Majority of Montreal residents see city as bilingual: poll

A new online poll conducted for CBC / Radio-Canada reveals that a vast majority of Montrealers see the city asbilingual.

The poll results stand in contrast to Montreals official designation as a French-speaking city.

The CROP poll, conducted October 11 to 15, asked 1001 Montreal residents whether they considered their city to be francophone or bilingual.

Overall, 77 percent of residents polled said they considered Montreal to be a bilingual city while 23 percent said they considered Montreal to be a French-speaking city.

Perspectives differed among francophone and non-francophone residents.

A quarter of French-speaking Montrealers responded that they consider the city to befrancophone, a view that only 11 percent of non-francophone residents shared.

CROP vice president, Youri Rivest, said the poll asked residents how they currently see the city, rather than their aspirations for it.

Mayoral candidates Mlanie Joly and Marcel Cote were quick to comment on the polls findings.

I think that a lot of the population is bilingual, we have the highest percentage of population which is bilingual in North America and it's [a source of] pride, said Joly.

Marcel Ct says a bilingual reality lies beneath the citys officialfrancophone status.

I would say that about two thirds of Montrealers speak both English and French and English speaking people and French speaking people can be served in their own language in Montreal, he said.

CBC News reached out to Denis Coderre and Richard Bergeron but they could not be reached for comment.