Voices from French Ontario

Franco-Ontarians feel that they are both part of and rejected by Canada's two founding peoples. Although proud of their heritage, many hide the French side of their lives from the surrounding English majority. Some are pessimistic about their future; but for many in the region commonly known as Nouvel-Ontario, French roots run deep. For more than a year and a half Sheila Arnopoulos travelled through the region visiting or living in Sudbury, Hearst, Dubreuilville, and Timmins. Here she chronicles the changes time has brought to the lives of some of the 700,000 people of French origin in Ontario. She describes the blossoming of a culture which draws from both French and English backgrounds. She features the stories of two celebrated Canadian businessmen from Sudbury, Paul Desmarais and Robert Campeau, in a discussion of the development of a new commercial and financial élite. Arnopoulos also writes of miners, poets, playwrights, lumber barons, and ordinary people, to give a vivid picture of their frustrations and aspirations. The French of Nouvel-Ontario have created a regional identity of their own. But under what conditions can French communities in English Canada hope to survive? Arnopoulos finds that federal bilingualism and the expansion of French Quebec businesses across the country are most likely the key factors.