The Politics of Language

David E. Smith is a political science professor at the University of
Saskatchewan and author of Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal.

Despite its brevity, this is a very valuable survey of language rights
and the provision of services in both official languages in the 10
provinces and at the federal level. It describes the evolution of
language policy in the different jurisdictions and its current status in
such areas as education and local government. Savoie assesses what has
been done and evaluates the options facing Canada. National unity, he
says, depends on reconciling the conflicting and lingering tensions that
surround the issue of language. Although the book’s imprint date is
1991, the most recent references and statistics are from 1989.