Double Vision

Almost exactly ten years ago, I left the Toronto Star to become the commissioner of official languages—a move from being a reporter to being an agent of Parliament, from almost four decades of managing little more than a keyboard to heading an organization of 170 people. At one level, it was a huge and improbable transition, and a fish-out-of-water story: Everything I Didn’t Know about the Federal Government and Forgot to Ask, or The Front Page Meets Yes Minister.

On another level, though, it was smooth and logical: six months earlier, I had published a book on language policy in Canada, Sorry, I Don’t Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis That Won’t Go Away. In some ways, the last decade has been a ten-year book tour.

Now, as the 150th anniversary of Confederation begins, and two years before the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Official Languages Act in 1969, it is worth reflecting on the impact that five decades of...