“Freaked out” NDP candidate keeping mum about her language ability

<p>MONTREAL – It started with an untimely Vegas vacation.</p> <p>Now, an NDP candidate who went to Sin City during the election campaign is also under fire over allegations she struggles in the language of her riding.</p> <p>The director of a Quebec radio station says Ruth Ellen Brosseau can barely get by in French, even though she’s running in Berthier-Maskinonge, a rural riding where virtually everyone is a francophone.</p> <p>The charge is raising fresh questions about whether the suddenly soaring New Democrats are ready for the big leagues.</p> <p>Brosseau, a previously unknown candidate, made headlines earlier this week after reports said she spent part of the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas.</p> <p>The director of 103.1 FM in central Quebec said Thursday that Brosseau admitted to only being able to speak “a little bit” of French.</p> <p>But a spokesman for the NDP insisted Thursday that Brosseau hasn’t spoken to any media outlets during the campaign, including the radio station.</p> <p>Jesse Brady said French isn’t Brosseau’s mother tongue, but her deficiencies in the language have been exaggerated.</p> <p>He said Brosseau just got back from Las Vegas and was not available for an interview because she was “a little freaked out” about all the media coverage.</p> <p>The station’s director, Jonathan Gariepy, recalled that Brosseau seemed surprised when a journalist contacted her to schedule a French on-air interview.</p> <p>”He noticed right away that her French obviously could have been better,” Gariepy said in an interview from the station in St-Leon-le-Grand, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal.</p> <p>”He even asked her if she spoke French and she replied, with a very pronounced accent, that she spoke French, but only ‘a little bit’.”</p> <p>Gariepy said Brosseau eventually agreed to do the interview.</p> <p>”After a few seconds of hesitation, she answered: ‘Oh oui, yes, yes, je comprends (I understand)’,” he said.</p> <p>”Ms. Brosseau told us that she would get back to us.”</p> <p>But despite several attempts, the station has not been able to reach her since late March. Meanwhile, he said the local Bloc, Liberal, Conservative and Rhinoceros hopefuls have done on-air interviews.</p> <p>French is critical for candidates in the riding. It’s the mother tongue of 98 per cent of the population, according to the 2006 census.</p> <p>The NDP has come under attack for fielding what seem to be phantom candidates in Quebec and Ontario.</p> <p>A recent media report said Brosseau is employed at a university pub in Ottawa, about 300 kilometres from her central Quebec riding.</p> <p>Jim Koppens, the Ontario NDP candidate for Ajax-Pickering, left on a trip to the Caribbean with his family earlier this month.</p> <p>NDP Leader Jack Layton was questioned Thursday about the claims that Brosseau struggles in French.</p> <p>”I understand that’s not true,” he said during a campaign stop in Yellowknife.</p> <p>Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said it is “inconceivable'” for a federal party to run Quebec candidates who haven’t mastered the two official languages.</p> <p>”If you’re a Quebec candidate, you have to speak the two languages,” Ignatieff said in Quebec City.</p> <p>He also teed off on the NDP for fielding candidates who are absent for parts of the campaign and avoiding interviews.</p> <p>”It’s just not serious,” Ignatieff said.</p> <p>”This a federal election. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to show up.”</p> <p>Bloc Quebecois incumbent Guy Andre, first elected in the riding in 2004, said MPs must speak the language of the people they represent.</p> <p>”It’s a francophone region, completely francophone,'” Andre said in an interview.</p> <p>He said Brosseau hasn’t shown up at any local political debates and he hasn’t seen her on the hustings.</p> <p>”Is there an NDP candidate in my riding? I haven’t seen one.”</p>