Slipping on the eu’s and au’s in the leaders’ French debate

In this daily feature until Election Day, the National Post captures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail.

As Thomas Mulcair delivered his opening statement at the French leaders debate on Friday, the average Englishspeaking Canadian might assume that the NDP leader spoke in a flawless, unaccented Montreal French.

He is, after all, a lifelong Quebecer, the NDP’s former Quebec lieutenant and a longtime member of the province’s national assembly.

But to the born-and-raised francophone, Mulcair occasionally slipped on “eu’s” and “au’s.” And — whatever his fluency — it was all tinged with the unmistakable accent of a man who grew up in an anglophone household.

“He had quite a native command … but there’s an intonational overlay that was sometimes not 100 per cent,” said Shana Poplack, director of the University of Ottawa Sociolinguistics Laboratory.

And so it is with the other politicians who joined Mulcair on the debate stage on Friday. While the party leaders all generally speak the same brand of English, in French their speech reveals a rich tapestry of where they’re from, how they grew up and even the kind of voter they’re targeting.

“In (Justin) Trudeau’s case, you would think that he learned his French only from books,” said a Quebec culture blogger in an email to the National Post.

Trudeau, of course, is the son of a prime minister who famously spoke a cosmopolitan French stripped of Quebec slang.

The style isn’t as strong with the younger Trudeau, but he nevertheless carries an accent that’s been described as “snobbish” or “Outremont French” — a reference to the tony Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont.

But Trudeau was also raised in a primarily English-speaking environment, and his French bears the scars.

“He hesitates, he says a lot of ‘euh …,’ he seems to be searching for the right words,” said Claude Poirier, a linguist at Laval University. “He does not seem to be fluent in French.”

In particular, the Liberal leader has a habit of using English expressions that don’t translate into French. A good example would be “faire du sens” — a nonsensical direct translation of “makes sense.”

Stephen Harper, of course, speaks the worst French by any long-serving prime minister since Lester Pearson.

The Conservative leader speaks “Ottawa French,” the heavily accented French characteristic of anglophone government workers who have learned the language as adults.

A good comparison is former prime minister Jean Chrétien, who speaks heavily accented English for the same reason.

And just like Chrétien, Harper’s delivery betrays the occasional chuckle-worthy slip-ups.

Harper’s French pronunciation of “election,” for instance, sounds uncannily like “erection.”

“How much does an erection cost? Do you want an erection?” the Conservative leader can be heard to tell a cheering crowd in a YouTube clip from the 2011 election.

Harper’s French is understandable, but sources said he doesn’t get the rhythm or the “music” of the language. The Conservative leader is equally monotone when he speaks English, of course, but the trait is much more noticeable in the patter of French.

But probably Harper’s chief linguistic handicap on his visits to Quebec is that he can’t speak “common French.”

Most bilingual anglophones — including Mulcair and Trudeau — speak “Radio-Canada French,” an official-sounding version of the language where regional dialects are tamped down.

But there’s also a slang-filled conversational French inflected with various distinct regional dialects.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, the son of a famed Quebec actor, can deftly switch between the two depending on his audience — and however populist his message.

Friday night’s debate, of course, did not include Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, which, given her loose grasp of the language, might ultimately play to her advantage.

“She couldn’t order a pack of smokes in a depanneur,” said Montreal-born comedian Hunter Collins, who said he was reminded of how Quebec television portrayed Wayne Gretzky in the 1980s: a charming anglophone brutalizing the language.

Poirier compared it to the ragged French of John Diefenbaker.

But the professor took heart that, as things are going, the Green leader appears to be the last of an era.

“It’s worth noting that the French spoken by anglophone politicians has improved greatly over the last 30 years,” he said.

She couldn’t order a pack of smokes in a depanneur