieux, published by the Éditions de l’Acadie, were also useful, as was the study by René Guindon, and Pierre Poulin entitled Les liens dans la francophonie canadienne, which appeared in the 1984 series, Nouvelles perspectives canadiennes. Few changes were made in this section.

The report on geography comes in part from the above study of Guindon and Poulin. Its concepts on the duality of the French-Canadian experience were adapted from Maurice Beaudin and René Boudreau’s study État de la francophonie en 1991, published in 1994 for the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development.

All of the statistics used in the preparation of this national profile are those of Statistics Canada. Three sources were used:

1. The data on mother tongue, language spoken at home and knowledge of French for the period 1951 to 1996 for Canada and the provinces were taken from the 1999 publication by Louise Marmen and Jean-Pierre Corbeil, Les langues du Canada; Recensement de 1996. Canadian Heritage and Statistics Canada. Nouvelles perspectives canadiennes. Catalogue number C99-981104F. (Marmen and Corbeil, 1999).
2. The data on the economic and demographic vitality of the French-speaking population of Canada were taken from two documents prepared by Maurice Beaudin of the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development (CIRRD) on behalf of the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development.

The first document, entitled Les groupes et les regions francophones au Canada: État de la situation en 1996, presents a detailed portrait of French Canadians from a demographic and socio-economic point of view in 22 regions of the country in 1996 (see the annex for a description of the 22 regions), including comparisons with 1991 (Beaudin, 1999).

The second, entitled État de la francophonie en 1991, and prepared in conjunction with René Boudreau, presents similar data for 1991. (CIRRD, 1994) The regional statistics are taken from these two documents which have also strongly influenced our interpretation of environmental effects.

3. To update the statistics with data from the 2001 Census, the FCFA du Canada used a CD produced by Statistics Canada, Portrait of Official Language Communities in Canada, stock number 94F0040XCB.

Depending on whether we use one or the other of these source documents, the target population varies somewhat. Whether or not we include Francophones who have also declared English as a mother tongue is the factor that is mainly responsible for the variation. Both Marmen and Corbeil apportion multiple answers among the declared languages. In most cases, the 2001 data include everyone declaring French as their mother tongue, even if other languages are mentioned.

The populations shown on the provincial and territorial charts are, as a result, slightly higher than those shown by Marmen and Corbeil, for those with French, or both English and French as their mother tongue. The charts have been produced by André Langlois. They are drawn from the Atlas du développement des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada.

Information on community life was compiled by the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada and its member associations.

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Index | History | Geography | Demographic Vitality | Linguistic Vitality | Economic Vitality | Francophone Diversity | Community Vitality | Sources | Annex