The real influencers | These people who inspire us… for the better!

There are the so-called “influencers”, who sell their name and image to the highest bidders on social media, like modern sandwich men.

And there are the real influencers. Those who have a positive effect on society, who inspire, who encourage us to do better, who use their role and their reputation to pull us collectively upwards.

These are the people we salute today by publishing the brand new list of true influencers, the decision-makers, thinkers and innovators who are driving Quebec forward, a way of reconnecting with the great annual traditions of The Press of which we are nostalgic.

Remember our “Personalities of the Week” meeting, which culminated in another era with a gala organized jointly with Radio-Canada. There was something inspiring about seeing all those larger-than-life people portrayed weekly in the paper journal.

Well, it is to reconnect with this very positive concept that we are launching this brand new annual list, which also aims to salute people, known and less known, who are creating a better world thanks to their achievements, their ideas, their commitment.

Why bet on “influence”? To give a nod to this essential concept, which has become hackneyed through being used indiscriminately for 10 years (a nod to the “Sunwing flight influencers”).

However, behind these personalities of whom we talk a lot, but whose achievements we sometimes seek, hide real influencers, unifying, creative or altruistic people who are building a better world.

They are found in our surroundings, in the community movement, in the militant world, in the business world, in the laboratories, the classrooms or the corridors of power. And on the web too!

To find these rare pearls who exert a positive and lasting influence around them, we have thus launched an appeal to all, to you, dear readers, to know those who inspire you by their gestures, by their words, by their behavior. and by their decisions. A call to all carried out last September which collected no less than 400 various proposals.

We set up a jury made up of seven people, including six members of the editorial staff of The Press. With very precise evaluation criteria to make a choice: the positive spinoffs, the sustainability of the action as well as the scope and influence. The quality of the course, the originality of the actions and their innovative nature were also taken into account.

Let yourself be influenced by these 15 real influencers whose actions deserve to be highlighted, and that The Press salute low in the name of all his readers.