Based principally on a corpus of 397 letters, this article analyses reactions to the official languages’ debates surrounding the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963–1971). The correspondence sent between Alberta Premiers Manning and Strom and the public during the 1960s reveals the friction between two opposing views of Canada: one where Francophones, subject to decades of assimilation, should be better included in the federation, and another where multicultural Alberta should include all ethnic groups equally, giving no special treatment to any group. The latter view is highlighted in this analysis through the consequences of erasing francophone history from the West. Furthermore, this analysis shows how the Albertan and Western reaction to the creation of a bilingual Canadian state is linked to sentiments of western alienation. From the political strategies used to ensure English language dominance to the discourses of the correspondence, the article shows an incompatibility between Alberta’s political culture and the Canadian bilingualism project.
Lapointe-Gagnon et al. (Sun,) studied this question.