[Reverend Blair]

Oh bullshit. Do you know how many people, including myself, have minor hearing problems very similar to Dion's? In his case it's apparently genetic, but go talk to anybody who has spent a substantial amount of time around power saws, and you'll find the same kind of condition.

[ridenrain]

Does his hearing problems affect his French?

[Wally_Sconce]

I heard Dion talking about "Mrs Ogga" the other day.....he was actually talking about Mississauga Ontario.

[EyeBrock]

It's still not going to help him beating Steve.

In the province where his language is seen as first rate and he gets the music of it, they hate him and the Lib's will be lucky to hold on to the seats they have.

[Wally_Sconce]

It is quite common for Quebec to harshly judge any politician that does not speak french well.

it is only fitting that we do the same with Dion's english

[Wally_Sconce]

lily lily:

Aging_Redneck Aging_Redneck:

I heard Dion talking about "Mrs Ogga" the other day.....he was actually talking about Mississauga Ontario.

That's how I say it too.

Lily, if you ever want to get into politics, I'll still vote for you.

[Reverend Blair]

$1:

Does his hearing problems affect his French?

Most likely, I've heard some Francophones say that his cadence is off, that he puts the emphasis on the wrong syllables sometimes, but he already spoke French before it manifested so the effect would be minimal.

It works like this...you have trouble hearing certain tones (for me it's children and some women's voices), you have trouble hearing when there's a lot of background noise (like in room full of people shuffling around and talking amongst themselves), you have trouble with certain accents (for me it's the East European ones, which doesn't go over well with the Ukrainian side of my family).

It's not serious enough that I would consider it a disability and, on the bright side, it makes it easy to tune out my brother's kids when they start whining, but I can certainly see it creating a problem for Dion in his situation. It isn't something that a grown-up would make fun of though, especially just to make some cheap political points.

[ridenrain]

If it was a legitimate issue, why didn't we hear about it before? It's not like Dion is new to politics and the Canadian media.
Hauling this out now just looks like a desperate excuse to explain his poor performance in English Canada.

Once again, image is everything in politics.
Here you have a half-Canadian, half-French politician who's English is terrible.
What do you guess that English Canadian voters are not accepting it.

[Reverend Blair]

Maybe they all worked around power tools for too long?

Really though...I can hear the women and children if I make an effort and there's not a lot of background noise. It's not all women either...I can hear my wife just fine most of the time. I can't hear her friend at all though, which is kind of funny because her friend insists on talking to me. I just smile and nod.

[Reverend Blair]

$1:

If it was a legitimate issue, why didn't we hear about it before? It's not like Dion is new to politics and the Canadian media.

He likely never thought it was a problem until he became leader. His situation changed.

I know lots of people with similar hearing problems, you likely do too, and they don't advertise it. It's something that doesn't matter much most of the time.

[Wally_Sconce]

Most Liberals have some kind of hearing problem, or reading impairement, in my opinion.

[Reverend Blair]

I dunno, AR, they answer questions much more readily than the Conservatives do. I don't generally agree with their answers so I don't vote for them, but at least they listen to the question and provide a response. I don't get that from the Conservatives.

[Apollo]

Reverend Blair Reverend Blair:

Oh bullshit. Do you know how many people, including myself, have minor hearing problems very similar to Dion's? In his case it's apparently genetic, but go talk to anybody who has spent a substantial amount of time around power saws, and you'll find the same kind of condition.

But you're not running for the top job in the country. If he can't hear or speak English than to me that is a serious issue for a PM.

This just adds to the very long list why Dion is not fit to be PM.

His plane can't even get off the ground for crying out loud. Just like the LPC.

[Reverend Blair]

Do you talk to the PM a lot now, Apollo?

[Apollo]

I tried but I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Kinda like every other Canadian.