the financial support our publishing program receives from The Canada Council for the Arts, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles.
Chronology: Michèle Vanasse
Index: Darcy Dunton
Layout: Édiscript enr.
Cover design: Zirval Design
Cover illustration: Francine Auger
Photo research: Anne-Marie Sicotte and Marcel Brouillard
Printed and bound in Canada
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E-mail: [email protected]
In memory of my father, my dear mother, my nephew Alexis,
and, of course, to Victor-Lévy Beaulieu.
“We were a people hungry for
legitimacy. We accepted power
as long as it meant absolute Power,
regardless of outcome.
Our drive for power was constant.”
Paul Chamberland, De la damnation à la liberté
“It’s difficult to define how we must keep the faith.
History only provides us with
certain signs, certain arguments.
But an argument is not truth per se,
only a way of looking at things.
History has no purpose other than to defend a cause.
The important thing is to know what cause
we are defending.”
Pierre Perrault, Un pays sans bon sens
Contents
4 The Art of Politics
5 A Foretaste of Power
6 Defeated… Now What?
7 I’ve Lost My Star
8 Power and Nothing But Power
9 Down With Unanimity
10 The End of an Era
Chronology of Maurice Duplessis (1890–1959)
Sources Consulted
Index
The name Maurice Duplessis will always spark debate. To some, he is Quebec’s greatest premier. To others, he will always be a tyrant, a fascist.
This biographical narrative does not set out either to judge or to exonerate him. Others before me have taken sides. Others after me will take sides. But not everything has been said about Duplessis.
In order to write this book, I needed to research his life. I followed his traces – the traces of a man who figured so prominently in Quebec’s political history. My research revealed the dark recesses of his personality before the man gradually evolved into the politician he became.
Since I had no wish to write either an apologia or a pamphlet, I tried to observe strict impartiality. My sole objective was to revive the story of the politician who was the longest-governing premier in Quebec’s history.
Here is the book, which I give you to read – in all simplicity.
Who was Maurice Duplessis? The answer can be summed up in the words of French author/philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “A man is made up of all men, is equal to all of them just as they are equal to him.”
– Marguerite Paulin
When asked what name he would choose for his child, Nérée Duplessis answered:
“Maurice, if it’s a boy. Do you know why? To honour the people in the riding of Saint-Maurice, because that’s where I was first elected to the Quebec legislature in 1886 – and I hope to represent them for as long as I can.”
On April 20, 1890, two months before his re-election to the Legislative Assembly, 1 Conservative politician Nérée Duplessis hands out cigars to his friends. His wife, Berthe Genest, has just given birth to a strapping baby boy. The family’s first son cries in his crib. He is hungry, and he is thirsty. Bursting with pride, a jubilant Nérée mingles with his guests. The family lineage is assured.
Berthe Genest, mother of Maurice Duplessis
Nérée Duplessis, father of Maurice Duplessis around 1895.
Maurice Duplessis,
