Comments on: The Media on poorly bilingual leaders

By: tolimbo

tolimbo — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:46:26 +0000

Nice info , well done and nice write up

regards
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By: Anne in swON

Anne in swON — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:03:18 +0000

Dion would have had to undergo oral exams to defend his thesis /dissertation in order to get both a master's degree and a doctorate. He would have been very familiar with the material on which the questions were based because he would have written it himself. He would would not have been asked the question several times (nor would the question have been explained) and would not have had several shots at the answer. Further questions would likely have arisen based on his answer. The point is that the man is obviously intelligent and understands how to answer difficult questions when he is familiar with the subject. He indicated that he heard the question asked by Mr. Murphy because he repeated it. It is evident he was not familiar with the material on which the question was based and was unable to answer. End of story.

By: Observant

Observant — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:11:00 +0000

That’s not the issue .. it’s that Quebec is flocking back to their beloved BQ sovereignists and rejecting the Conservatives because Harper threatened their artistic ‘star’ system and then all those Quebec ‘stars’ came out to attack Harper for the cuts to culture.

Quebec is now trying to play everybody in the RoC against each other by voting federalist provincially and separatist federally .. which is tatamount to blackmailing the RoC while riding out their provincial government federally.

Western Canada will identify this as Quebec blackmail, while Ontario may remain oblivious to the obvious. This will breed a separatist movement in Western Canada, from the Ontario-Manitoba border. Enough is enough with Quebecers playing the RoC as fools and then openly threatening to separate through their BQ vote if we don’t pay their blackmail demands.

This election could easily begin the splitting apart of Canada, because Western Canada doesn’t really need Quebec or the Maritimes for that matter. Now we wait to see which way Ontario swings .. back into the clutches of the Liberal party or giving the Conservatives their vote.

Another Harper minority government could precipitate another snap election by Harper declaring that he will not accept the support of the BQ, and if the Liberals and NDP vote no confidence in a December Budget we will have another election in January-February. Then Ontarians will have to decide if they want to support Quebec and it’s perpetual demands for more and more money to stay in Canada. Canadian unity stands in the balance.

By: Expert Tom

Expert Tom — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:47:00 +0000

I know a lot of the media folks are all mad at CTV for airing this saying it breached journalistic integrity, like that profession had any. I agree that CTV lost credibility by airing it and may have difficulty in booking interviews in the future, but this type of thing has happened before. Do you remember some ‘off the record’ remarks that Stephen Harper made on a plane ride? Yes, we all remember because the reporters in question thought the contents where just to important not to divulge, even though they had given Harper their words it was ‘off the record’ What goes around comes around and anyone who gets too close to the media is bound to get burned by their ‘gotcha’ tabloid paper selling the sky is falling ways.

By: Cool Blue

Cool Blue — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Most telling of all is that a day later Dion is speaking of media conspiracies against him, of “low blows” against his English skills and “low blows” against his supposed hearing disability….

Yet he still hasn’t answered the original question.

By: Liz J

Liz J — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:32:00 +0000

It’s not about who speaks French or English the best, it’s who speaks the truth.
Dion is out slagging Harper beyond the pale. He must be taking advice from Paul Martin who did just that in the final days of the last election. Today in Burlington he had the gall to say we want a Prime Minister who writes his own speeches.
That’s something we need to pick up on pronto. He got away with the plagiarism story when the media did not pick up on it, it was of no interest because it was a Liberal who did it. He used an entire article by someone else to deliver a speech without attribution. Harper had a few sentences in a speech written by his speech writer and it was all over the damned news. WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS? This can’t be let slide.

By: Philip Hauser

Philip Hauser — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:13:00 +0000

You are right Paula, the real story here is that the Liberal Emporer to be has no clothes.

Only took one little kid (reporter) to notice it and everyone else is now laughing at him for what should have been obvious to us all.

By: anon

anon — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:11:07 +0000

One of my favourites from the spin dept... this one from Jacques Bourbeau of Global National just a few minutes ago:

"When they got word of this, the Tories rushed to judgment."

He concluded by saying, "So what has this served to accomplish? To put out a big distraction in the closing days of the campaign."

By: Gabby in QC

Gabby in QC — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:54:00 +0000

I had a feeling this would be turned into a language issue, i.e. Dion’s obvious difficulties with English being ridiculed by some conservative partisans, and the media turning it into a French vs. English thing.

This a.m. during the PM’s presser a francophone reporter (which one ?) asked why Dion should not be accorded the same tolerance Mr. Harper has been accorded by Francos when he speaks his non-perfect French. Mr. Harper’s response was excellent: the point was not whether Dion understood the question, the point was his answer. It showed he is unprepared for leading the country, as he will only formulate “a plan” once he gets elected. (I’m paraphrasing)

HOWEVER, and perhaps I should have posted this yesterday when the video came up, but wasn’t in the mood to be dressed down for expressing this: ever since Dion came onto the scene, there have been comments about his lack of fluency in English, including from some in the media. I’ve thought from the beginning it should not have become a big issue because the sympathy it could engender could backfire. And now it appears it has.

It is true there’s a double standard, Stephen, as your research shows. Knowing that, why give them the ammunition? Why dwell on the language aspect, when there are so MANY other things – you know, like policies – that could and should be highlighted as wrong wrong WRONG?

By: Peter C

Peter C — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:16:22 +0000

Not understanding English is an issue because it is a world language (the one most commonly used by elected national leaders anyway) and the one in Canada that anyone can understand from coast to coast. Past leaders not understanding French is nowhere near as big of a problem as a possible future one having trouble with English. This is an issue regardless of whether or not Mr. Dion has a plan for the country and economy.