Canadian Gaelic - Outlook and Development

Outlook and Development

The last "fluent" Gaelic-speaker in Ontario, descended from the original settlers of Glengarry County, died in 2001.

The oft-quoted statistic that "Scots Gaelic is spoken by more people in Cape Breton than in Scotland" is false. As of 2001 the official UK estimation is 58 652 Gaelic speakers; a figure possibly fifty times larger than the most optimistic Canadian statistic. Despite this, in the past twenty years interest in the language has grown considerably, in parallel to a similar build on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Although not on the scale of the Scotland revival (for example there are not yet Canadian Gaelic-language immersion schools), several government initiatives have been undertaken to assess the current state of the language and language-community.

With Nova Scotia being home to between 500 and 1,000 native Gaelic speakers, most of whom now elderly and all of whom being direct descendants of the 18th and 19th Century Highland Clearances, the provincial government announced in May 2004 the funding of an initiative to support the language and its culture within the province, however Gaelic holds no official status under federal, provincial, or municipal law. But, as in Scotland, bilingual street signs also are in place in areas of Northern Eastern Nova Scotia and in Cape Breton. Nova Scotia also has the 'Comhairle na Gàidhlig' (The Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia), a non-profit society dedicated to the maintenance and promotion of the Gaelic language and culture in Maritime Canada.

In Prince Edward Island, the Colonel Gray High School now offers both an introductory and an advanced course in Gaelic; both language and history are taught in these classes. This is the first recorded time that Gaelic has ever been taught as an official course on Prince Edward Island.

Maxville Public School in Maxville, Glengarry, Ontario, Canada offers Scottish Gaelic lessons weekly.

The province of British Columbia is host to the 'Comunn Gàidhlig Bhancoubhair' (The Gaelic Society of Vancouver), the Vancouver Gaelic Choir, the Victoria Gaelic Choir, as well as the annual Gaelic festival 'Mòd Vancouver'. The city of Vancouver's Scottish Cultural Centre also holds seasonal Scottish Gaelic evening classes.