Liberal officials say it’s ‘essential’ their next party leader is bilingual

OTTAWA — Current and former Liberal party officials, both French and English speakers, say the Liberal leader chosen to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be bilingual.

“In my opinion, it’s essential for the leader of the Liberal party to speak both official languages,” said former housing minister Sean Fraser, who announced in December he would not run for re-election in his Nova Scotia riding.

“If a leader doesn’t have the ability to understand the reality for linguistic minorities and the populations of Quebec as well, it’s not possible to be a good prime minister or a good leader of the Liberal party,” said Fraser, who is taking French courses to improve his French.

Although Manitoba MP Kevin Lamoureux said he doesn’t believe that unilingual candidates should be disqualified from the race, he stressed that he would not vote for a unilingual candidate.

”It would be very uncomfortable if a Liberal party elected someone that was not bilingual,” he said.

On Thursday, the Liberal party said a new leader would be announced March 9, giving potential candidates just two weeks to decide whether to pursue the role. With a federal election on the horizon following Trudeau’s decision to step down as party leader, the new party boss would face Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh — both of whom are fluent in French. In Quebec, the Liberal candidate will have to face Bloc Québécois leader Yves François Blanchet.

Former Montreal MP Frank Baylis and Nepean, Ont., MP Chandra Arya have said they plan to run while former B.C. premier Christy Clark and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney are among those considering a bid.

Clark, in an interview with CBC radio’s The House which aired Saturday, agreed the leader of the Liberal party “absolutely must be bilingual.” She said she can speak French, but wants to be better.

“It’s not bad. It’s improving and you will never find another Canadian who’s working harder on improving their French than me,” she said.

Arya has downplayed the fact that he doesn’t speak French, rekindling calls for a bilingual requirement. In an interview with CBC/Radio-Canada, Arya said that mastery of the language is a secondary issue for Quebecers, who, in his opinion, are far more interested in the person being able to “deliver.”

However, some elected officials in Quebec were quick to respond that the next leader must master Canada’s two official languages.

The leader “will absolutely have to be bilingual. It’s a question of respect and values. It’s also essential to maximize our chances of winning the next election,” the Liberals’ Quebec lieutenant Jean-Yves Duclos wrote on the X.

On the same social media platform, Gatineau MP Steven MacKinnon, who is considering a bid to succeed Trudeau, said it is “crucial” that the Liberal leader be bilingual.

“Bilingualism means appreciating the French fact in Canada, appreciating Quebec as a whole and all communities in the country, whether they are French-speaking or English-speaking,” said MacKinnon, Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Minister.

Ex-Liberal strategists also shared similar views.

Sandra Aubé, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s former chief of staff, said in an interview that mastery of French is “inescapable,” “non-negotiable” and part of the “very DNA of the party.”

“If there were a leader who spoke little or no French in an upcoming election campaign, he or she would be guaranteed to face major challenges in Quebec, at the very least. And so, it would affect the Liberals’ result overall,” said Aubé, who now works for TACT, an agency that provides government and public relations services.

Announcing on Friday that she would not throw her hat in the ring, Joly added that, “as a Quebecer and a francophone,” it seemed “obvious” to her that the next leader must be able to speak both French and English.

Ex-Liberal strategist Greg MacEachern, now president of lobbying firm KAN Strategies, agreed: ”Whoever the leader is has to be bilingual, full stop,” he said.

”I think the really key point here is that the province of Quebec is really important to the Liberal Party, to the Liberal Party fortunes right now.”

Traditionally, Liberal leaders alternated between Quebec and the rest of Canada, MacEachern added.

For François Rocher, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Ottawa, Arya’s argument that francophones are primarily looking for effective, accountable government is “fallacious and asymmetrical.”

“Imagine a unilingual francophone candidate raising the same argument,” he said.

The candidate “would be immediately derided in the rest of Canada, including by unilingual English candidates who wouldn’t understand why … we wouldn’t be able to reach 75 per cent of the Canadian population.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2025.

Émilie Bergeron and Michel Saba, The Canadian Press