Strained ties in plurinational states: Analysing the social network divide between Canada's two solitudes

Abstract

Patterns of social networks in plurinational societies remain understudied in the inter‐group contact literature. In Canada, a significant number of authors have studied political divides between Quebecers and other Canadians, but little is still known about the scope and determinants of the social disconnect between both communities. This paper provides the first quantitative measure of the social networking gap between Canada's ‘two solitudes’ using behavioural data. Our analysis mobilises the Facebook Connectedness Index (2020), which provides district‐level connectivity estimates between all active Facebook users in Canada. Results obtained via linear regression models show that population size, distance and self‐isolation patterns cannot account for the significant connectivity gap between Quebec and the rest of Canada. However, bilingualism in Quebec is positively correlated with higher inter‐regional networks, suggesting asymmetrical linguistic exchanges. These results empirically confirm decades of anecdotal accounts about the existence of a social disconnect between Canada's French‐ and English‐speaking communities.