Angry in the Great White North

There has been a lot of talk about Stephane Dion's gaffe in not giving credit to Douglas Jung, an MP in John Diefenbaker's 1957 Progressive Conservative government, for being the first Canadian of Chinese descent to be elected to the House of Commons. Instead, Stephane Dion unambiguously attributed that honour to Arthur Lee, elected in 1974 to sit in Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government.

But the speech Stephane Dion gave has an amusing moment. I noticed it when I first listened to it, and other people have picked up on it too, so I thought I'd draw attention to it.

At one point, Stephane Dion struggled mightily with the French version of the name of the group he was addressing, the Chinese Canadian Liberal Association.

If you listen carefully, you can hear someone comment, "He doesn't know how to say it in French."

Of course, whoever is saying it was refering to Stephane Dion struggling with the word order. Or at least that's how it sounds. Still, it makes for a chuckle to have Stephane Dion's mastery of the French language criticized.

At the very least, it is a refreshing change of pace from commenting on his English.

Here is the clip. I've added a caption to get you ready, and for the portion when the person makes his comment, the audio is jacked up, so be prepared.

Now here's a question about the person who commented on Dion's struggle with the name of the group he was addressing. Was that person sitting at one of the tables near the camera setup, or is it the cameraman himself?

I ask because I'm surprised that the microphone would have picked up that comment so clearly from a nearby table, where a person was likely facing away from the camera and speaking to someone seated next to him.

In the future, though, Stephane Dion should try to avoid the whole problem by knowing the name of the group he is standing in front of in both official languages.