Liberal officials say its essential their next party leader is bilingual – National [Video]

Current and former Liberal party officials, both French and English speakers, say the next Liberal leader replacing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be bilingual.

“In my opinion, it’s essential for the leader of the Liberal party to speak both official languages,” said former Housing minister Sean Fraser, who announced in December he would not run for re-election in his Nova Scotia riding.

“If a leader doesn’t have the ability to understand the reality for linguistic minorities and the populations of Quebec as well, it’s not possible to be a good prime minister or a good leader of the Liberal party,” said Fraser, who is taking French courses to improve his French.

Although Manitoba MP Kevin Lamoureux said he doesn’t believe that unilingual candidates should be systematically disqualified from the race, he stressed that he would not vote for a unilingual candidate and that he would be “very uncomfortable” if his …