To the casual observer, French proficiency is de rigueur in Canada’s capital.
From street signs to OC Transpo’s bilingual stop announcements, Ottawa appears unofficially bilingual.
At a time when bilingualism in the senior federal public service is an issue as a result of the recent appointment of a unilingual auditor-general, experts and language critics find Ottawa Centre’s more or less unilingual politicians and their continued success is surprising, especially since it lies in the “bilingual belt.”
MP Paul Dewar is taking French lessons, but analysts agree that his lack of French proficiency is a handicap in his bid the for the federal NDP leadership.
Yasir Naqvi, the riding’s Queens Park representative, re-asserted his popularity on election night, but paused before fumbling a basic French sentence to a reporter.
Diane Holmes was first elected to city council in 1982 but even her French has room for improvement.
Although la langue française is mandatory for senior level bureaucrats, experts say that French fluency is only an asset – not a prerequisite – to be an effective politician in Ottawa.
“Not being bilingual in Ottawa puts politicians at an obvious disadvantage. There is a significant part of the community you don’t have easy access to,” says Caroline Andrew, Centre of Governance director at the University of Ottawa.
But she adds that no elected representative can access every linguistic minority group in their riding.
Instead, they create channels of communication with these groups through community allies – be they French, Chinese or Arab.
A politician’s raison d’être, ultimately, is to serve constituents.
Dewar says he has relied on community volunteers while canvassing in neighbourhoods with higher concentrations of speakers of a first language other than English or French.
In Centretown, that first language can be Vietnamese, Somali or Italian.
“Given the diversity of our riding, I doubt you can find anyone who will speak everyone’s language fluently,” he says.
“But I do believe it’s important to provide services in both official languages (and) have a command of those languages.”
Ontario’s French Language Services Act ensures French services are offered in 25 designated areas across the province – Ottawa Centre being one.
Francophones make up nearly 18 per cent of the city’s population.
Forty-three per cent of Centretown residents claim to be bilingual, compared with the city average of 37.2 per cent.
Compared with other Ottawa neighbourhoods, Centretown has high percentages of francophone immigrants and francophone visible minorities.
Part of Naqvi’s success lies in his close connections to immigrant communities, Andrew says.
“When I was walking around (Centretown) just before the provincial election, I noticed signs for Yasir Naqvi in Chinese. He obviously has very good links in that community, probably in close association with Chinese speakers,” she says.
Naqvi says he has never showed up at the doorstep of an exclusively French-speaking household while canvassing.
He has, however, been greeted by constituents who speak neither of the two official languages.
“Our office tries to go beyond providing French and English services. We provide services in other languages. All elected representatives should be able to provide services in the language their constituents speak – the key is communication.”
Linda Cardinal, a University of Ottawa political science professor who focuses on minority languages and governance, says a unilingual handicap isn’t politically fatal.
“There is a certain handicap right from the start if you don’t know French. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be a good representative. You need to give yourself the tools.”
According to Cardinal, the tools include advisors and translators to help you communicate with the francophone population – as both Dewar and Naqvi have done.
Madeleine Meilleur, Ottawa-Vanier MPP and Ontario’s minister of francophone affairs, says it is difficult for unilingual anglophone politicians to communicate with unilingual French speakers, but staff members can help cut through the linguistic traps.
Naqvi’s youthful energy is one of his assets, Cardinal says. Andrew notes that Dewar’s international portfolio is aplus.
“People like (Naqvi) for what he represents – his commitment. He belongs to a party that has a strong commitment to the French language,” Cardinal says.
Ottawa-Vanier MP Mauril Bélanger says French fluency is an unwritten criterion for Ottawa politicians and it is not sufficient to simply have staff members who are fully bilingual.
“It’s an advantage to the constituents and it’s an advantage to whoever is seeking public office. I have had opponents representing some parties who don’t speak the two languages and that’s an uphill battle they have to face,” he says.
City councillor Mathieu Fleury is the only francophone, among a handful of fluent French speakers, on the City of Ottawa’s 23-member council.
If he could speak Arabic on top of English and French, Fleury says he would be better positioned to serve his constituency needs.
“Focus on English and French is great, but we’re beyond that today. We’re such a multilingual community that we need to offer services in multiple other languages,” says the Rideau-Vanier councillor.
Ultimately, voters will decide if French proficiency is a make-or-break factor.
“At the end of the day, the choice of who represents them is made by the people. We go through rigorous employment and interviewing processes in our campaigns to make the cut,” says Naqvi, who is currently working on his French language skills.