Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
NB Acadians are very attached to their distinct francophone institutions, which they fought tooth and nail to obtain. I highly doubt they would be willing to give them up, whether they are subjected to "apartheid" insinuations or not...
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The same can be said for the anglophones in the province. They take pride in their institutions and their beliefs.
The Census results for language will not be released until October of this year, so that a comparison of mother tongue can be done between 2011 and 2006. The split in 2006 was
65 English and
33 French for the province. I'm assuming the split will be relatively similar, with the only changes being that of immigration into the province. One change that should be noted is that, as the North empties out, I feel as though the Acadien population is beginning to centralize much more in the Dieppe/Moncton area than ever before. This may give the idea of a strengthening language base without an actual increase in number of speakers.
In 2006, for Saint John's total population of 120,875, for example, the French population made up 5,510, or
4.6% of the metropolitan population. The percentage of 2011 French speakers in Saint John will be moderately higher, but still not high enough to warrant widespread French education, at least simply on a municipal level. You can look at this at the municipal or provincial level, but for people who talk about the French making sacrifices in this province, certainly you would understand the sacrifices the English in the heavily anglo-areas would have to make if French was forced on them more than it is currently.
The 2006 Fredericton numbers, for what they are worth, are 74,435 English and 5,890 French, meaning that:
Fredericton: English 87.50/6.92 French
Saint John: English 92.01/4.60 French
Another point to consider would be that minority languages that are not French make up 3.39% in Saint John and 5.58% in Fredericton.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-re...1&S=0&O=A&D1=1