The weekly newspaper, Le Franco, was born from La Survivance,
a paper which was established in Edmonton in1928 for the
French-speaking community of Alberta1.
The publication became Le Franco-Albertain in 1967, and more
recently, simply Le Franco.
A French language independent weekly had existed in Edmonton
since 1917, but when the province-wide Association
canadienne-française de l’Alberta (ACFA) was established in
December 1925, the paper included only four pages. By 1928, the
owner of the paper, Pierre Féguenne (originally from Belgium)
saw so much space being used for what he thought ought to be
paid advertising and refused to publish the ACFA’s announcements
and news. Faced with this ultimatum, the ACFA perceived no other
alternative but to launch its own newspaper. The ACFA received
financial backing from the Oblate missionaries, who were
publishing several foreign language papers for various Catholic
ethnic groups in the West.
L’Union, which was considered by the prestigious Le Devoir to
be one of the 10 top French weekly papers in Canada, tried to
overcome this blow, but Féguenne finally sold his paper to the
ACFA in April of 1929. The publication existed for 11 years
which were particularly difficult for the French community in
Alberta, in both a political and religious sense. Unfortunately,
less than a quarter of the issues of L’Union have been
conserved.
In spite of its stormy beginnings, La Survivance developed a
lasting readership and published articles of interest to
French-Canadians in Alberta. The front page usually covered the
important news of the day, be that national or international,
with information and columns of interest to farmers, women and
children. The editors were very careful to cover problems that
the French parishes were going through, in that English-speaking
clergymen were replacing the francophone oblates, a situation
which was being brought in directly from the bishop’s see. The
editorial policy toed the line taken by the Quebec clergy
concerning the Pétain government in exile during the Second
World War and openly denounced those who supported De Gaulle’s
Free French movement. In spite of such policies, the editors did
their best to reach the Franco-Albertans who were mostly rural
in origin at that time. The paper participated in all the
highlights of the Franco community including the launch of
French language radio in Alberta, CHFA in 1949, after a long
fight to obtain permission from the CRTC.
The paper was rejuvenated with a change in name in 1967, and
bought out by the ACFA in 1977, when it became Le Franco.
Currently, the paper has a weekly circulation of 12,000 and
answers to the needs of the French-speaking population in
Alberta.
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