Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon is bilingual. Her first language is Inuktitut and her second is English. She’s not fluent in French. But this is an exceptional circumstance. And when she speaks to groups of Canadians, which is pretty much every day, she tries to say a little in French, like her 2025 New Year’s message.
Simon is the symbolic head of Canada.
On the other hand, the actual head of Air Canada is its Chief Executive Officer. But the minute that fire truck drove out onto Runway 4 at LaGuardia two weeks ago, Michael Rousseau became the company’s symbolic head as well.
Air Canada’s circumstances are also exceptional. It isn’t just any multi-billion dollar public company. Until 1988, it was a federal crown corporation owned by Ottawa. After Air Canada was privatized, its language obligations were grandfathered. In other words, Air Canada must provide services to the travelling public in both official languages and respect employees’ language‑of‑work rights just like a federal department or Crown corporation.
Air Canada is uniquely Canadian, in the same way Michael Rousseau’s fall from grace is uniquely Canadian: not for corruption or incompetence, but craven indifference to an unspoken rule of running any major Canadian institution:
You. Must. Speak. French…
Or. At. Least. Try.
I say craven indifference because Rousseau’s English-only message of condolence to the families of the pilots who died in the LaGuardia crash is the second time he has been tone-deaf to what every other CEO and senior official can hear as clear as a bell.
The first time was in 2021 when he spoke to the Montreal Chamber of Commerce. Following the speech, a reporter asked Rousseau how he could have lived in Montreal for 14 years without speaking French. We pick up Rousseau’s reply here.
“Can you re-do that in English?”
“I’m too busy to learn French.”
“That’s a testament to the City of Montreal.”
You could hear francophone Canada exhale the same thought: He didn’t even try.
After 2021, he did try. Indeed, Rousseau’s taken 300 hours of French-language instruction. But 14 years in Montreal, his wife is Francophone, and all he can muster is “Bonjour” and “Merci”?
We forgive people for being tone-deaf, awkward, halting. We forgive the “Bonjour-hi” hybrids, the strangled verb tenses, the Anglophones who can’t remember their genders but who keep valiantly stumbling through conversations anyway. What we don’t forgive, especially here, is disdain. The refusal to cross even halfway.
It’s not about language so much as effort — the willingness to be uncomfortable. Mary Simon doesn’t sound comfortable speaking in French. Still, she musters through. But in a country that defines itself by compromise, “not even trying” equals arrogance. Especially when you’re running an airline literally called Air Canada, whose very identity rests on bilingual service, bilingual pilots, bilingual everything. There is no “Air Canada, but unilingual.” It’s baked into the brand.
Rousseau’s defenders argue that you don’t need to conjugate être to run an airline. Fair enough. But the CEO’s job isn’t just to manage; it’s to embody something. It’s theatre as much as leadership. If the head of Air Canada can’t muster even a few phrases en français, what message does that send to the flight attendants trying to greet passengers in both languages? Or to the ground crew in Montreal whose entire workplace runs on bilingual teamwork?
So Rousseau’s out. Whoever comes next must be perfectly bilingual.
Like many Anglophones, I freeze up when asked to speak French. But I’m also mindful of what the tour guides say when you land in a country where French or Spanish or another ‘foreign language’ is the lingua franca. They always say: “Just learn a dozen words in that language and it will take you far. People appreciate that you’re reaching out to them…”
It reminds me of something that happens often in relationships, both personal and national: people will forgive you for failing if they believe you’re making an effort. They’ll walk the road with you, even if you trip. But give them the sense you couldn’t be bothered and the door closes.
Michael Rousseau never learned the first rule of leadership: there are times when symbolism doesn’t just count, it counts more than anything.
Meanwhile…
1. The Sunshine List. Last week Queen’s Park released the names of everyone in the public sector who makes over $100,000 a year. Today, over 400,000 people are on The Sunshine List, so it lacks the titillating FOMO of its first year in 1988 when just 4,501 names made it. Still, it’s fun to find out what your doctor’s earning or your nearby cop on the beat (this year, 7,083 members of the Toronto Police Service are on the list). Maybe time to up that $100,000 to a new level of “comfortably off.” Here’s what it takes in America.
2. Odd men out and in. First, the man who knew infinity. Next, rethinking gender. Plus the mayor who leads the world in social media. (Compare to Toronto’s Mayor and potholes.) Speaking of social media, no one is safe from its finding you. No one.
3. Why did you fire the most successful conductor in America? I wrote last week on the growing scandal of how the Boston Symphony Orchestra has ‘fired’ its conductorAndris Nelsons. This week, we learned why.
4. Sorry for your loss. Why daylight savings deserves to die. Plus a new kind of Russian death squad. And why Facebook shut down its Metaverse project last week, after investing $80 billion.
5. New views. Wikipedia’s global garden, plus the top 10,000 Wikipedia articles, and anold word with a new bite. Plus a Yosemite landscape. And how to lie flat in economy. And why everyone is on speakerphones in public. And how the Club Med Theory of Hospitalityis based on removing all your decisions. It works elsewhere too.
Finally, some good old-fashioned optical illusions.
6. Wretched excess. Let’s start with private jets. Then on to ultra-fine dining. Then, thebillionaire class. Finally, skiing in Saudi Arabia.
7. The Japanese Cultural Centre…is honouring Toronto architect Bruce Kuwabara with the Sakura Award at a gala on May 9. Past recipients include David Suzuki, Raymond Moriyama, and Joy Kogawa. The first recipient, in 2009, was Brian Mulroney who apologized to and negotiated the redress settlement with the survivors of the 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were interned during the Second World War. Tickets.
The Club Med Theory. of hospitality based on removing all your decisions. And why everyone is on speakerphones in public.
8. Toronto has one of the streets you must walk in your lifetime. This week, Britain’s daily The Telegraph published a list of the 20 streets you must walk in your lifetime. Oddity #1: Toronto is on that list. Oddity # 2: The street in question.
Speaking of Toronto…today’s crossing guards are no longer volunteer elders. They’re poorly paid contract workers employed by private companies.
9. Floating landscapes. These aren’t photoshopped; they’re better. Plus tech leaders’private emails exposed in public. Plus the rise of ‘shrubification’. Plus a new Instagram account reminds us what’s great about life. We’ll feature one of them each week. Which leads to how to get love less wrong.
10. Four views on the LaGuardia crash – The first officer’s. A survivor’s. Piers Morgan’s. And Air Canada’s pilots and flight attendants.