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Here in Quebec, we were witness this week to a truly Canadian spectacle for the first time: the sight of our political leaders hacking their way through a debate in their second language with varying degrees of success.

As with federal party leaders, who suffer through the same indignity in French every election cycle, the same rules apply. One must speak well enough to be understood, but bad enough to evoke pity.

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By this quaint measure, the clear winner of Quebec’s first televised English-language debate was Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé. The 55-year-old’s artisanal take on the language of Churchill, coupled with her frequent apologies for it, was suitably endearing.

Massé’s reluctance to get caught up in the tiresome cockfights as practised by her three male rivals perfectly reflects the millennial aversion to baby boomer-dominated politics. Not coincidentally, Québec solidaire has cultivated a young, resolutely progressive base of the type last seen in the Parti Québécois heyday.