Let's be brutally honest here. The news that NDP leadership candidate Thomas Mulcair would retain his dual citizenship should he ever become prime minister is generating a lot of discomfort, aggravated by the simple fact that his other citizenship is French.
Yes, that's the politically incorrect elephant in the room.
But for a lot of people, there is something in French arrogance that makes them particularly suspicious of people like Mulcair who have actively pursued that citizenship (as opposed to being French by an accident of birth).
Imagine a Prime Minister Mulcair engaged in delicate negotiations with the French President. The French President is trying to sway Mulcair to his side, away from a position that aligns Canada with the United States regarding this hypothetical crisis. So the French President leans over, and says, "Thomas, this is silly. We both know I am right on this. The Americans are cowboys who think life is like a comic book. You know this to be true. But you and I, we know how the world works, because we are French."
Am I being silly? Substitute "because we are New Zealanders" for "because we are French", and the whole thing sounds ridiculous. No Kiwi would ever say such an absurd thing. Only a Frenchman thinks the French are blessed with some sort of unique sophistication that puts them above other mere mortals.
I'm not imagining this. Recently, a French attempt to use the EU to run roughshod over the sovereign nations of Europe was vetoed by the British, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy made it clear that he thought the British weren't merely wrong, but that they lacked the intellectual capacity to understand "the subtleties" of the EU in the way the French can:
French president Nicolas Sarkozy launched an astonishing attack on Britain's attitude to Europe last night.
The furious French leader was branded the 'new de Gaulle' after claiming the British can't comprehend Europe because we are 'an island'.
'You come from an island, so maybe you don't understand the subtleties of European construction,' he snapped at BBC Newsnight's economics editor Paul Mason.
Mr Sarkozy had been asked whether it was right for the European Union to be attempting to block an EU referendum and install a coalition government in Greece.
Imagine Sarkozy stroking Mulcair's ego, appealing to him as a fellow Frenchman, commiserating on how exhausting it must be for Mulcair to have to deal with so many of the unsubtle Anglos.
None of the other dual-citizenships likely to be held by a Canadian prime minister (British-Canadian, Australian-Canadian, Jamaican-Canadian, and so on) makes me imagine a situation in which that appeal to the "natural superiority" of the Brit-Aussie-Jamaican-whatever makes any sense.
Just the French. Arrogance from their ruling elite comes as natural as breathing.
Hey, maybe there's a reason why Mulcair would hold on to that French citizenship despite the political damage it is likely to inflict on him in English Canada. I suppose if there's a chance that I might be caught with my Polanski showing, I would like to know that I could run to the extradition-proof safety of France where that sort of thing doesn't bother the ultra-sophisticated French. For Thomas Mulcair's sake, I hope his intransigence over the issue of Canadians wanting a Canadian prime minister, no ifs or buts, is rooted in something less unseemly.
Then again, I'm English, so of course I can't be expected to understand the subtleties.