Speaking to Power: How Linguistic Minority Accents Shape Voter Perceptions of Party Leaders

In multilingual countries, does the way minority group members speak the majority language hinder their chances of attaining the highest political office? Can their accent undermine their claim to represent all citizens? Is it associated with certain stereotypes? We address these questions through a randomised survey experiment conducted in Canada, a country with two official languages, English and French. Specifically, we examine how a perceptible ‘Québécois’ accent in English influences Anglophone Canadians' evaluations of federal party leaders; 1200 participants listened to a 30‐s audio recording of a fictional leader. Although the message was identical across conditions, the leader's name and accent varied. Results indicate that accents significantly shape voter perceptions: party leaders with a ‘Québécois’ accent are evaluated less favourably on both personality traits and representational ability. Respondents also report a lower likelihood of supporting a party led by someone whose accent is identifiable as originating from Québec.