Mark Sutcliffe, Bob Chiarelli and Catherine McKenney have all touted shows of support from francophone members of the community during this campaign.
More than one-third of Ottawa’s population speaks both English and French, a fact that doesn’t appear lost on any of the three candidates leading the race for mayor: one of whom is bilingual and allof whom say they’re working to sharpen their abilities in the French language.
On Friday, Mark Sutcliffe rolled out his francophone platform, with promises that included upping the amount of recreational programming offered in French, making sure Ottawans using front-line city services could get access to that service through someone speaking that language and engagement with local francophone institutions.
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“I believe it is critically important that Ottawa’s mayor not only be able to speak French, but understand its importance and actively work to support the interests of francophones at city hall,” Sutcliffe stated in the accompanying media release.
Speaking to this newspaper, Sutcliffe characterized his grasp of the language as “not perfect, but I consider myself bilingual.”
Sutcliffe’s parents were bilingual as well, he spoke a lot of French growing up and, while he wasn’t in immersion, he studied the language throughout his schooling, including in university.
Sutcliffe said he lost some of his French over his career as a journalist and business owner, but had worked on it a little over the years through classes and seeking out French content, and a lot since entering the campaign for mayor. Now he works with a tutor for a few hours a week, and his comfort in the language is enough that he can do interviews in French, for example. He said he would continue with that study, if elected.
“Ottawa is a bilingual place, Canada’s a bilingual country, it’s the capital of Canada. There’s a significant population of French-speaking people in Ottawa. And I think it’s important that the mayor be able to speak to residents in French and English,” Sutcliffe said. He noted that, for high-level staff hiring, city policy had bilingualism as an expectation unless council approved an exemption.
If elected, Sutcliffe would pick up the bilingual mayor torch from Quebec-born Jim Watson, who operates in both official languages. In the past, it hasn’t proven a necessary qualification for getting elected as mayor: Watson’s predecessor, Larry O’Brien, did not speak French. But it’s certainly a skill that Sutcliffe has been able to wield on the campaign trail, including a mayoral debate last month, when Sutcliffe was the only one of five candidates present to respond to French questions in the same language rather than switching to English.
“That will be rectified in five or six months,” was Bob Chiarelli’s response on Friday. Over nine years as regional chair and more as Ottawa mayor, Chiarelli said he got to a point where he could “carry on a reasonable conversation in French” and give media interviews in the language.
“Then I left politics in Ottawa in 2006, and I didn’t practise and I didn’t use it fully over that period of time,” Chiarelli said, referring to that era of his career when he represented Ottawa West-Nepean at Queen’s Park. While he said he read speeches in French extremely well and could do some socializing, his French wasn’t yet back to where it used to be.
“It wouldn’t be truthful to say I’m bilingual. I could say that I’m close to being bilingual,” Chiarelli said, noting he would see it “as an obligation” to work towards a conversational grasp of the language through further practice if elected.
For now, he’s said he’s brushing up his skills during the campaign by speaking in French to relatives and reading in the language. “And I try it out on people to see how I’m doing.”
Earlier this week, Chiarelli released a statement about his position that “it is time a new City Council ask the provincial and federal governments to finally declare Canada’s capital city officially bilingual.”
The Ontario government passed legislation in 2017, when Chiarelli was a cabinet minister, to make the City of Ottawa’s bilingual status official, and Chiarelli himself has said French-language rights are well-protected by existing laws.
“This is not creating any new rights other than finally recognizing the reality we already know: that Canada’s capital city is officially bilingual,” he said in his Thursday media release.
Catherine McKenney’s campaign said their schedule could not accommodate an interview Friday, but McKenney said via emailed statement that they speak “beginner French” and had been taking classes to strengthen their abilities. “I am eager to continue learning French, and right now I use French with my campaign team.”
McKenney has committed to auditing municipal services in French “to see where the biggest improvements can be made, while working closely with francophone community organizations,” and said Friday this exercise would inform next steps for improving French-language accessibility.
In rolling out this platform commitment, released last month on Franco-Ontarian Day, McKenney included quotes of support from two locals of that background: a student named Francesco MacAllister-Caruso and Simone Thibault, former executive director of the Centretown Community Health Centre.
Chiarelli and Sutcliffe have also shown off their support from area francophones, with Chiarelli pointing to policy endorsements from “two pillars of the francophone community:” Ronald Bisson, one of the founders of La maison de la francophonie d’Ottawa and former French public school board chair Linda Savard.
Sutcliffe’s release said he was backed by Orléans MP Marie-France Lalonde, former Ottawa–Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur, outgoing Alta Vista ward city councillor Jean Cloutier and lawyer Ronald Caza.