MONTREAL—If Ruth Ellen Brosseau is any indication, you can be on vacation in the middle of a campaign, barely speak French, and yet still be a candidate for the NDP in Quebec.

Riding an astonishing ascent in the polls, especially in Quebec, the New Democrats now face increasing scrutiny of their crop of candidates, which Leader Jack Layton insists is the strongest ever fielded by the party.

Yet in Quebec, nearly a dozen of the candidates are students — many of them members of their institutions’ NDP clubs.

Many others are not well known in their communities. While that may not reflect on their qualifications — some are local leaders in their own right — in certain cases questions are being raised.

Brosseau is one of them. The young candidate made headlines earlier this week when the NDP confirmed she has spent part of the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas.

Another Quebec candidate has also reportedly embarked on a trip to France. And a candidate in Ontario went to the Caribbean with his family earlier this month.

Brosseau is reportedly an employee of a pub on the Carleton University campus in Ottawa. The Globe and Mail reported that Brosseau’s boss didn’t even know she was a candidate.

Now comes the realization that Brosseau cannot speak French — or barely can.

The director of a local radio station, 103.1 FM in central Quebec, said Brosseau seemed surprised when a journalist from the station contacted her early in the campaign to schedule a French on-air interview.

“He noticed right away that her French obviously could’ve been better,” Jonathan Gariepy said. “He even asked her if she spoke French and she replied, with a very pronounced accent, that she spoke French, but only ‘a little bit.’”

She eventually agreed to do the interview. “After a few seconds of hesitation, she answered: ‘Oh oui, yes, yes, je comprends (I understand),’” Gariepy said.

However, the station has not been able to reach her since late March. It decided not to broadcast what it already had.

This could be problematic given that the mostly rural riding she would represent, Berthier-Maskinongé, which includes part of the city of Trois-Rivières, is 98 per cent French-speaking, according to Statistics Canada.

It’s a cause to wonder, for example, how she would communicate with voters who would seek out her help.

“It’s deplorable to not speak the language and not know the riding,” incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate Guy André told Le Nouvelliste.

Ottawa is about 400 kilometres from the riding.

In a strange turn of events, party press secretary Marc-André Viau told the Star that Brosseau, who has returned from her vacation, told him she wasn’t even contacted by the radio station.

Viau said Brosseau’s mother tongue is not French but that she took French immersion in school.

“If she is elected she will continue to perfect her French,” Viau said.

The candidate herself was not available for an interview.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff raised skepticism about the NDP’s candidates. “People don’t get elected by polls, they get elected by having a candidate who’s there and wins the support of voters,” he said after a rally in Quebec City.

“You can’t do that from Las Vegas.”

In Yellowknife Thursday, Layton said only that some people are unable to change their family plans.

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“I’m extremely proud of our team. This is a hard-working group of people from all backgrounds. Some of them had family plans that couldn’t be changed and I think a lot of Canadians are going to understand that can happen,” he said.

The Star contacted the party for a response to Brosseau’s lack of French, but did not receive a response.

With files from The Canadian Press, Les Whittington and Joanna Smith

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