Will Mark Carney’s weak French be his Achilles’ heel in Quebec?

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It is safe to assume that Mark Carney lacked occasions to practice his Quebec joual during the seven years he ran the Bank of England until 2020. Nor does he appear to have spent much time, since returning to Canada five years ago, immersing himself in the country’s other official language, despite harbouring obvious political ambitions.

To be clear, Mr. Carney’s French was as laboured back when he was governor of the Bank of Canada as it is now. So, it’s not like he has regressed in the language of Molière or Michel Tremblay. But why he has not made much progress remains something of a mystery given the premium federal Liberals place on bilingualism – and on winning seats in Quebec.

The reviews of Monday’s French-language Liberal leadership debate have not been kind to Mr. Carney. Le Journal de Montréal gave him a barely passing grade in French – five out 10 points – which placed him at the bottom of the class of the four candidates vying to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “His sentences were convoluted,” the newspaper’s head of editing remarked. “He spoke hesitantly, and his words were at times difficult to follow.”

Mr. Carney’s comment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict went viral after he mixed up his French prepositions, inadvertently suggesting he and his colleagues agreed “with” Hamas rather than “on” or “about” Hamas. Chrystia Freeland corrected his error, as she did when Mr. Carney had trouble remembering the French term for “supply management.” Still, the damage was done. “Is it not important that a prime minister be able to communicate clearly that Canada does NOT agree with Hamas? Apparently, Mark Carney is not able,” Quebec Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus posted on X.

At one point, moderator Pierre Jobin appeared so frustrated with Mr. Carney’s drawn-out delivery that he interjected – in English – to remind him how much time he had left on the clock. Mr. Carney smiled gamely, but he must have been miffed.

Still, their candidate’s debate performance should serve as a wake-up call to Mr. Carney’s anglophone strategists that his French is far from campaign-ready. He will need intensive training before confronting Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre in a French-language face-à-face or making an appearance on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle. Ms. Freeland appeared last month on the Sunday night talk show that mixes serious discussions with personal banter, a rendez-vous that Mr. Carney has so far avoided.

True, polls have shown a spike in Liberal support in Quebec since U.S. President Donald Trump began brandishing his threats of tariffs and annexation against his country’s northern neighbour. Even Mr. Trudeau is mildly popular again. While support for the Liberals had fallen to the low teens in Quebec in late 2024, a Léger poll conducted Friday to Sunday had the party in first place in the province, with 32-per-cent support for the Liberals with Mr. Trudeau as leader.

Under Mr. Carney, the poll says support for the Liberals would surge to 40 per cent among Quebec voters, compared to 24 per cent each for the Bloc and Conservatives. But it did not carry a margin of error, and the small sample size in Quebec is reason enough for caution. Quebec’s electorate is fluid at the best of times. Mr. Trump’s threats may have Quebeckers seeking stability under the Liberals, but the bounce may not last if the ballot question changes and Mr. Carney is unable to persuade francophone Quebeckers that he understands their specific concerns.

During Monday’s debate, former Liberal MP Frank Baylis, who represented a largely anglophone Montreal-area riding between 2015 and 2019, was by the far the most strident of the candidates in his criticism of Quebec’s secularism and language laws. Karina Gould reminded everyone that the Liberal Party is the party of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; Ms. Freeland agreed.

Mr. Carney took a different tack. “I absolutely respect la laïcité, the tradition of la laïcité here in Quebec,” he said, using the French term for secularism. “And that is possible in Canada. It’s not possible in the United States.” He did not say whether a Liberal government led by him would challenge the secularism law before the Supreme Court, as Mr. Trudeau has committed to doing.

Quebeckers do not have a history of supporting federal parties led by non-francophones from outside the province. So, Mr. Carney might face an uphill battle even if he spoke decent French. If the next election is all about Mr. Trump, it may not matter. Quebeckers, like other Canadians, may see Mr. Carney as the best leader to manage the crisis brought on by an antagonistic President.

Then again, il ne devrait pas compter là-dessus. Translation: He should not count on it.