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Using ecological inference methods and a dataset that combines results from the 1995 Québec referendum, the federal and provincial elections of 1997 and 1998, and data from the Canadian census, this article considers the relationship between the local linguistic environment and francophone support for Québec sovereignty. Outside of Montréal, we find that the linguistic composition of the population has little direct influence on support for sovereignty but that support for sovereignty declines as the proportion of francophones who know English rises. In Montréal, we find that support for sovereignty rises as the non-francophone portion of the population declines, but knowledge of a second language does not influence support for sovereignty.The status of Québec within Canada has been at the centre of political debates in Québec throughout recent history, and language is a central element of this debate. A majority of francophone Quebecers supported sovereignty in the 1995 referendum, and pro-sovereignty parties won the 1997 federal and 1998 provincial elections. By contrast, non-francophones are overwhelmingly opposed to Québec's sovereignty. Preliminary research suggests that francophones living in areas with members of other linguistic groups (a way of defining contact) are less likely to support sovereignty than are francophones living in linguistically homogeneous areas. 1 This finding is consistent with the contact hypothesis. 2

One of the goals of Canada's official bilingualism policies is to promote the equality of French and English in Canada's federal institutions. The most visible federal institution is the House of Commons, and the activity that attracts the most consistent media coverage is Question Period. This article examines the evolution of the use of French and English during Question Period in the House of Commons over time by examining a random sample of debates from the 24th (1958-62) to the 39th (2006-8) parliaments. This article finds that the use of French in the House of Commons has increased over time and discusses several possible explanations. In addition, this article tests the hypothesis that there exists an informal norm in the House of Commons which holds that responses to questions should be in the same language in which the question was asked.