Today I'm going to tell you about a man that the average person probably doesn't know. Even politics enthusiasts have only vaguely heard of him.
But I am forced to tell you about it because La Presse has decided in recent days to devote a self-congratulatory and dripping report to the subject.
I will tell you about Antoine Dionne-Charest.
He is half-heartedly introduced to us in three syrupy texts as the next leader of the PLQ.
What did he do that was so special other than being his father's son? Nobody really knows.
father
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.
When I read this file, I got the impression that La Presse still wanted to please its former owners. How else can we explain such editorial subservience?
I have already had the opportunity to discuss things with Charest's son. To be honest, I have to say: He was a bad debater, overly arrogant and repeated rather hollow slogans without being able to back them up with a real argument. I get it: his case is untenable. 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.
He will probably improve. We can only wish that for him if he wants to become what he believes he is. There is much to do.
I also remember one of his comments on Twitter in which he claimed that “nationalist doomsayers have been saying for 400 years that Quebecers will disappear, and yet Quebecers have been around for four hundred years.”
How can we explain to him that Quebecers' concerns about identity date not to New France but to the English conquest, which he, like others in the past, believes to be providential?
Charest's son is as ignorant of history as he is an ardent Federalist, which leads us to believe that there is clearly a connection between this lack and this passion.
Antoine Dionne-Charest says he is proud to bear the name Charest. In doing so, he reminds us that in life we must make a virtue out of necessity.
Still, he can find something inspiring in his father: Jean Charest's political life reminds us that it is not necessary to be exceptional to reach the highest offices.
Bad debater
I can't blame Antoine Dionne-Charest for doing everything he could to show off. It would be crazy if he gave up the privileges of a small clique that has decided to make him the providential man of the PLQ.
But I blame La Presse for putting pressure on Charest's son in such a caricatured way, without having even a semblance of an objective element to justify this advertising campaign that is damaging the reputation of all media.
When La Presse engages in such comedy, it gives the impression of being a simple propaganda organ. But we already knew that.