Canada should have one official language: English
If the provinces want to be bilingual, fine, but English must be available.
I have a mixed answer to that:
1. I can understand why Canada has two official languages. It might not be efficient, but it is economically expedient in that it can appease at least enough Quebecers to keep Quebec in Canada. Ironically enough, though, the blame for this rests not with sovereignist Quebecers (they favour official monolingualism in Quebec and couldn't care less what the policy was outside of the province), but with Federalist Quebecers (they know that by adopting Official Bilingualism, they can win enough fence-sitters and opportunists to their side). What some federalist Quebecers might not have bargained for is that it can also backfire and push some fiscal conservative Quebecers towards the sovereignist camp. After all, we can't deny, regardless of our political affiliations, that the official monolingualism that the sovereignist camp is proposing is indeed more economically efficient.
2. Making English the sole official language of Canada would block access to the federal government on the part of monolingual French-speaking Quebecers, of which there are many. This would likely feed the flames of sovereignism beyond recovery. I believe this would push Canada to separation, either through peaceful or violent means. Of course this would also lead to an officially monolingual English-speaking Canada and an officially monolingual French-speaking Quebec, both of which would be more efficient that what we have today with official bilingualism. If separation is on friendly terms, I could support it. If by violent means, not only could it lead to civil war, but even after the war, any money saved fro official bilingualism would just be wasted on militarism, autarchy, and nationalism on both sides, making matters even worse than now. In that case, I'd rather just accept the inefficiencies of today.
And on a moral note, it would obviously be unfair to expect one ethnic group to be given the language advantage over another. This is bound to lead to conflict in any country, past , present or future, in the East or the West. That's just human nature.
My fear though is that there is much prejudice on both sides, and so could see some Englsih speakers being willing to force English even at the risk of violent conflict. Some might even have a desire to 'bring 'em on'. And I'm sure some militants on the Quebec side woudl gladly rise to the challenge. Let's hope we're dealing with a minority on both sides as far as fanaticism and hatred go.
3. My favoured option would be for the government to adopt, revise or create a language that is designed to be easy for all to learn as the official language of federal administration. Of course this would involve a slow and gradual transition process, but woudl have the best of both worlds. By having a common language, we'd save money on translation, and because it's easy to learn, all could learn it well within a short period of time and at little cost, thus ensuring that all have access to their government with no one ethnic group having a language advantage over the other. This could work of course only if all sides can agree to language justice. Otherwise, shoudl nationalism prevail, there is no way it could work and pushing it woudl likely lead to the same result as 2 above. It is my prefered option, but I doubt most Canadians woudl go for it any time in the foreseeable future. People are to power hungry to share.
4. Another option I could se would be regional monolingualism. According to this solution, all federal services in Quebec woudl be offered in French, and elsewhere in English, with only Parliament Hill being bilingual.
5. Or of course we have the current option, the status quo, maintaining an expensive buraucracy of translators and interpretors naitonwide.
