The online poll, conducted by AngusReidStrategies, showed that 70% of English-speakers want to speak better French.

"It's good for everyone to be able to [speak] all of it," Heather Schiller, a 24-year-old dancer and actor told Reuters in Toronto.

"It makes us seem more educated. And you get paid more if you're bilingual. The opportunities are greater."

Ms. Schiller attended French immersion in elementary school but admits she would be hard-pressed to hold down a conversation now. "I will study it again, within the next five years," she said. "That way I can go anywhere. As a performer, I would get to do more if I could speak French."

The survey of just under 1,000 Canadians showed that 58% of English-speakers want Canada to keep having two official languages, although support for a bilingual country varied greatly depending on the province.

In Alberta, which has a relatively small number of native French speakers, 55% of respondents said Canada needed only one official language.

According to figures from the 2001 census, the most recent data available, some 17.5 million of Canada's 29.4 million population say English is their mother tongue, while 6.4 million are native French speakers.

"We should remain bilingual," said Lance Alexander, a management consultant in Toronto, who took five years of French in high school but says he has not retained much of it.

"I think it's hugely important and I think it's one of the things that differentiates Canada from all the other countries in the world. Not too many countries have two or more official languages. So I think it's something we should be proud of."