So They Want Us to Learn French

Set against a dramatic background of constitutional changes and controversies, economic turmoil, demographic shifts, and the on-again, off-again possibility of Quebec separatism, So They Want Us to Learn French tackles the complex and emotionally charged issue of Canadian bilingualism.

So They Want Us to Learn French examines how and why Canadians both embraced and virulently opposed the ideal of personal bilingualism over the past fifty years, detailing and analyzing the strategies that social movements on both sides used to advance their goals.

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.

Yves Laberge:

...So They Want Us to Learn French. Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-speaking Canada est à la fois informatif mais aussi symptomatique d’un problème profond et souvent occulté que peu de politiciens canadiens osent regarder en face.

Jack Cecillon, Glendon College:
Hayday’s work is a careful account of the English Canadian response to the Official Languages Act and French immersion programming that effectively illustrates the divisions of public opinion on these controversial programs. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of the evolution of English Canadian opinions regarding Canadian identity, official bilingualism, and national unity.

Bruce Douville, Algoma University:

Hayday’s work is solid, carefully researched, and written in an accessible style … [T]he entire book is worthwhile reading, for it tells an important story of efforts, not by political decision-makers or paper-pushers but by grassroots activists, to transform English Canada’s linguistic identity one classroom at a time.

From the Foreword by Graham Fraser, Commissioner of Official Languages:
The history of language policy in Canada has tended to be more political than social ... One of the many refreshing things about the approach in this book is that Matthew Hayday broadens the perspective for looking at the policy-making process beyond politicians and public servants to consider other players ... and key actors in a democratic society, ordinary people who mobilized on behalf of something that they thought critical: the education of their children.

José Igartua, author of The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945-71:
Hayday marshals his sources smoothly and elegantly and weaves a balanced, coherent, and fluid narrative. His scholarship is flawless.