Paul St-Pierre Plamondon Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
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Parti Québécois leader memes himself, takes heat for stating he’s not woke

by Lorraine Carpenter

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon waded into last week’s name-calling between François Legault and Gabriel Nadeau Dubois.

On Tuesday the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, shared a photo of himself wearing a shirt that says “Not woke, not duplessiste, independantiste.” Plamondon was poking fun at last week’s spat between Quebec Premier François Legault and Québec Solidaire leader Gabriel Nadeau Dubois wherein Dubois compared Legault to 1930s/40s/50s Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis for endorsing a party in the federal election (the Conservatives, in the case of Duplessis and Legault) and Legault responding by saying that he’d rather be compared to Duplessis than be “un woke” like Dubois. But Plamondon’s pic also seemed a little desperate for attention, an attempt to meme himself — he even posted his own response meme.

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon memes himself

Plamondon also attracted a fair bit of criticism for stating that he’s not “woke,” ie. “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice.”

“I finally agree with Plamondon for once. ‘Woke’ is an English term derived from the word ‘awake.’ Awake about truth and justice à la Martin Luther King. It’s up to PSPP to define himself this way if it wants to.”

“When we position ourselves in the ‘middle’ of a debate between Duplessism (a position of the far right ethno-nationalist, religious fundamentalist and anti-democratic) and the ‘wokes,’ who advocate moderate progressivism, it is not a happy medium.”

Other people took the opportunity to rip into the PQ’s lack of popularity in the province.

Other responses can only be filed under “WTF.”

Translation: “Dog meat plow crucifix junkyard”

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by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.