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French and English Canadian Contacts and Institutional Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Aileen D. Ross
Aileen D. Ross*
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Extract

The population of the Eastern Townships of the province of Quebec has been growing steadily since this area was first settled in the early nineteenth century, but its composition has been gradually changing from English-speaking to French-speaking Canadians. This change has been due to urban and industrial forces which have both influenced the English Canadians to leave the Townships and the French Canadians to use the area as a new frontier for their surplus population. The impact of these forces affected the English, the first settlers, sooner than the French. As early as 1860, influences stemming from the cities gradually caused drastic changes in their way of life. These included a declining birth-rate, mechanization of farms, and ambitions for a higher and more sophisticated standard of living. Also, the agricultural products of the English Canadians entered the wider provincial and national markets before those of the French, another factor influential in changing their mode of life.

This earlier orientation of the English-speaking group to urban patterns has caused them to move slowly out of the Townships to the more urbanized parts of Canada. Census figures show that this movement has been going on since 1861. At the same time, French Canadians have been steadily moving in, so that now the 12 counties comprising the Eastern Townships are from 70 to 99 per cent French.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , August 1954 , pp. 281 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1954

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References

1 Ross, Aileen D., “Ethnic Relations and Social Structure: A Study of the Invasion of French-Speaking Canadians into an English-Canadian District” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, 1950).Google Scholar Material for this article is taken largely from this source.

2 Keyfitz, N., “Population Problems,” Essais sur le Québec contemporain, ed. Falardeau, Jean-C. (Québec, 1953), 73.Google Scholar

3 The movement of French Canadians into the Townships has been due to the natural expansion of a population which had outgrown the resources of its own land, had had little reduction in birth-rate, and had not been as affected by urban influences as the English. The industrial development of the Townships has provided so many occupational opportunities that it has probably been the main reason for the ability of the French to replace the English.

4 Williams, R., The Reduction of Inter-group Tensions, Bulletin 57, Social Science Research Council (New York, 1947).Google Scholar

5 The sociological definition of invasion is used in this article to mean a movement of people of similar background into an area already settled by a different type of people. This is a common phenomenon in a changing society. It does not imply a well-planned scheme but is rather due to impersonal forces which have caused a population to expand into new territory.

6 Since beliefs largely determine behaviour they are an essential part of the study of group contacts, even when they are not founded on the truth.

7 For a detailed description of the effect of this type of industry on both the French and English Canadians in the Townships see Hughes, E. C., French Canada in Transition (Chicago, 1943).Google Scholar

8 It is only the marginal English labour, such as old men, part-time farmers, schoolboys, and women who will work in industry when conditions of labour are bad, pay low, and there is no hope of advancement.

9 This type includes such enterprises as creameries, grist-mills, sash and door factories, and so on.

10 An incident of this sort occurred in a village which had been held up by many as an example of the way in which the English were making an organized resistance to the invasion. This resistance took the form of an agreement that no English Canadian would sell a business enterprise to a French Canadian. When one of the general stores was suddenly sold to a French Canadian the former English owners were so completely ostracized by the villagers that they had to leave the community.

11 Williams, , The Reduction of Inter-group Tensions, 39.Google Scholar Williams states that some discrimination always accompanies prejudice.

English informants gave examples of ways in which the English also discriminated against the French. This type of story is often told: “One day when Harry went to have Iiis hair cut by the new French barber after the former English barber had left, the barber tactlessly remarked that now the English had to go to him—rather triumphantly. Harry said that if he hadn't been half way through his haircut he would have left immediately. As a matter of fact, he has never gone back, but gets his hair cut in another town so that he won't have to patronize the French barber again.” On the other hand, this type of story is told about supposed French discrimination: “John isn't the least against the French, but he's had some trouble with the Frenchmen working with him at the factory. The head of his section is a Frenchman, and he has been quite abusive to John and the other English workers. John thinks he is trying to get rid of them to put Frenchmen in their places.”

12 It means too that the property taxes will go to the Catholic school instead of the Protestant.

13 Professor E. C. Hughes has said that when two peoples meet two moral worlds meet. So that even the acceptance of a common code of law does not necessarily mean that it will be interpreted in the same way by both groups.

14 Many English Canadians rationalized this point of view in much the following way:

Farmer: “I don't think the French want Frenchmen to represent them on the council. They don't trust each other, but they trust the English. An English farmer near here who is surrounded by French says that they always go to him when they're in trouble. They trust him but they don't trust each other.”

15 A number of informants told of incidents, such as minor automobile accidents, in which they were sure the French police discriminated against the English who were involved.

16 This has not always been the case. A Frenchman said that 40 years ago: “Des bagarres souvent sanglantes éclataient entre Français et Anglais.” Verbal antagonism was also more open in those days. The same informant said that one of the English political leaders used to refer to “the god-damn Frenchmen” in his public speeches. Today die French vote is so important that no English-speaking candidate would dare say a word publicly against the French.

17 Several examples follow:

French mayor: “Depuis l'achat de quarante lots par des Français tout récemment, la majorité des votants sont Français. A Atown, les loyers sont bien rares et j'ai décidé avec une couple d'autres, d'acheter des lots. J'en ai acheté quarante, qui sont tous vendus à des Français. Un bon matin, les Anglais se sont reveillés et quarante nouveaux lots étaient la propriété de Français. On est donc devenu plus fort que eux.”

Notary: “M. Dionne vient de faire l'acquisition de vingt-et-un lots vendus par Laplage. Dionne a l'intention de vendre tous ses lots à des Français. S'il faut que les Français achètent tous ces lots, il ne sera pas long avant que les Français fassent le nettoyage des Anglais dans Chipville.”

Factory worker: “The French were going to buy that large lot at the corner of Main Street for a new church. But the municipal council heard of it, and bought the land before the French could, and turned it into a park. They did it very quickly, before anyone could interfere. It would have been terrible to have had a big Catholic church right in the middle of the village! That's the only reason they bought it.”

18 Information from municipal records. The seven other municipalities of Campton County were settled by enough French to have a French mayor and at least some French councillors from the beginning.

19 Past Office and government notices will gradually become printed in French, but this may not occur without a struggle. Both groups are very sensitive about the use of their own language: witness the fact that a French Canadian who is bilingual is often acceptable to the English. The French too are more likely to accept a bilingual English Canadian. If a French Canadian cannot speak English, the English Canadians regard him as a “core” member of his group: “Some of the people were very French, they couldn't speak English at all.” “The new hotel manager is very French, he can't even smile in English!”

20 Percival, W. P., Across the Years: A Century of Education in the Province of Quebec (Montreal, 1946), 24.Google Scholar Separate schools were established in the province by the Act of 1875. This Act divided the school system into Catholic and Protestant committees with complete jurisdiction over their own educational institutions.

21 Professor E. C. Hughes has said that the educational institutions of any group have a vocational aspect in that they represent the prevailing ambitions of the society. Hence, when two cultures meet, their respective educational systems will determine the place of each ethnic group in the occupational structure. It follows that a study of the curriculum of the two school systems in Quebec will help to explain the different position of each group in the economic hierarchy.

22 It is not yet known precisely what qualities enable people to move from rural to urban areas, but if the farm boys or girls desire to leave the farm they must somehow learn the skills that will enable them to face the demands of the city.

23 Percival, , Across the Years, 76.Google Scholar

24 Only those aspects of the consolidation of schools that affect population movements are discussed in this article.

25 Research Notes: “January 10th, 45 degrees below zero. School bus picks up first child, seven years old, at six A.M. Delivers him back home at seven P.M.”

26 The feeling of the English that their schools are bulwarks against the French is clearly shown in the case of one small village which did its best to have the children from a nearby colony join its school so that it would not have to close. Many remarks had shown that the colonists were looked on as the “dregs” of society, and ordinarily the villagers would not have allowed their children to have anything to do with them.

27 Sanderson, D., Rurd Sociology and Rurd Social Organization (New York, 1942), 377.Google Scholar Sanderson shows the way in which the consolidation of schools increases the number of acquaintances of the pupils, and breaks down the barrier between village and farm people.

28 The French sometimes buy the Protestant school building when it is closed. This is a severe blow to the pride and security of the English, and has been instrumental in giving rise to rumours when an English village feels that it may lose its local school. Protestant churches are also often bought and changed into Catholic churches as the Protestants move out. This has deep emotional significance for the remaining English.

29 Hughes, , French Canada in Transition, 109.Google Scholar “The town has only a dead-end school, leading to no higher courses and fitting its best students only for minor clerical work. The tax-supported schools do not provide even the first steps toward the kind of technical education required in the middle and upper ranks of industry.”

30 The history of Church A is typical of that of many of the Protestant churches in the Townships. It was built in the 1890's to hold a congregation of some 500 people. For a number of years it had a very vigorous life: “The church was packed to the doors on Sundays.” It had a flourishing Sunday School and a number of associations for men, women, and young people. In 1936 the Sunday School was still active. Its five classes were directed by a staff of about 10 people. By 1950 the Sunday School had dwindled to one class of a few elderly people, and the church congregation and supporters consisted of a handful of elderly and middle-aged people. In 1951 their minister left and they found it impossible to replace bim, for by that date it was very difficult to attract ministers to the dying churches in the Townships. So the congregation had to depend on a minister who lived some 15 miles away and who already had 6 other churches of the same denomination on his circuit.

31 One of the more extreme examples of lack of co-operation among church members occurred in a small isolated hamlet of Compton County. In 1918 a hurricane destroyed the one church. There was disagreement about the location of the new church. Finally one was built in the centre of the hamlet, but as some of the congregation did not like this location, another church was built about a mile away from the first. Both churches were of the same denomination, and the morning service was held in one church, the evening service in the other. This procedure continued when there were only about 30 English people left, even in winter when both churches had to be heated.

32 Wade, M., The French Canadian Outlook (New York, 1946), 158.Google Scholar Wade shows that the terms “French and Catholic” and “English and Protestant” are practically interchangeable in the province. This reinforcement of ethnic background with religion makes the cleavage between the two groups clear and unequivocal. But it makes it difficult to distinguish between antagonisms which are due to religion and those due to difference in ethnic background.

33 The French too believe that the Protestant churches get financial aid from the government. Several French informants said that they knew that Protestant ministers were paid by the government.

34 Hughes, , French Canada in Transition, 216.Google Scholar

35 Hertzler, J. O., “Cultural Contacts and Institutional Change,” Race and Cultured Contacts, ed. Reuter, E. B. (New York, 1939), 35.Google Scholar