Attitudes toward language policy in New Brunswick: the 1985 public hearings on the Poirier - Bastarache report

This Master's thesis undertakes a qualitative content analysis of 309 briefs submitted to the 1985 Advisory Committee on Official Languages by francophones and anglophones within the province in order to discover opinions and attitudes of both linguistic communities regarding language policy and its implementation in education and the civil service. Feelings towards bilingualism in general in New Brunswick were also explored. Furthermore, the goal of this thesis is to illustrate that the conflicting attitudes of francophones and anglophones are due to the failure of the provincial political elite of both parties to apply conflict-resolving mechanisms. These devices; depoliticization, secrecy, proportionality and consensus, are used by the elite to maintain stability and good relations. In addition to analyzing briefs, key members of the political elite who had been involved with the formation of language policy were interviewed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)