The Trumpization of Quebec

In Quebec, a prime minister never would tweet insults to his ministers, deputies, heads of state and journalists.

Never would a prime minister refuse to condemn white supremacists or encourage conspiracy theories.

If we stick to that, of course we are not living a trumpization of our universe.

But if we analyze how the public debate has been evolving for some time, where nuance and balance are replaced by a race for purity, violence and a vision of the world in two colors, then yes, Quebec is trumpise.

Because Trump is first of all this, a vision of the world divided in two: him and the others.

Patriot, when one supports him, traitor when one refuses unconditional prostration to his lies.

How not to feel that a similar dynamic is quietly settling in Quebec?

Take everything that drives us in 2020: the statue of John A. Macdonald, online denunciations of sexual assault, commemorations of the October Crisis, anti-masks, systemic racism …

All these questions, however delicate they may be, follow the same American logic, where two camps separate, revict each other and communicate only to excommunicate each other.

Grey

Could we, for example, be in agreement with the debunking of a statue, while being worried about a radical fringe of activists who decide what should be built or not?

Could we believe that the mask should never have become a symbol of political struggle, but rather a moral and normal consensus?

Could we think that systemic racism exists in Quebec, while thinking that the integration of black communities in Quebec is not a failure, and that blaming Quebec institutions exclusively for the setbacks of indigenous peoples is fundamentally unfair?

Quebec is certainly a consensual society.

However, these recent divisions are those of a society which is fractured, divided into battalion, and gradually decivilized.

A company that trumpise, sort of.