Loving surrounding yourself with losers | The Press

I don’t know of any other country in the Western world where a fanatic like President Trump could have been elected head of state. I’m talking about the president, but I should rather talk about this systemic incompetence that squats his cabinet. A constellation of mediocre characters that Mr. Trump has carefully chosen to feed his incomparable narcissism. When you don’t feel up to your responsibility, surrounding yourself with people who never question your ideas is a proven strategy.

On March 27, 2026, Donald Trump candidly expressed his need to collaborate with “bad guys” in these terms: “I like hanging out with losers, because it makes me feel better. I hate people who are very successful and whose success stories we have to listen to… I prefer people who like to listen to my successes. » Everything has been said and there is no shortage of examples of stooges around the American president, people to sing his praises and deflect the light on his face. You have names in mind.

It is the contrast between the antics of Donald Trump presenting himself as Jesus and the arrival of Christine Fréchette, a brilliant woman, as Prime Minister of Quebec that gave me the desire to write this column.

This great gap made me realize the privilege we have of living in a society where a large majority of the population still believes in democracy, where quality politicians offer their services to ensure it is respected.

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Christine Fréchette, Ruba Ghazal, Charles Milliard, Éric Duhaime may defend very different political programs, but they share the common value of respect for institutions. These are people you don’t look at and wonder if they are qualified for the position they are seeking.

That said, I am not giving our politicians the Good God without confession here. For example, I personally have a lot of problems with all these defectors making the news. Being elected under one banner and changing sides is disrespectful and undemocratic.

The libertarian ideas and radical anti-state advocacy of the MAGA movement still face strong resistance in Quebec and Canada. We owe this wall of protection in part to the laws governing the financing of political parties. These provisions, which significantly limit government corruption by corporations and interest groups, are crucial.

In the United States, media domination is fueled by fortunes from financial entities that donate with the expectation or imposition of a return on their investment after the election. This unhealthy network predisposes the country to this form of wild capitalism where economic inequalities claim many victims. Conversely, in Canada and Quebec, the consensus around the State and its role in health, social services and education still holds. It partly serves as a barrier against extreme ideological polarization, the partisan excesses of the media ecosystem and deep identity divisions.

Yes, like everywhere else, we also have tensions around identity issues and immigration. However, despite certain verbal excesses and contested provisions, they have never led to the social balkanization that we observe in the United States, because they are much better channeled and addressed politically. Which explains why Donald Trump’s vomit on immigration could hardly appeal widely in Canada where compromise is often preferred to irreconcilable break-up positions. There is also our media, less ideologically aligned than in the United States, which reframes political discourse and helps limit its excesses.

The frontal style of the American president which mixes discrimination, racism, autocracy, insults and intimidation with a raised visor does not yet find enough echo among us. I say again, because we are possibly not immune to this ideology.

A major economic crisis is likely to lead us to this loss of confidence in the institutions which opened the doors of power to Donald Trump. In this period of economic turbulence, it would then be enough to add the deleterious effect of social networks, and there will remain one last ingredient: the emergence of a charismatic leader capable of channeling frustrations to establish himself as a “local Donald Trump”.

In addition to sharing the wealth, the best way to combat this possibility is to invest in an equal opportunity education system, a free and diverse press, and a reliable justice system. These are the pillars of a democracy that wants to remain healthy for a long time.

Moreover, many of us are asking ourselves: “How can so many Americans continue to believe all of Donald Trump’s lies and support him without reservation? » Part of the answer to this question lies in the lack of culture, under-education and the cult of emptiness which plague this country. On this subject, I like to recall this premonitory quote that some attribute to Abraham Lincoln: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance to see. »