Actually, that's not true!
I have deep respect for Dominic Lawson, the former editor of London's indispensible Spectator magazine. But he has made what I believe to be a total exaggeration in his otherwise fascinating Daily Telegraph piece of Saturday about Conrad Black.
Discussing Lord Black's support for Michael Portillo over Iain Duncan Smith for leader of the British Conservatives in 2001, Lawson writes:
Indeed I recall Conrad harrumphing about [supporting Duncan Smith] to me at the time, saying of IDS, "Mais, il n'est pas un chef." (Like many Canadians Conrad had the disconcerting habit of breaking into French without the slightest excuse.)
It is a pretty far stretch to suggest that "many Canadians" break into French in the midst of a discussion. Indeed, I cannot think of a single person at the moment I know who does, except for maybe a few of my Quebec-born friends who spoke French as their first language.
I quite like the last paragraph of this piece:
Last week I called Conrad, to thank him for delivering the titles into safe hands, and to say what a pleasure it had been working for him. Conrad clearly thought the conversation was beginning to sound altogether too obituarial. "Look, don't rule out that you might work for me again." In other words: you haven't heard the last of Conrad Moffat Black.
UPDATE (Jan 28, 10:53 PM): I take back my line that "I cannot think of a single person" who breaks into French in the middle of a discussion. One person who does is my boss at the National Post, Jonathan Kay, who hails from Montreal and likes using fancy terms like bien pensant.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:39 AM
