‘ Your vote counts’ is no mere cliché

English- speaking Quebecers should make presence felt, Dan Lamoureux says.

The Quebec Community Groups Network posed five questions to the main parties vying for your votes in this federal election. They boiled down to this: is your party committed to official- language policies and financial investments that support the strategic development of English- speaking Quebec?

We would like to thank the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party for taking the time to respond to our questions and we encourage community members to visit our website, qcgn. ca, to see what the parties had to say.

Canada has two official- language minority communities: francophones who live outside of Quebec and Englishspeaking Quebecers. We are a community of 1,058,250 Canadians whose development and vitality the government of Canada is committed by law to support.

The QCGN and its members are committed to protecting, supporting and enhancing the linguistic rights of all Canadians from sea to sea to sea, and our support for Canada’s French official- language minority communities is unwavering. Our national commitment to Canada’s two official languages rests on the vital English and French communities in every province and territory; the decline of any one of these communities is a blow to all.

The QCGN is concerned about the effect provincial and federal government austerity are having on constitutional language rights. Instead of moving our rights forward, provincial and territorial governments are limiting rights like minority language educational rights and access to justice in both official languages. The federal government has also modified the way it delivers services, and the consequences of this on our right to receive services from Canadian institutions in both official language are not well understood.

Here is what our community leaders expect from the next government of Canada:

A recommitment to a national official languages strategy that reflects and addresses the unique needs of Canada’s French and English linguistic minority communities and that provides adequate resources — indexed to inflation — to enhance the vitality of these communities;

The advancement and equal enjoyment of language rights for all Canadians, and a rejection of the territorialization of these rights; and,

Bilingual parliamentary leaders and appointees.

There are still far too many myths about our community. The QCGN invites the next minister of Canadian Heritage and parliamentary secretary for official languages, and all parliamentarians, to establish meaningful relationships with the leaders of Canada’s two official language minority communities and to visit English- speaking Quebec. We encourage them to deepen their understanding of our community of communities. We also ask them to move forward on the priorities established by our community: accessing services in English; building strong inter- community links; ensuring our eco- nomic prosperity; nurturing a strong sense of community identity that embraces our diversity; promoting leadership development at all levels, with an emphasis on youth engagement; and, maintaining and supporting existing institutions and establishing new ones that will strengthen our communities.

Finally, do not think that “your vote counts” is a cliché; it does. In most ridings — even when our numbers appear small — the number of English- speaking Quebecers is greater than the margin of victory for the last election’s incumbent.

When you go to vote, remember it is your right to do so in English, and it is important that you do so, signalling our presence.

And after the election, we urge you to write a congratulatory letter — in English — to your new MP. Dan Lamoureux is president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, a centre of expertise and collective action on the strategic issues affecting the development and vitality of Englishspeaking Quebec, which brings together 48 English- language community organizations across the province.