Absolutely perfect fluency in a second language to the point where no one can tell what your mother tongue is - is something that is almost impossible to master unless you grew up in a bilingual household with one parent speaking each language to you. So, I think our expectations of our political leaders have to reasonable. We are clearly at a point where not being able to speak the other language is simply not on for a national leader in Canadian politics. The days when a Lester Pearson or Tommy Douglas or John Diefenbaker couuld be party leaders and each speak virtually no French whatsoever - are long gone.

I don't actually know the whole story of how and where Layton learned French (I may see him at a function tonight - maybe I'll ask him!). He clearly learned more French growing up in Montreal than did a lot of other Anglos of his age. Going to elementary and high school in Montreal in the 50s and 60s (as he would have), you got maybe one hour of French PER WEEK and maybe more in high school if you took French as an elective - so the fact that he had some grounding in French to begin with makes me think that he must have opted for a lot of French classes in high school and maybe university. I know that he moved to Toronto in the early 70s and from then until he ran for the NDP leader in 2002, he would have had little or no reason to speak French - if anything, after he married Olivia Chow, i think he spent a long time putting more energy into learning Cantonese.

I think that since he's been leader, he has put a lot of effort into learning French and he goes on immersion courses every year and has regular lessons etc...and I think that each eection his French has been better than in the preceding one. I do know for a fact that he has a number of top people in his office who are francophone Quebecers (e.g. his press secretary Karl Belanger and many others). I also think that he can and will get more and more attention in the francophone media in the next election. I already find that more often than not I see more headlines mentioning Layton in La Presse than I do in the Toronto Star or the Globe! I also think that in the next election, the very fact that the French media is starting to pick up on Layton's personal popularity in Quebec will cause them to pay more attention to the NDP - esp. with the Liberals in such a downward spiral.

I also think that there is a better than 50% chance that Mulcair will not be the only NDP MP from Quebec in the next eection. I think there is avery reason to believe that Francise Boivin can win in Gatineau and she will be a great addition to the NDP's francophone profile.