School board elections
Letter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette.
The recent school board elections were noteworthy for the low voter turnout, and for the mysterious process whereby some voters who previously had been on the English school board electoral lists saw their names turn up on the lists for francophone school boards. In the absence of a good explanation to the contrary, it seems easy to conclude that this is nothing more than a crass attempt by a previous provincial government to disenfranchise a portion of the anglophone electorate.
We anglos have the option of whining about being abused, or turning this to our advantage. I suggest that in the next school board election, we nominate anglo-friendly candidates for the francophone boards; those anglo voters whose names have been switched to the francophone electoral lists can then stay on those lists, and come out in force to elect their candidates to the francophone boards. This shouldn’t be difficult, given the traditional microscopic voter turnouts for many of the francophone board races. Once elected, our anglo representatives on these franco boards can work to increase the quantity and quality of teaching of english as a second language in francophone schools. An increase in bilingualism will benefit everyone!