Air Canada CEO To Resign After Backlash—Here’s Why Communication Skills Is Now A Leadership Requirement

Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau is reported to be stepping down and retiring following backlash after he delivered a message of condolences, primarily in English, to the casualties of the fatal LaGuardia airport crash involving an Air Canada jet.

The resignation is scheduled take place by Q3 2026. Air Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment prior to publication.

While Rousseau might have intended well, his ill-delivered message did not land the way it was planned, with his audience.

Viewers and Ottawa lawmakers were quick to point out that the message, delivered to a bilingual nation of French and English-speaking customers and their families, was about 98% in English, with only two French words being spoken verbally: “merci” and “bonjour.” (The video of the CEO’s statement contained French subtitles but merci and bonjour were the only words uttered verbally.)

For viewers and even lawmakers like Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney, the message spoke greater volumes about lack of adaptability in communication, and therefore, lack of trust in his leadership.

At first glance, this may seem like just a language issue.

But this is more of a stakeholder alignment and communications problem–one that leaders in 2026 and beyond could do well to learn from.

The backdrop of this tragedy:

• There was the audience/stakeholders (a bilingual country)

• The situation was one of heightened sensitivity, which called for empathy, representation and inclusion, and emotional intelligence.

• The failure in this stakeholder communication? A mismatch between the message and the recipients, which led to lawmakers doubting whether Rousseau was fit to continue running the airline, calling for his resignation.

This is critical because communication skills is listed as the number one skill for professionals and aspiring leaders in LinkedIn’s 2024 report.

And we’re seeing the exact same thing in skills reports and in surveys and studies of the workforce, such as those from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report.

They all point to the need for stakeholder management and collaboration skills, empathy, and communication. Where leadership communication fails, even for the most experienced leaders, is that it ignores context.

And context is defined by the people you’re speaking to.

Context is defined by the people you’re speaking to.

Rachel Wells

You may have the best intentions, but if your delivery is not aligned with context, it falls the wrong way.

The climate of 2026 and beyond demands that today’s leaders communicate across multiple cultures, time zones, regions.

They must understand how to adapt to different levels, not just speaking at the high level to C-suite peers and leaders, but thinking about how messaging is received and perceived by end users, less senior staff, those working at the front lines, and the second-order consequences of their communication and actions, including who else might be impacted by their words.

Communication moves from being a soft skill to a power skill, one that can ultimately shape and even redirect an entire career.

Think of it: we have AI-driven workplaces with managers producing AI slop, which leads to lack of trust in management, employees report, because they’re communicating using robots.

This calls for managers and leaders today to invest more in their creative communication skills, using AI to polish and refine, not as a replacement.

Earlier today, I reported that data storytelling is important. Storytelling is a critical communication skill for leaders because it moves beyond raw data, facts, and numbers to actually making change and impact.

And of course, with public scrutiny, leaders and managers aspiring to that level must think about the complexity of everything they say, from internal memos to teams meetings, Slack channels, and public-facing statements and stakeholder updates.

This is even more essential given the role of remote and hybrid work.

In short, leadership communication requires you to develop these skills:

So, where do you stand as a leader? How well do your communication skills hold up under scrutiny and in crisis?

Empathy-led and situationally-relevant communication skills are not to be an afterthought…they define whether you can lead at all.