Are you multilingual?
While French and English were the languages spoken by over 95% of the population in Québec, in the Prairies, the situation was entirely different. In fact, one had to speak several languages—in other words, be multilingual—if one wanted to be understood everywhere in the Prairies.
Although French had been the most commonly spoken language during the early colonization of the Prairies, its influence had diminished over the years. Newcomers spoke English and later other languages like Russian, German, Polish, etc.
Since communities tended to be isolated and located very far from one other, these colonists did not need to learn another language to be understood in their own town.
As the table above shows, a large portion of the population in the Prairies spoke languages other than French or English.
Author: Service national du Récit de l’univers social