Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
So in theory at least there is absolutely nothing preventing a national party from taking the risk of choosing a leader who doesn't speak French.
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Part of what is odd about this to me is that it's become received wisdom that Francophone Canadians demand high French skills in their candidates, or view French fluency as important promotion of their mother tongue, or want to see the PM effortlessly hobnobbing with Emmanuel Macron, or something. But my experience from listening to French language Canadian media is that this doesn't come up as much as policy. And it's hard to see what discernible impact the language skills have. Quebec voted for a bunch of non French speaking NDP folks at one point and as others have said Jack Layton had far from perfect French. The voting patterns do not add up.
I think this idea that Francophone voters have demanding French requirements is just one of those fictions of Canadian politics. It's convenient for J. J. types who want to complain, and it sounds plausible to people who don't speak or understand French or have much exposure to the Francophone media landscape.