Speaking of which, how is the language issue handled in other democracies with significant language minorities? Are Swiss or Belgian leaders expected to all speak German/French/Italian or Flemish/French? How about South Africa or India? I imagine it'd be very difficult to find someone who speaks all of their umpteen languages.
In Belgium it's considered less important for politicians to be bilingual, for some reason, and the most important facilitator of this situation is of course the electoral system, under which parties solely operate in one community (with the exception of Brussel-Hoofdstad, the capital region). Politicians only have to win votes in their own community. A Canadian politician has to be bilingual to win votes in both English-speaking and French-speaking Canada to be electorally successful, but a Belgian politician simply needs be successful in their own community. Of course, there are also many historical differences between the Belgian and Canadian situations which have led to the current situation in both countries.
