My most attentive readers know: I have lived in Paris since August 2021.
I moved there to become an editorial writer on CNEWS, a news channel, and to host a show where every week, I receive intellectuals to explore the issues that affect public debate.
Confession: I’m like a fish in water. I am Quebecois, entirely Quebecois, absolutely Quebecois, and I will one day have my Quebec passport, but like many Quebecers, a part of me comes alive when I am immersed in what was once called the motherland.
France is inhabited by the culture of debate. Certainly, there are crazy laws to limit freedom of expression, but French culture resists these laws which multiply crimes of opinion: the French, in their inner being, wants to question what is said to them. presented as self-evident.
- Listen to the news review commented by Alexandre Dubé and Mathieu Bock-Côté via QUB :
Debates
It is not exactly the same in Quebec. We have a culture of consensus. We confuse debate with chicanery. And Quebecers don’t want any arguments in their cabin.
But things may be changing a little.
And they will certainly change this morning, with the transition from QUB radio to TV.
QUB, as we know, relies on debate, on the confrontation of points of view, on fruitful quarrels between people who agree neither on the details nor on the essentials, but who know how to talk to each other, and who do not do not become enemies.
I know, this may seem strange to many people, but it is possible.
The technological revolution favors this openness to debate. The media are less and less compartmentalized; they must interact to survive and grow in a difficult environment.
From Monday to Thursday, I will host a show on QUB radio-télé.
- Listen to Mathieu Bock-Côté’s first guest with Frédéric Lacroix, independent researcher, columnist and essayist via QUB :
In the first part, I will have the privilege of looking at current events with a simple objective: to identify its major trends, those which affect it in depth. I am convinced that ordinary people are more interested in these questions than they say.
In the second part, I will receive a guest. I say in advance, there will be a lot of intellectuals. Some I agree with, others I have profound disagreements with. But you will have understood the essential thing: Quebec must make more room for its intellectuals to escape from a stifling pseudo-pragmatism.
In the third part, I will debate with Emmanuelle Latraverse, certainly our best political analyst.
Ideas
When they work well, intellectuals allow us to deepen our understanding of current events, and above all allow us to see further.
Debates, ideas, a civilized confrontation between points of view which deserve to be heard, and all this with the idea of having a more informed public debate. And this at a time when Quebec is getting back on the move.
It is in this spirit that from 8 a.m. Thursday morning, I will take the microphone.