Almost 900,000 people who spoke English or a foreign language in Quebec have left the province since 1966, according to Statistics Canada (StatsCan) data released this week.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the number of people migrating could have been even higher, but analysts mentioned there were relatively few English-speaking people in the province to start with.“We count 672,903 English speakers and 220,448 people who had a non-official language as a mother tongue such as Greek or Italian who left Québec between 1966 and 2021,” analysts said in a statement. The total of 893,351 might have been higher, but for the fact “Québec’s English-speaking population is smaller,” it said.In New Brunswick, which is the only province in Canada officially bilingual in English and French, a total of 324,761 English speakers have left since 1966. Additionally, 20,551 New Brunswickers who spoke languages other than English or French also left the province. These numbers were provided in a StatsCan report Interprovincial Migration By Mother Tongue.The movement of hundreds of thousands of English speakers out of Quebec happened at the same time as some political turmoil, including a campaign of terror by the nationalist group called the FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec) starting in 1963.This group carried out bombings on various targets, such as the Montreal Stock Exchange, offices of the RCMP and Royal Canadian Legion, and the residence of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau. These bombings resulted in six people killed.The migration of non-French speakers also coincided with the 1970 October Crisis that saw martial law invoked following FLQ kidnappings and the 1976 election of a Parti Québécois separatist government for the first time in Canadian history.Back in 1966, Quebec made up about 29% of the Canadian population. However, according to the Population Estimates from StatsCan, it has since decreased to 22%.In a report from 2019, Statistics Canada predicted there would be even more significant changes in Canada's population and demographics in the next generation.“Canada’s population is projected to grow over the next fifty years largely because of strong immigration,” said the report Population Projections: Canada, Provinces and Territories 2018 to 2068. “Population growth, however, is likely to vary across the country, with the population of some provinces and territories increasing and others decreasing. As a result, the provinces and territories may experience diverse opportunities and challenges over the coming decades.”Experts forecast in about a generation, Ontario will have more people than the Netherlands. They also predicted Newfoundland and Labrador might lose about one-tenth of its population. Additionally, they said that more than one-third of Canadians would live west of the Great Lakes and there might be more people in Alberta than in BC.In 2015, StatsCan forecasted the western provinces and Ontario’s population would increase while the Quebec population would shrink.“One of the most significant changes in recent years was the international migratory increase in the Prairie provinces,” said the report Demographic Trends in Canada.
