I will tell you today about a man that the average person probably does not know. Even political enthusiasts have only vaguely heard of him.
But I have to tell you about it, because The Pressin recent days, has decided to devote a complacent and dripping report to him.
I will tell you about Antoine Dionne-Charest.
He is presented to us half-heartedly in three syrupy texts as the next leader of the PLQ.
What did he do that was so exceptional, other than being his father’s son? No one really knows.
Dad
He is also presented to us as a stimulating intellectual. May I remind you that an intellectual doesn’t just write tweets? I’m looking forward to his first book.
Reading this file, I had the impression that The Press still wanted to please its former owners. How else can we explain such editorial servility?
I have already had the opportunity to debate with Charest’s son. For the sake of honesty, I must say it: he was a poor debater, overly arrogant, repeating rather hollow slogans, without really being able to support them with a real argument. I understand it: his cause is indefensible. It is that of the unconditional supporters of federalism.
But one thing is certain, of all the people I have debated with in recent years, he was one of the weakest.
Probably he will improve. We can only wish him that if he wants to become what he believes he is. There is a lot of work to be done.
I also remember one of his statements on Twitter where he asserted that “nationalist prophets of doom have been saying for 400 years that Quebecers will disappear and yet, Quebecers have existed for four hundred years.”
How can we explain to him that Quebecers’ concerns about identity do not go back to New France, but to the English Conquest, which he judges, like others in the past, to be providential?
Charest’s son knows as little about history as he is ardently federalist, which leads us to believe that there is clearly a link between this deficiency and this passion.
Antoine Dionne-Charest says he is proud to bear the name Charest. He thus reminds us that in life, we must make a virtue of necessity.
He can nevertheless find something inspiring in his father: the political life of Jean Charest reminds us that there is no need to be exceptional to reach the highest offices.
Bad debater
I don’t blame Antoine Dionne-Charest for doing what it takes to show off. He would be crazy to do without the privileges offered by a small clique who decided to make him the providential man of the PLQ.
But I want The Press to push Charest’s son in such a caricatured way without having the beginning of an objective element to justify this promotional campaign which tarnishes the reputation of all the media.
When The Press engages in such comedy, it gives the impression of being a mere organ of propaganda. But we already knew that.