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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused Tuesday to respond in English to several questions put to him in English in Sherbrooke, Que., telling the town hall meeting that because he was in Quebec he would speak French.

Ironically, one of the English questions put to Trudeau was about the availability of English-language mental health services.

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The Sherbrooke event was Trudeau’s seventh town hall question-and-answer session since last Thursday. But it was the first one he’s held in the province of Quebec.

He held another town hall Tuesday morning in the officially bilingual province of New Brunswick but no one at that Fredericton town hall put any questions to him in French.

He did get a French-language question at a town hall last week in Peterborough, Ont. and, there, chose to respond in English.

Speaking to reporters in Sherbrooke on Wednesday morning he was asked about both decisions — to stick to French in Quebec and to stick to English only in Ontario. One French language reporter wanted to know if francophones outside Quebec might expect their prime minister to only respond to them in English.

Trudeau, replying in French, said that “in hindsight” he perhaps should have answered the French question in Peterborough and some of the English questions in Quebec in both official languages.

“So, yes, I maybe could have answered partly in English and partly in French and, on reflection, it would have been a good thing to do,” Trudeau said. “From now on, I will make sure to have more bilingualism, regardless of where I am in the country.”

The tradition on Parliament Hill or in press conferences is that bilingual politicians, like Trudeau, will answer a question in the language used by the MP or a journalist who asked the question.