Canada celebrates its 60th birthday, and linguistic duality takes centre stage

For Canada’s Diamond Jubilee, the federal government, in partnership with the provinces and local organizations, coordinated the biggest celebrations in the short history of Confederation.

One of the federal organizers’ objectives was to affirm the status of English and French as the country’s official languages. The celebrations organized by the federal government, as well as the promotions leading up to them, were fully bilingual. Speeches and songs, publications, the national broadcast of the celebrations, parade floats, contests—everything was presented in English and French. Linguistic duality was also a key theme of the historical narrative presented by federal organizers.