So They Want Us to Learn French

Matthew Hayday is an associate professor of Canadian history at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Bilingual Today, United Tomorrow: Official Languages in Education and Canadian Federalism and co-editor of Mobilizations, Protests and Engagements: Canadian Perspectives on Social Movements and Contemporary Quebec: Selected Readings and Commentaries, as well as many scholarly articles and book chapters on issues related to political history, Canadian language policies, English-French relations, national identity, federalism, commemorations and Canada Day celebrations. He was the founding chair of the Canadian Historical Association’s Political History Group and has served on the editorial boards of the Canadian Historical Review, the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association and the Journal of Canadian Studies. He is currently the series editor for Oxford University Press Canada’s “Living History” Canadian history book series.

Foreword / Graham Fraser

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: Canada’s Bilingualism Conundrum

1 Bilingualism and Official Languages in Canada

2 From Chez Hélène to the First French Immersion Experiments

3 Playing Games with the Language Czar: The First Commissioner of Official Languages

4 Social Movement Activism, 1969-76

5 Canadian Parents for French and its Adversaries, 1977-86

6 Internationalization and Higher Education: The Second Commissioner of Official Languages

7 Canadian Parents for French and Local Activism, 1977-87

8 Shifting Priorities in the Commissioner’s Office

9 Squaring off the Foes of Bilingualism in the Meech Lake Years, 1986-90

10 Constitutional Crises and Economic Challenges in the Early 1990s

11 A Millennial Reprieve

Conclusion: We Learned French! Well, Many Canadians Did

Appendices

Notes

List of Unpublished Primary Sources

Index