Stephane Dion recalled today how his troubles with English once had an audience chortling as he discussed what was supposed to be a serious topic – endangered species.
Dion told how he gave a speech as Minister of the Environment about the need to protect wildlife and species at risk, including polar bears.
“For whatever reason they were laughing when I was delivering my speech . . . it was not funny. I was speaking about species at risk,” Dion said Sunday during a visit to Churchill, MB.
Dion said he later asked his staff what the audience found so funny.
“They said to me ‘Minister, all the speech long you spoke about the polar beer. You were saying to them ‘we need to save the polar beer. It’s our identity’,” Dion recalled Saturday.
“Since then I made some progress in English I hope,” he said.
He has. As he told the Churchill crowd about his afternoon trip to see polar bears on the tundra near their northern Manitoba town, there was doubt he was talking about the animal, not a drink.
Bruce Campion-Smith
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