I’ve often said that liberals live by a completely different set of rules from the rest of us. The put themselves in a different, far superior class. They’re not peons like us —they’re the ruling class. Intellectually superior. The “natural governing party” of Canada, as they and their news media always like to call themselves.
They thrust two official languages across our nation, by law, driving three-quarters of our country crazy, but they don’t find it particularly important that the leader of their party speaks French. As we found from Jean Chretien’s reign of language terror, they don’t feel it’s important to speak English particularly well either. As long as you do. And as long as all the civil servants—with “servants” being the operative word here —do.
Four Liberal contenders don’t pass as bilingual
By objective standards, more than half of the candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party are not bilingual. By the candidates’ own admissions, the winner must be.
[ …] Seven of the 11 candidates now running for the Liberal leadership were given passing grades when rated against the scale for a bilingualism certificate by University of Ottawa professor Hélène Knoerr.
[…] “The others were varying degrees of catastrophes,” Prof. Knoerr said.
[…] Scott Brison [who is not running for party leadership, and I don’t know what his name is doing in this article] has complained that his French is better than people say. So has Carolyn Bennett, who says her French needs work, but that she is acceptably bilingual.
“I’ve got news for her,” Prof. Knoerr said. Ms. Bennett’s second-language skills rated last of the 10 who felt able to complete the interview, because her errors in vocabulary, grammar and syntax were enough that a francophone listener would have a hard time following.
Still, all 10 agreed that bilingualism is important.
[…] Ken Dryden, whose French was rated as weak, argued that speaking the language is important, but that understanding Quebec and its culture is more crucial: “The language is only an instrument,” he said.
Only Vancouver MP Hedy Fry, who did not complete the French interview, said it’s not necessary for the next leader to be bilingual. Although she insisted on switching to English after struggling to answer two French questions, she insisted that she has a foundation in the language, and will be bilingual by the Dec. 2 leadership vote.
[…] The three other candidates who completed the interview — Mr. Brison, Mr. Dryden and Ms. Bennett — all rated below the level for bilingual certification.
Mon dieu. Or however you say that in Mandarin or Punjabi.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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