Le bilinguisme officiel au Nouveau- Brunswick : surface paisible, fond polémique

Abstract

Claiming to represent a Canadian biligualism at a smaller scale, the province of New Brunswick was declared officially bilingual in 1969. The New Brunswick model remains unique within the Canadian confederation and is pointed to with pride as a reflection of harmonious relations between the two Canadian official language communities, and as an opportunity of economic development. Despite this status of exemplar of Canadian bilingualism, the daily management of official bilingualism and particularly the question of its cost are periodically challenged in the province. In the Fall of 2012, when a public figure denounced the cost of bilingualism, Francophone leaders reacted. This mediatic event led some to plead for a return to English monolingualism. Around one hundred comments posted on the discussion forums of CBC News illustrated this language ideological debate and form the basis for our argumentative discourse analysis. This corpus allows us to illustrate the persistent inter-communtiy tensions often overshadowed in official discourses.