Sovereignty may be off the table in Quebec election, but French language isn't, survey suggests

This has been the first election in decades where sovereignty is not a major issue,but that doesn't mean Quebecers are pleased with what their government is doing in order to protect the French language, a new survey suggests.

In fact, 68 per cent would like the government to do more, according to the online questionnaireVote Compass.

When responding to the statement "How much should the Quebec government do to protect the French language in Quebec?," 26 per cent were pleased with what is being done now, 30 per cent wanted somewhat more and 38 per cent wanted much more.

There are no surprises when the answers are examined along party lines.

Supporters of the Parti Qubcois and Qubec Solidaire, both of which advocate for stronger measures to protect the French language, want much more to be done, while the Coalition Avenir Qubec supporters are less interested and 44 per cent of Liberal Party supporters are happy with the status quo.

English CEGEP should be a choice, respondents say

What may come as a surprise are the responses to the statement "students from French schools should no longer have access to English CEGEPs."

While the population would like to see the government do more to protect the French language, they do not want this to come at the expense of freedom of choice for young people.

A total of 79 per cent of respondents said they strongly or somewhat disagree with restricting access to English CEGEPs.

• PQ proposes 'Bill 202' that would force English students to take more French classes

No parties are currently proposing a restriction, although the PQ has said it would institute a new law, Bill 202.

The law would introduce more French classes into English CEGEPs andstudents enrolled in English CEGEPs wouldbe required to study for one session at a French-language CEGEP.

"There are several languages in Quebec," leader Jean-Franois Lise said during the first debate. But there is "one common language: French."

Independence not appealing

The lack of focus on sovereignty during the campaign is reflected in the survey results.

In response to a question about whether Quebec should become an independent state, 39 per cent said they strongly disagreed.

Divide that up by voting intentions and no surprise, PQ supporters are more receptive to the idea of separating from Canada.

A total of 56 per cent of PQ supporters strongly agree, while 77 per cent of Liberal supporters strongly disagree.

QubecSolidaire supporters are spread out between neutral, somewhat agree and strongly agree, while 45 per cent of CAQ supporters strongly disagree.

The findings are based on125,611 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from August 24, 2018 to September 4, 2018.

Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample.

Vote Compass data have been weighted by gender, age, education, language and region to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actual population of Quebec, according to census data and other population estimates.

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