In Canada, the government places a large focus on bilingualism and the Prime Minister (like Trudeau) is expected to speak English and French. French is the native language of roughly 20% of the population.
In the US, Spanish is the main language of around 13% of the population, with large variety among states (around 28% of Californian’s and Texas’ population, like 1% in sparely populated northern states like Manie and the Dakotas). However in politics, even among those states with huge numbers of Spanish speakers, it’s rare for politicians to know a language other than English.
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The biggest difference is that the French speakers in Canada are largely in the same province. I imagine that if there was a large state that had Spanish as a clear majority language, we’d probably have to adapt. Spanish speakers are spread out pretty well, though. They also tend to congregate in denser areas, which means that the power of the language is further diluted. Given those issues, no, I don’t think it is likely possible.
There’s a few differences that makes me lean towards no. French Canadians are concentrated in a relatively small area, have a much longer and larger presence in Canada, are nearly all citizens, and have a nationalist movement. Spanish speakers in the US are more spread out, a smaller presence, a relatively new population thanks to immigration, a large portion of the adult population lacks US citizenship (though this is changing), and there’s no Spanish nationalist parties.
No. Canada had English and French populations from the very beginning, so was kinda forced to be bilingual. I don’t see Canada evolving to add Chinese or Hindi in their government due to recent migrants. America has no history of anything other than English being the language of government and commerce, and I don’t see that changing
>In Canada, the government places a large focus on bilingualism and the Prime Minister (like Trudeau) is expected to speak English and French
I think we’re missing one major difference here. The reason this is true is Canada has 2 Official Languages. the US doesn’t have an Official Language at all. in order to do the Canadian thing, we’d have to establish an official language. and 21 o four 46 Presidents were proficient in at least one other language. Martin Van Buren spoke English as a second language!
I don’t think so. I think the kind of nationalist push for French you see in Canada is something culturally unique to Francophones, who seem extremely defensive about their language no matter where they are in the world. I don’t see Spanish-speakers being anywhere near as militant about language conservation and representation.
I honestly don’t see a virtue on mandating bilingualism in politicians. If the people really want it, they’ll vote for representatives who have it anyway. Here in California, Chinese language representation is woven into our politics because Chinese language campaigning simply garners more votes. In parts of Michigan, that language is Arabic. In New Mexico it’s Spanish, but It’s all been the people’s choice.
What does mandated bilingualism really do beyond further gate-keep political office?
Just because not 100% elected officials speak [insert language here] doesn’t mean that government doesn’t recognize that people speak languages other than English.
Indiana’s written drivers test is provided in over six different languages, and the drivers manual in over a dozen.
I just came back from atrip throughEl Paso, TX. Huge amount of Spanish speakers there. Most government signs are in both Spanish and English. Bus announcements in both Spanish and English. Bus drivers often spoke both languages. That even carries over into the private sector too. Lots of service workers speak both languages, or at least have enough of a command to fulfill the duties of their job.
I can almost guarantee constitutent service offices of each politician also has people who speak Spanish, or at least can obtain access to one should the need arise.
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French has outsized influence in Canada. Both Trudeau and Poilievre are of French descent. It shouldn’t be challenging speaking French.
The entire US is unlikely any time soon. But New Mexico has Spanish as an equal official language to English, and some cities like Laredo are even more likely to speak and cater to Spanish
George Dubs used to give a weekly (monthly?) address in passable Spanish. I know that doesn’t answer the question, I just thought it was interesting.
I don’t understand your question.
Are you asking if it will or if it should? Do you want it to be?
Something like 90% or higher of our population speak English fluently. There is no need to force bilinguality.
It’s actually a few questions in one.
-Could it become a regular requirement of politicians to be bilingual? Yes, but not soon. Most immigrants adopt English to a certain extent. And we do have the per-Election visit of candidates to Spanish media outlets like Telemundo. (The bad kind of attempt is sometimes called “Hispandering”.)
-Could we adopt (broadly) policies approximating bilingualism? We sort of do: most hospitals, courts, etc have translators available, and official documents are available in many languages (Spanish included)- the general idea that someone should be able to access services is honored. (It doesn’t apply to private businesses, however).
-Could we adopt policies *exactly* like Canadas? Unlikely.
It would:
1. require us to have an official Federal language in the first place, for any other language to be declared co-official language. We’ve avoided having one at all, English included.
2. Something like Quebec’s Bills 101 and 96 would get taken down on First Amendment grounds, *hard,* for several reasons.
3. Canadian-style [language requirements to become a candidate](https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-commission/jobs/services/gc-jobs/language-requirements-candidates.html) would probably not pass muster either. As written, it would rule out even bilingual politicians (like, say Ilhan Omar) because they speak something besides English, but not the *right* something-besides-English, requiring them to learn a third language just to participate.
No. Canada does because they bow to the French in Quebec.
There are parts of the US where speaking Spanish is an advantage for a politician, but being bilingual isn’t a prerequisite like it is in Canada.
No, the existence of modern Canada is a union between the French and English colonies. There is no such union responsible for the existence of the US. Our language is English and should continue to be. The fact that we don’t officially have a national language doesn’t change that
We could…. but we won’t
We don’t have an official language. There is nothing stopping a president from addressing the nation in whatever language he wants.* But I’m not sure we’ve had a president completely fluent in a non-English language that a lot of Americans speak (which would pretty much just be Spanish now).
In some states and certainly some congressional districts, it could really help if you’re functional in a language common in that area (such as Spanish in the Bronx or South Texas). But I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not even sure if AOC (a woman of Puerto Rican heritage who represents the Bronx) speaks fluent Spanish.
*Lately, there have been politicians that give a response to the State of the Union in Spanish. And there are also certainly Spanish-language campaign ads. But my answer pertains to live politicians speaking on an ordinary basis.
>In the US, Spanish is the main language of around 13% of the population
Wouldn’t it be English?
Canada has to do that to appease Quebec
It could happen on the state level perhaps.. perhaps in Texas.
No. But we don’t have an official language either. The French Canadians are kind of jerky about it.
As someone from an immigrant family who came from Central America, I had to learn Spanish in order to talk to my parents and extended family. I can speak, read, and (decently) write in it. With that said, I would absolutely hate this. I don’t want to see our government being suddenly forced to pounce on local businesses because they don’t have a Spanish speaking employee, Spanish menus, and/or Spanish documents. Keeping French alive in Canadian has honestly felt less of a blessing and more of a curse
There are requirements for critical forms, instructions, etc to be in a number of languages.
Not to mention interpreter service if someone calls into an agency.
However, you can’t force people to learn another language.
The USA has slowly started to develop an “unofficial” Bilingualism, in that a politician who is able to speak Spanish is increasingly seen as a good trait.
That being said, I think official bilingualism is both unlikely and not desirable. From what I know how how Official Bilingualism is often implemented in Canada, I feel like trying to do it in the States would cause more problems than it would solve.