Our survey on election issues of importance to the English-speaking community of Quebec

As talk of a federal election heated up, the QCGN reached out to its members and network to ask about their priorities for public policy that should be discussed during the campaign, regardless of which party forms government.

Rather than assessing priorities based on party affiliation, we asked which key issues our members and stakeholders would like to see reflected in all federal party platforms – all with the understanding that we are living in a tumultuous moment, where the primary issues of this campaign will be existential and economic threats posed by the Trump administration in the United States.

The survey results were, frankly, rather staggering. Each of the following six priorities was identified as important by, on average, 90 per cent of the roughly 280 respondents:

Chart representing the percentage of respondents who selected “important” or “very important” for each of the policy priorities listed.

1. The next government must demonstrate the same recognition for the English-speaking community of Quebec as it provides to all Official Language Minority Communities across Canada.
2. The next Commissioner of Official Languages should be a bilingual English-speaker, in keeping with tradition.
3. The integrity of CBC’s English-language service must be maintained, especially across all regions of Quebec.
4. Direct federal funding for our community’s groups and institutions must be transparent and not funneled through a provincial-government approval process.
5. The next federal government must make clear its opposition to the pre-emptive and casual use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause.
6. The next government should take note of the English-speaking community of Quebec’s economic-development priorities in its policy and program support for Official Language Minority Communities.

The message from our community is clear: There is a broad consensus among English-speaking Quebecers about what matters to us – beyond the Trumpian threats from south of the border.