"Gerard Kennedy Does Not Speak French" (La Presse).

Montreal newspapers blast Gerard Kennedy back to Toronto.

"He does not speak French" (Lysiane Gagnon, La Presse).

"Could have stayed home... Rudimentary French" (Chantal Hébert, Le Devoir).

I TOLD YOU !

Lysiane Gagnon in LA PRESSE
"(...)Gerard Kennedy, un ancien ministre ontarien relativement populaire au Canada anglais mais pratiquement sans appui au Québec (la raison principale étant qu'il ne parle pas français) (...)"
Lysiane Gagnon
La Presse - mardi 24 octobre 2006

Translation (if you support Kennedy you obviously need a translation): "Gerard Kennedy, a former Ontario cabinet minister, relatively popular in English Canada, but with almost no support in Quebec (the main reason being that he doesn't speak French)".
Lysiane Gagnon, La Presse, Tuesday, Octobe 24, 2006.

Well, that is obviously incorrect. However, his French is pretty bad. Still, interesting that after Saturday's debate, Lysiane Gagnon concluded that he was unilingual .

Chantal Hébert in LE DEVOIR
Chantal Hébert, who also writes in The Toronto Star, had this to say in about Gerard Kennedy:

"Un mot en terminant sur Gerard Kennedy. Ceux qui, au Québec, se demandaient pourquoi il était encore considéré comme un candidat sérieux en vue du congrès de Montréal sont restés sur leur appétit samedi. À la lumière du peu d'impact de sa performance, il aurait aussi bien pu rester à la maison. M. Kennedy était certainement désavantagé par l'état encore rudimentaire de son français par rapport à celui de ses principaux adversaires. Mais la semaine précédente alors qu'il débattait dans sa langue maternelle à Toronto, il n'avait pas davantage tiré son épingle du jeu."
Chantal Hébert
Le Devoir - lundi 23 octobre 2006

Translation: "A word in closing about Gerard Kennedy. Those who, in Quebec, were wondering why he was still considered a serious candidate for the Montreal convention were left wondering Saturday. Considering the lack of impact of his performance, he could have stayed at home. Mister Kennedy was certainly disadvantaged by his still rudimentary French compared to his main opponents. But the week before, when he debated in his first language in Toronto, hid didn't do any better."

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Update (2006-10-25 10:14AM)
Turns out Chantal Hébert submitted a similar column to The Toronto Star.

"A word in closing on Gerard Kennedy. For all the impact he had on the debate Saturday, he could have stayed home. His poorer grasp of the French language certainly put him at a disadvantage. But the week before in Toronto, Kennedy had little more impact and he was debating in his mother tongue."
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192,000 copies of La Presse are sold during the average weekday, making it Quebec's second newspaper after Le journal de Montréal (267,000). Le Devoir is more prestigious, but with a weekday circulation of 25,000, much less read.

-Acadians do not Want Gerard Kennedy
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