Bonjour mes amis. Comment ca va? That is about the extent of my ability in Canada’s other official language I’m afraid.
Truth be told, with the notable exception of wonderful and lively communities like Gravelbourg in Saskatchewan and St. Pierre Jolys in Manitoba, the Canadian prairies will never be francophone country.The CBC spends many millions of dollars delivering local TV news in French on the prairies. It has long been argued that it would be cheaper to pick up that small group of francophone viewers and drive them to a theatre where they could watch the broadcast on a closed-circuit. Sadly, it’s only a slight exaggeration.
Graham Fraser, Canada’s Official Languages Commissioner.
But Pierre Trudeau’s vision of Canada lives on in the person of Canada’s Official Languages Commissioner. Graham Fraser occupies that job at the moment. He has dispatched his troops as mystery shoppers. Their mission is to find out how francophone-friendlyCanada’s major airports are.
They’re checking things like bilingual signage, and whether airport staff greet travelers in both languages. These are the standards for airports that serve more than a million passengers a year. The eight that are being mystery-shopped are Winnipeg, Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Strangely missing are Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon. Perhaps Edmonton and Calgary take turns, but why is the entire province of Saskatchewan left out ? Perhaps the folks in Mr. Fraser’s office are relying on old numbers.
Ralph Goodale
Both Saskatchewan airports are now regularly handling more than a million passengers a year, and more growth is expected in the future.
Ralph Goodale is my favourite prairie politician. He may eventually be remembered as “one of the best prime ministers we never had”. He readily admits that a major reason was his lack of ability in French.
He also comes from the province that Canada continues to forget for some strange reason, even though it’s no longer a have not.
I’m Roger Currie
You can listen to Roger Currie’s commentary by clicking here.
