Recently there has been a lot of upset in politics over the appointment of a new Auditor General who admits that he's not fluent in French. The complaints have ranged from individuals who think he should take French lessons to others who claim the government wasted $150,000 on a candidate who should be declared ineligible. The situation all around seems to be an attempt to upset people.

The candidate, Michael Ferguson, was serving as the Auditor General for New Brunswick before this appointment — one of the provinces in Canada with a substantial French-speaking population, yet his lack of bilingualism never seemed to be an issue. The fact is that not one of the top three candidates considered for this position was considered fluent in both official languages.

After the "shocking" revelation that Ferguson wasn't completely bilingual, it wasn't long until the future Auditor General declared he'd be taking the necessary lessons to ensure his fluidity in French. This still wasn't enough for some, though. Debate rages on about his suitability and where the system failed to allow a unilingual candidate through.

Aren't we losing sight of the fact that only 17 per cent of our population is bilingual? While I certainly support Mr. Ferguson's decision to take French lessons and agree with the necessity of it, why is there so much residual hostility? Any individual can learn a new language, despite some arguments that his age limits his ability, and if only 17 per cent of Canadians are currently bilingual, 83 per cent of Canadians are unable to represent themselves and their communities.

That doesn't sound like the most democratic way to govern. If these posts are open to all Canadians and the man chosen as best for the job doesn't speak fluent French, why demonize him instead of supporting his efforts? Simply not speaking French doesn't disqualify a person from being able to make rational, informed decisions about budgets. As part of the 83 per cent, I certainly don't have a personal issue with this appointment, as the individual in question was the Auditor General for New Brunswick and was successful enough to land the big promotion, but I can see how it's necessary to maintain credibility as being officially bilingual.

That being said, I find it troubling that an article on the Canadian government's website that I tried to use as resource material was only available in French. Furthermore, it's interesting that the University of Ottawa prides itself on being Canada's only officially bilingual university and yet offers its nutrition program in French only. A person cannot publicly voice concern on these issues without infuriating the French-speaking community, but I've always felt bilingualism was well represented in Canada. All ingredient lists and labels are in both languages and even though that's only taught me the French word for peach, I can rest assured that the 23 per cent of Canadians who speak French know that they're buying pêche juice. Bottom line: anyone can learn French, but not anyone can be the Auditor General of Canada; let the best candidate get the job.
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