TORIES and the (broken) FRENCH connection
There are few things more Canadian than the sight of an anglophone politician trying to win over Quebec votes with the language acumen of a kindergartner. At Tuesday night’s French language Conservative leadership debate, candidates did not disappoint. The National Post got its own brokenFrench-speaking anglophone, Tristin Hopper, to break down the good, the bad and the ugly of the debate. MICHAEL CHONG
Chong spoke the most Harper-esque French on the stage. Stephen Harper had become quite comfortable in French by the end of his premiership, but he still retained the linguistic tics of a kid from Ontario. Chong didn’t need notes, didn’t hesitate and was able to build complex sentences. But he had anglo pronunciations for words like “pour” ( for), saying “por” where a francophone would say something closer to “poor.” DEEPAK OBHRAI
This was a performance for the ages. To one question the Calgary MP responded “Moi. Pronunciation. Horrible. Horrible … I will get it. Merci.” He answered another by listing all the other ( non- French) l anguages he can speak before saying “Bonsoir. Bonsoir. Bonsoir. J’apprends. J’apprends. J’apprends.” ( Good night, good night, good night. I learn, I learn, I learn). Best of all, on a stage packed with nervous and coy opponents, Obhrai did all this with perfect confidence. MAXIME BERNIER
Bernier, of course, is francophone, which meant that he had to treat this like an actual debate, rather than a linguistic showcase to be survived. A lot of this involved Bernier outlining his plans to dismantle dairy and egg controls in Canada — and subsequently being lambasted by Steven Blaney. STEVEN BLANEY
The other francophone on the stage, Blaney was also the most animated: gripping the podium, yelling, pointing for emphasis, hurling insults at Bernier and speaking so quickly it’s likely his opponents missed a lot of his delivery. The Sherbrooke- born MP could have blisteringly attacked nearly half the candidates on stage secure in the knowledge that they were linguistically unable to defend themselves. But he stayed polite, and in a true power move Blaney used his opening statement to call for a round of applause that his anglophone opponents c ould s peak French at all. PIERRE LEMIEUX
“Surely the guy named ‘ Pierre Lemieux’ can speak French,” audience members might have assumed. But they would have been wrong. The former Ontario MP remained buried in his notes and filled time with entry- l evel sentences in French like “attacking our citizens is bad, very bad” and “our economy in Canada is very important.” ANDREW SCHEER
Scheer is a former speaker of the House of Commons, and he was endorsed by four Quebec MPs. So it was surprising that he could only construct elementary- level phrases, often with awkward pauses. But Scheer at least tried to get a few laughs, eliciting one when he said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lives in a “world of the Care Bears.” RICK PETERSON
The Vancouver venture capitalist has a wide vocabulary and was able to glide t hrough French t onguetwisters that would have turned into train wrecks for some of his rivals. “Je dit aux investisseurs — ceux qui veut investir au Canada — vener,” he said in the time it would have taken Scheer to say “investisseurs.” KELLIE LEITCH She is relatively new to the language. But instead of speaking a familiar Anglo French, Leitch has adopted a sing- songy cadence that made her particularly hard to understand. While her comprehension seems to be coming along, the presentation has been compared to Leitch doing an impression of someone who speaks French. CHRIS ALEXANDER
The former minister of citizenship and immigration inhabits the language with such comfort that it can even be argued he’s more persuasive and engaging in French than English. ERIN O’TOOLE
O’Toole learned French in the military and thus speaks a familiar variety of “Ottawa French”: clear, concise and professional but with a recognizable Anglo accent. If you’ve ever gone to a federal building and asked for directions from the Saguenayborn security guard, you know what O’Toole sounds like to francophones. ANDREW SAXTON
Saxton’ s French has moved well beyond phrasebook French. He used imperfect verb conjugations, for instance, rather than just sticking to present tense. But it was a slog: lots of notes, little deviation from rehearsed answers and twice playing for time by starting his answer with “the first role of any government is to protect its citizens.” LISA RAITT
The former minister of transport spoke with the reserve and caution of someone who knew that if she was asked a single followup question, the jig was up. Raitt relied heavily on her notes and seemed to explicitly avoid saying anything even remotely controversial lest she find herself in a debate. BRAD TROST
There was a time when Saskatchewan Tories avoided French so thoroughly that it was a toss- up whether they pronounced the “t” on “Chevrolet.” So it’s progress that Trost showed up and made an effort, even if he did sound exactly like the “lost American tourist” character from a French sitcom.