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She chose to focus on prominent Quebec journalists — mostly francophone — because they have historically been “agenda-setters” in Quebec society and who have an established role of positioning themselves at the centre of the conversation on what is the correct use of the French language.

“A lot of the things he is being blamed for are the things francophone Quebecers are themselves doing on a regular basis,” said the professor, who teaches French linguistics, specializes in North American French and studies how language and society intersect.

On an linguistic level, the claim that Trudeau doesn’t speak French well is simply untrue, Bosworth said in an interview Wednesday.

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Moreover, Trudeau speaks French with virtually no accent, she said, and sounds like a regular Quebecer. That’s unlike his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who she says consciously chose to speak French that was more closely aligned with France.

Bosworth studied hours of the younger Trudeau speaking French in public appearances across Canada and in France. She said he doesn’t suppress his regional dialect. “In France he seems perfectly comfortable speaking the way he does at home and that should be recognized and credited but it’s not.”

Instead, the media elite in Quebec describe his French as “incomprehensible,” “limp,” “snobbish,” and “jarring to the native ear.”

“Some of the things being pointed out are OK in the mouths of just about any other Quebecer but not him,” Bosworth said.