What a strange bird, this Catherine Dorion! In eternal courtship with his ocellated and shaggy feathers, his punk poetry, his thunderous declarations, his exhibitionism, his desire to be elsewhere but not too far from the cameras, his pecks against notables of all kinds. All this, plus his dream of something else – of real life which is elsewhere, as Rimbaud said – of free art capable of waking the dead. She will have irritated, intrigued, entertained and sometimes inspired many throughout her four years as a member of Quebec Solidaire in the National Assembly. So sloppy, so alive, so out of the ordinary!
In his book The hotheads, the pasionaria attacks journalists with all its might, constantly victimizing itself. But were they obliged to relentlessly bring her back to her iconoclastic outfits to nail her? After all, his t-shirt with the figure of the Franco-Ontarian poet Patrice Desbiens was a bracing literary cry; her Halloween costume as a chic, good-natured politician, a well-delivered grenade of self-deprecation. He danced this tango with the media.
Today, her prima donna profile serves her more than ever. Invited on all platforms to launch her plea pro home. We add a verse each in turn. The hotheads will sell like hot cakes, that’s for sure.
His settling of scores with his party is not the most edifying part of his testimony. She will have made her team drool by diverting the necessary attention to her party’s policies towards her apple. From inside, voices protest against his fire, recalling his errors of judgment. And how can we not understand Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois for feeling hurt by his words? He had often defended her despite their tense relationship and had prevented her from making huge blunders, such as participating in a video burning an effigy of Justin Trudeau. Shooting in the legs of the party that got him elected does not raise his statue.
The codes of the National Assembly were too formal for this rebellious artist. She still fought to bring a wind of liberation to the Salon bleu. And many young people felt galvanized by his desire to do politics differently.
Utopianism, naivety, self-promotional publicity stunt: as much as you want. The fact remains that his fight against blind capitalism and his invitation to bet on humanity have resonated more strongly since his political exit, while collective anxiety about wars and climate crises is reaching new heights. They seem less crazy than before his calls to change approach, to sacrifice wooden language to reach confused voters. The spectacle of a planet gasping for air in the face of multinationals drowning in profits is revolting. So the old molds are cracking on all sides.
We have better to get from Burnt heads as the eclipses on her wanderings, the lack of self-criticism and the low blows of the writer. A quest for meaning, among other things. His book denounces the rat race fueled by speed, performance, toxic rivalries; frantic pace weighing on exhausted bodies. In short, the daily lives of many people are exploding under the stress and the visions of horror coming out of their TV.
When she talks about elected officials (herself included) glued to their cell phones in the corridors of the National Assembly without communicating with each other, she lights a light in people’s minds. It is true that our hyperconnected times absurdly generate profound disconnections. It is true that screens harm transmission as well as the bonds of belonging and solidarity. She calls for a revolution of minds loudly, but will we have the choice, tomorrow, in the current state of the world, to change our lifestyles? This does not mean that they must be replaced by the anarchic-theatrical sessions recommended by Catherine Dorion, but that the status quo of institutions is indeed weakening.