G77

Have the food packets here always been in English and French or is this a recent thing? If it's recent, has this affected the choice/availability of items? Reason I ask is, as I live so close to the border, I get to shop in US supermarkets and the range of goods they have is far beyond what we get this side.... For example, whereby we'd probably get 2 or 3 types of Oreo, they'd have about 10 different types!

XCMTBer

This will be the reason they have more food south of the boarder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhM-L1xLI8E

retsujou

I thought canada was officialy a bilingual country, as such all official notices and consumer notices need to be written in English and French, is that not true?

Lychee

It's true.

As for how far back the French/English labelling goes? My guess is that it's a product of the 70's, although I'd have to double check that fact. That's when official bilingualism began, I believe. It was Trudeau's doing.

As for the lack of American variety in Canada? My guess is that with a population 1/10th the size of the USA's, the market in Canada can't handle 10 different varieties of Oreo cookies.

G77

Hence why I said one for the old timers....... paging Steve

Bill_S

The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act of 1974 brought French to cereal boxes coast to coast.

I live in the US now, and sometimes the embarrassment of riches in the supermarket gets to me. Not just 10 kinds of Oreo, but 10 kinds of Triscuit, 10 kinds of Ritz crackers, 10 kinds of Total cereal, etc. Sometimes I just want bog-standard crackers and have to sort through 50 boxes.

hwp

I'm Canadian, 40 and I don't have a memory of a box of cereal not being bilingual.

"Choice" is about market and marketing... the market is bigger in the US. Simple as that.

G77

OK - so if Quebec ever becomes independent, would they stop making bilingual packaging? i.e. just ship the US stuff in and no need for Canada specific packaging....

startwin

When I arrived in Canada in 1975 all labelling was bi-lingual then. It took me forever to do my first grocery shop as I had to keep turning boxes and cans to read the English side. You don't realise how much shopping is done by recognition until then!

fledermaus

Canadians are easily pleased, hence little choice in anything.

dbd33

No because French in Canada doesn't stop at the Quebec border. But aren't a great number of products sold in the US already labelled in English and Spanish? It seems to me that adding a third language ought not to be a big deal, if something's not sold up here it's not because of the language laws, just because the seller doesn't think the small market to be worth the trouble.

Bill_S

Although it's not required, many consumer products in the US are indeed labelled in both English and Spanish.

dbd33

I thought so. I have the idea that the US is, in fact, more of a bilingual country than Canada. For example my partner's uncles who are in the construction business have had to learn Spanish, her cousin went to college for law enforcement and Spanish was a required course. Here very few people learn French because it is of practical value to them.

Souvenir

It's not quite true.

At the federal level, Canada is officially bilingual. Federal government departments and offices, anywhere, and that includes Canada Post, are obliged to offer service in both official languages. The policy may fall down a bit in very rural areas of QC or out west but, frankly, it doesn't matter much.

At the provincial level, I think New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province. Elsewhere, common sense prevails. Most government departments in Quebec let me communicate in English (eg Revenu Quebec). Similarly, roadsigns on highways in eastern Ontario are mainly bilingual, as are some around Montreal, particularly on roads used by Americans.

At the municipal level, things are all over the place. Ottawa is officially bilingual. A few other places in Ontario now require public signs, including billboards, to be bilingual. By the same token, a place just north of me has a mainly anglophone population. There are few bilingual signs. It's against the law (provincial) but not enforced, at the moment.

Consumer packaging does not need to have a French version if the product is not being sold in officially francophone areas.

stepnek

It always bothers as we drive along the highway, cross over the Quebec border heading to Montreal and that none of the emergency road signs are in English. So quite often I encounter one of those electronic signs warning of a temporary hazard but I can't read them to actually understand what it might be.

On the other hand, as you say, crossing over into Eastern Ontario and those same kind of signs are in both languages. Much better!