| Abstract: | The tendency to doom French Canadians outside Quebec to assimilation seems to be based on the premise that state boundaries with political and economic control over an ecological boundary are required in order for a population to be nationalized into a cohesive group. Although the French had early opportunities to dominate ecological, demographic, political and economic macro-structures in St. Boniface, they quickly lost out to the British. The French community has remained strong for 160 years by means of enclavic social factors such as residential segregation, institutional completeness, cultural identity, and social distance. French self-identification with social psychological factors such as a religious ideology, amidst rich historical symbols, is strongly supported by the status elite and a majority of French residents in St. Boniface. This enclave is changing to some extent but a distinct core of French identification remains. A resurgence of Franco-Manitoban identity is hardly taking place, but there is much evidence of reinterpretation and revitalization. |
