Stephen Harper knows his audience. So when he's talked about the cuts to federal arts funding that his government brought in, he's gone hard on his views about the arts community — at least, he has in English.

To a question from CBC News last week, Harper famously described Canada's arts community as "a bunch of people at a rich gala." Of course there are plenty of arts supporters in English Canada who'd be duly riled about that but in Quebec it's a whole other story. Arts supporters there tend to have much more influence on public opinion than do their counterparts in English Canada.

So French language reporters jumped on it and immediately pressed Harper to repeat in French what he'd said in English. But he expressly did not.

A few days later, when answering a question in French on the recent drop in polls for Conservatives in Quebec, he began his answer in French but then switched to English to speak directly about the arts funding cuts, reminding English Canadians the arts programs he cut were "ineffective."

Just something to watch for tonight, when Harper has no English-language option.

— Paul Hunter