Franco-Columbians or Franco-Colombiens are French speaking Canadians living in the Pacific province of British Columbia.
British Columbia is, geographically, the farthest-removed province from Canada's historic francophone population, thus it is not surprising to find that francophone British Columbians are few in number. The 2001 census placed the number of British Columbians with French as a mother tongue at 54,400, a figure well below English (2,825,780), 'other Chinese' (130,330), Cantonese (127,120), Punjabi (121,740) and German (84,605). Of these, a good number would be European immigrants or migrants from eastern Canada, and therefore not members of the Franco-Columbian community per se.
Nevertheless, there is a small, proud community with visible roots in such locations as Maillardville , a district of the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam identifying itself as "a community with a francophone heart."
External Links
Société Maillardville-Uni
Théatre La Seizième, Vancouver
Alliance Française, Vancouver
