This Book is the result of a long story. To recapitulate the contrapuntal, often painful chapters of this story would, alone, fill another book. Not unlike the story of the Magi, it would illustrate how constancy of purpose and determination in the course of a collective undertaking can measure up against misfortune and, after endless uncertainties, eventually stimulate the reappearance, on the horizon, of the long-expected star. Let it suffice to mention here some of the essential stages of this research expedition which may help to convey its full meaning as well as to record the patience of the Carnegie Corporation which has made it possible.

The pre-history of the book can be traced to the summer of 1945 when a committee was nominated by the Social Science Research Council of Canada to explore the possibilities of initiating a study of French-English relations in Canada. It was felt that the time had come in Canada for a frank and objective appraisal of the historical and contemporary factors which have determined, through conflict, accommodation and co-operation, the formal and informal patterns of relations between the two major component groups of our increasingly mature nation. As a result of the discussions of this nucleus of social scientists, a clearer vision of the project was attained and a smaller committee, consisting of Professors B.S. Keirstead, A.R.M. Lower, and the writer, was instructed to draft a more definite outline.

The spring of 1948 marks the beginning of the proper history of this book, when a generous grant was made by the Carnegie Corporation for the contemplated study. The specific aim of the project, as it was then formulated, was to reveal the nature of biculturalism in Canada and to ascertain the various social techniques which the Canadian people have worked out for the resolution or containment of the inner tensions of their country. It was to be a study of the balance of the centripetal and centrifugal social forces within the Canadian nation. A few specific areas of investigation were carefully delineated as representing the more meaningful stages or levels of relations between French and English in Canada : the historical highlights of the Canadian [xi] mariage de raison up to the present time ; the demographic and ecological substratum of social coexistence ; the political techniques and institutions of mutual adjustment ; the dynamics of economic life ; the psycho-sociological implications of communication and reciprocal recognition.

Such was the ambition, such was the hope. What actually occurred in the course of the following months and years might look, from the outside, like a breath-taking succession of plays within the play. Those who have had experience with inter-disciplinary research projects will easily picture the inevitable ups and downs ; particularly those who have bad experience with social research in Canada. Actually, our own experience has been unique in that our committee was venturing into relatively unexplored domain where very little basic research had yet been done by Canadian scholars. Numerous contributors were sought and invited ; some answered ; a few started investigations in the direction which we proposed to them. The lines of approach of the study were modified in order to meet the preferences of potential collaborators. The organizational and inspirational formula of the project was left flexible enough to permit any individual researcher or team of researchers to become associated with it. But most of those whom we had originally hoped to attract were already committed to other preoccupations and other fields of research. Our files thus include the records of more discussion seminars, of more suggestions, of more hopeful or distressed correspondence than of completed studies.

Yet, despite all shortcomings, we rejoice in having inspired and sponsored a varied range of highly valuable studies such as those of Dr. Nathan Keyfitz on demographic problems and urban influences on the size of families in French Canada, of Professor E.F. Beach on income differentials, of Professor F.W. Gibson on political accommodation in Canada between 1911 and 1930, as well as Miss Monique Lortie's critical bibliography on bicultural relations in Canada. To our committee were added now members, who included the late Professor H.A. Innis, our periodic adviser since the very first days ; Dr. John E. Robbins, the untiringly helpful Secretary of the S.S.R.C.C. ; Father Bernard Mailhiot, o.p., and Professor J.A. Corry, who was later replaced by two new members, Professor Alexander Brady and Dr. W. Kaye Lamb. Six years, punctuated by enthusiastic entrances and uncontrollable exits, had now elapsed. In the winter of 1954, it was unanimously felt that the project should be redesigned on a more immediately workable, less ambitious plan. The most sensible alternative seemed to be to shape our final effort into the form of a book [xii] of essays on biculturalism. Such a book would have a dual purpose : it would set forth, on the basis of past research and recent observation, what is now known about the main aspects of French-English in Canada ; in so doing, it would raise questions and uncover with precision the areas where further research is necessary and thus stimulate, in a more direct, perhaps provocative manner, the sort of fundamental exploration which we had initially in mind. We were fortunate enough to induce the best-qualified scholar, Professor Mason Wade, to act as editor of such a book. We agreed on an outline and on a choice of potential contributors. And here, at the end of four more years, is the outcome of our journey.

Shall it be said that the mountain in labour has brought forth a mouse ? I suggest that one cannot pass judgment on our endeavour without taking into account a fascinating, still prolonged series of chain reactions which it has originated in the field of social research in Canada. Many projects bearing on one aspect or the other of biculturalism, which have been undertaken or are still under way in Canadian universities and research institutions, have directly or indirectly been inspired by our committee's work and stimulus. I want to mention here only a few of the most outstanding, such as the studies on the dynamics of inter-ethnic relations conducted by the Centre de Recherches en Relations humaines of Montreal, under the guidance of Father Noël Mailloux, o.p., and the long-range study on the cultural outlook of teaching in Quebec undertaken by Laval University's School of Pedagogy. To these must be added various studies sponsored by the Defence Research Board's Committee on Sociological and Social Psychological Problems, for example the surveys of Dr. J.M. Blackburn and Dr. Andrew Kapos of Queen's University, or those initiated by the Defence Research Medical Laboratories itself, and I refer particularly to the contributions of Dr. D.N. Solomon and Mr. J. Jacques Brazeau. This sketchy enumeration is far from exhaustive. Already, our reasons for satisfaction are not negligible. Our surprise may very well be increased when we learn, in years to come, of all the pioneering studies which will have grown out of our efforts. Time will tell.

Nothing needs to be added to the candid sociological Introduction of the editor. One or two aspects of it, though, deserve re-emphasis. First, the fact that this book on biculturalism reports the labour of two groups of contributors : for each topic under scrutiny we have selected two authors, one English, one French. It has seemed that the most eloquent way of illustrating the similarities or the differences in [xiii] attitudes, opinions, and ideologies between the French and the English was to have them exposed through the respective eyes of each group. Moreover, each author has expressed himself in the language of his choice. We are thus offering a truly bilingual book to the alert Canadian reader who is more and more willing and expected to be at home with his country's two main languages.

Secondly, the picture presented here is that of a Canada which is now officially defining itself in terms of its cultural dualism. This view may not correspond to the conception which many Canadians have of themselves or of all Canadians as unhyphenated social beings. Yet, notwithstanding Canada's regional and provincial diversities and varied ethnic distribution, notwithstanding its increasing political equilibrium and social strength, the dominant fact of Canadian life is the coexistence of two major cultural groups, the French- and the English-speaking social universes. "We are," as Malcolm Ross has written, "inescapably, and almost from the first, the bifocal people." It is this biculturalism which has determined the very nature of our government and of our constitution, the texture of our national life, the true face which we present to others and which they see. Our hope is that this book is a not too unfaithfully mirrored image of our deeper, real self.

In his presidential address to the Royal Society of Canada in 1949, Dr. Gustave Lanct6t recapitulated what, in his opinion, had been the three characteristic stages in the history of French-English coexistence and cultural cross-fertilization in Canada for the last two centuries : social rapprochement and political separation, between 1760 and 1791 ; reciprocal political influence between 1791 and 1867 ; the modern phase of greater rapport and co-operation, accelerated by a healthy easing of the situation after 1914-18 and subsequent wider cultural communication between the é1ites. His confidence was that we might have reached the stage when the former "two solitudes" were becoming "two fortitudes." Perhaps we are living this new historical phase. Is it presumptuous to fancy that our book, in its fashion, may serve as a beacon ?

JEAN-C. FALARDEAU

Chairman, 1952-8
Committee on Biculturalism
Social Science Research Council of Canada

Laval University
1958