Linda Cardinal

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Linda Cardinal OC FRSC (born July 13, 1959) is a Franco-Ontarian political scientist. She is a University Professor and a Canada Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie and Public Policies at the University of Ottawa. She has received several honors, including being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013 and being awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and the Order of Canada. She was the first coordinator of the francophone studies program at the University of Ottawa.

Early life and education
Cardinal was born in Hawkesbury, Ontario. She earned a BA and an MA from the University of Ottawa and completed a PhD in Sociology in 1987 at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Her PhD thesis explored autonomy and contestation in student and feminist movements in the United States and France between 1950 and 1975.

Career highlights
- She began at the University of Ottawa in 1987 as an adjunct professor and became a full professor in the School of Political Studies by 1995.
- She served as president of the Network of Women's Researchers in French Ontario from 1999 to 2002.
- She was the Craig-Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies at University College Dublin from 2002 to 2004 and directed the journal Politique et sociétés.
- She helped create Shaping Nations: Constitutionalism and Society in Australia and Canada, a collaboration with David Headon.
- In 2005, she studied French-language services in Ontario’s justice system and published a report with colleagues.
- In 2006, she held the Chair in Canadian Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 and co-chaired the International Association of Political Science RC 50 on Language and Politics until 2012.
- She published Managing Diversity: Practices of Citizenship in 2007 and served on the executive committee of the IAPs, also leading the Société québécoise de science politique in 2008–09.
- In 2008 she joined the board of the Center de la Francophonie des Amériques. She received Ottawa’s Excellence in Research Award in 2009.
- In 2011 she taught at the University of Helsinki as a professor and guest lecturer and became the first coordinator of the Francophonie Studies program at Ottawa, a role she held until 2014.
- She later became Director of the Undergraduate Program in Political Science and served on the University of Ottawa’s Board of Governors.
- In 2013 she was awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She helped found a movement advocating for an official bilingual capital of Canada.
- She published work exploring connections between Quebec and Ireland in 2014 and, in 2017, received the Bernard Grandmaître Award for her commitment to the Francophone community. She was also named a Member of the Order of Canada that year.
- With Sébastien Grammond, she co-authored a book on the role of French in shaping the Canadian constitution and law (published around 2017).
- In 2018 she joined the Law Commission of Ontario’s Board of Governors and was named among the top 10 influential francophone personalities by Francopresse. She also received the AJEFO Order of Merit.
- She was asked to help shape the university’s approach to the state of French on campus in 2018. She continued publishing and co-edited Ottawa, lieu de vie français, a work highlighting the impact of francophones in Ottawa; it was a Canada Prize finalist in 2019.
- In 2019 she began a role at Université de l’Ontario français to help develop a research strategy for the Francophone Carrefour of Knowledge and Innovation.

Focus and impact
Cardinal’s work centers on language minority issues, language policies, and the development of language communities in Canada. She has influenced policy and academic discussions on Francophone rights, bilingualism, and the cultural and political life of French-speaking communities in Ontario and across Canada.