Reason #783 that Phnee shouldn't be allowed near politics

[mousme]

There was a lot of screaming at the television tonight. A lot of it involved the words "LIAR!" and "OHMYGODDIDYOUHEARTHAT?!?"

I flicked between the U.S. debate and the Canadian debate. Palin made my ears bleed. "Nucular." Didn't the U.S. learn their lesson about letting people into the Oval Office who can't pronounce "nuclear?" (Yes, yes, I know it's an "accepted" regional difference, blah, blah, WRONG!)

The Canadian debate made me want to throw heavy things at the television. Not because of what was said, although there was plenty of screaming about that. No, what got me was that the moderator intervened, not once, but several times in Harper's favour, defending him against both Dion and Layton on at least two occasions that I can think of off-hand.

What. The. Fuck?!?

I don't understand why this happened. I don't understand why all five leaders didn't jump on him and tell him to shut the fuck up. I kept looking back at my mother and asking: "Why is he speaking? Why are they letting him speak? Why is he letting his lips flap with opinions about the content of the debate? Why?"

There are no words. I am incensed. So much for a "neutral" moderator this evening. The French moderator was fantastic, but sadly only French-speaking Canadians got to see what a well-run debate looks like.

Comments

English v. French

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

How much does a politician who is good in one and not the other get penalized by the Canadian people?

By the Canadian press?

Here, sometimes a politician will essay some limping Spanish, and the English press will either brutalize him for it ("Screw them! Don't cater!") or ignore it, and SFAIK, the Spanish press will generally be kind, and the Spanish voters will be very kind, just for making the attempt, if they think it was sincere.

Re: English v. French

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Being functionally bilingual is considered by the press, and many people to be a pre-requisite for the job of party leader. Seeing as how Canada has two official languages, English and French, it's considered good form to be able to use both if you want to be Prime Minister.

Re: English v. French

[mousme.livejournal.com]

It's pretty important for party leaders to be able to make themselves understood in both official languages here. Being bad in English is more likely to cost you an election than being bad in French, but Québec is often the swing vote that means the difference between a minority and a majority government, so more than a minimum of French is required.

In the past thirty years, there have been no unilingual prime ministers, and an even smaller percentage who weren't fluent in both tongues. Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and Martin were all completely bilingual. Unsurprisingly, they were all from Québec.

Chrétien spoke both languages atrociously, but with so much panache that everyone forgave him his blunders. ;)

Harper isn't fluent in French, but he's scored major points by increasing his competence a hundredfold. I agree with none of his policies, but admire the effort to learn French and speak directly to his constituents in Québec.

Dion is a joke in the language department. He came out earlier this year with a press release about having some sort of disability that prevented him from learning English properly, which came off as whining. If Jean Chrétien could mangle the English language with aplomb, then so can you. Same party, same tactics. Don't apologize or explain, just try your hardest and make sure people can see it. Come on!

So in answer to your question, any leader who can't at least manage to make themselves understood in both languages will lose points with the people and get lambasted by the press, generally speaking.