An Airdrie resident is calling for a focus on francophone issues, specifically that of language rights in Alberta, to be highlighted in the federal election.
“We need to get our house in order,” said Lorne Kirkwold, citing his concerns with Alberta not publishing its legislation in both official languages in Canada.
Alberta’s Languages Act allows provincial legislation, unlike federal legislation, to be printed in English only.
“After the (Official Languages Act was amended in 1988) we did not enact any legislation in French,” Kirkwold said. “That’s not done as meticulously as it’s done in the federal House of Commons, where the (Members of Parliament) deal with the texts in both French and English.”
Kirkwold said language rights issues in Alberta have been a focus of his for some time, but with the federal election approaching, he was asking those who saw the issue as a “civil rights issue” to write to their elected officials.
“It’s the right timing now. It lends itself really well to the federal election and the provincial election,” he said.
“I think if many people wrote to (officials), then we’d get the right kind of legislation in Edmonton so we could have bilingual laws and regulations in the province of Alberta.”
Kirkwold said “inequity” between the two languages in Alberta would “invite heaps of criticism and scorn” in the future.
According to the Alberta Languages Act, although presently legislation must only be printed in English, the “Assembly may, by resolution, direct that all or part of the records and journals of the Assembly be made, printed and published in English or French or both.”
According to statistics from the 2011 Alberta Census, 238,770 residents are bilingual and French serves as the “mother tongue” of 81,085 Albertans.
“I think in Alberta, we’re a little behind, because it’s so primarily anglophone,” said Airdrie resident Leo LeBlanc, who grew up speaking both French and English. “But I think it’s shifting.”
LeBlanc worked with Air Canada for 10 years, and said that in traveling to various European countries, he discovered residents spoke “three or four or five languages.”
“I understand why Quebecers are so hardcore to try and push French and maintain French. If it wouldn’t have been pushed or maintained, it wouldn’t have been kept,” he said.
LeBlanc said he hoped to see an emphasis on French education pushed as part of the election campaign in order to promote further adoption amongst anglophone students.
“What I would like to see in a province like Alberta (is) to have grants specifically for francophone people, specifically have grants for people who graduate from French schools,” he said. “If your kid goes to university and passes the French test, (you say), ‘We’ll give you $2,000 (for that),’ you’ll have people say, ‘Yeah, I’ll put my kid in the French school.’
“(Although) you might not have a massive use for it, as a country as a whole, I think it’s a great thing to have.”
