The Last French Canadian / Le dernier Canadien français

Today in Canada, can a Francophone still call themselves “French Canadian”? Actor and host Pascal Justin Boyer, born in Quebec and raised in Ontario, sets out across the country to find an answer. Feeling caught between labels like Québécois, Franco-Ontarian, and French Canadian, he wonders whether this identity is fading or simply transforming.

In The Last French Canadian, Boyer travels from the Yukon to the Prairies, Quebec, and Acadia, meeting Francophones with wildly different relationships to language and belonging. A York University professor tells him that the term “French Canadian” is outdated and tied to colonial history. Yet “Québécois” doesn’t fit Boyer either, since he has spent most of his life outside Quebec. Even “Franco-Ontarian,” his parents’ chosen identity, feels too narrow, leaving out the cultural ties he still feels to his home province.

The documentary mirrors the quick tempo of Boyer’s mother tongue, mixing humour, archival footage, and candid conversations. The film ultimately explores whether preserving the idea of being “French Canadian” risks stripping the label of its “Canadian” part altogether, leaving Boyer to ask what exactly he hopes to defend.