A recent Leger poll reveals that Quebec is viewed the most unfavourably by the majority of Canadians.
When asked which province was their least favourite outside of their own, Quebec was the clear choice.
21% of respondents listed Quebec as their least favourite province. Alberta was second with 10%, followed by Nunavut, Saskatchewan and Ontario. The most popular response was “prefer not to answer” at 24%.
30% of those surveyed in Atlantic Canada, 31% of people in the prairies and a quarter of Ontario and B.C. residents chose Quebec as their least favourite.
When asked why they disliked Quebec so much, respondents overwhelmingly said it was the people who live there.
When asked “what is it about that province/territory that makes it your least favourite?” 49% of respondents marked “the people.” 17% also said Quebec was too expensive and another 15% said they “don’t know anyone there.”
In terms of the most preferred province, 30% of respondents picked British Columbia, with many people indicating geography and landscapes (65%) and nature and wildlife (60%) as their rationale for liking the western province.
In August, a report from Statistics Canada revealed that compared to English and other languages, French is becoming proportionately less significant in the lives of Canadians.
While the use of English as the first official language of Canadians rose 74.8% to 75.5% from 2016-2021, the use of French as a first language dropped from 22.2% in 2016 to 21.4% in 2021.
Despite the federal and provincial governments pushing English-speaking Canadians to learn French, the trend of proportionately fewer Canadians knowing and primarily speaking French is happening across Canada in all provinces, including Quebec.
Despite Quebec premier Francois Legault’s strict language policies meant to preserve the French language in the province, English has become a more important language in the day-to-day lives of Quebec residents.
In the Nord-du-Québec region, the percentage of residents whose first official language is French is only 31.1%, a 3.6 percentage point decline from 2016.
Legault has openly admitted that French is on the decline in his province and that Bill 96’s passage was intended to reverse the trend.
“When we look at the statistics, the language most used in the home is in decline, the language most used at work is in decline,” said Legault to reporters this past June.
“It becomes a question of time. If this decline continues, it will take how many years before French is not used a lot?”
What is Canadians' favo… by Ctv Montreal
