When I suggest to Lucien Bouchard, on the phone, that he is somewhat the heir of René Lévesque, he stiffens.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“No, I do not accept this title. That would be pretentious,” he told me.
After an hour of interview, he may realize that his portrait of the founder of the modern Quebec sovereigntist movement is so laudatory that any form of appropriation would be inappropriate.
But even if he does not admit it, Lucien Bouchard is undoubtedly the politician who most resembled Lévesque. By his way of touching the hearts of Quebecers, even if it was in a very different oratorical style. By the course, also, marked by successive political ruptures, and by the search for a kind of halfway between sovereignty and confederalism. Radical from a federalist point of view, moderate from a sovereignist point of view.
He followed, like many, the sometimes sinuous, but always deep furrow, traced by the one who was born 100 years ago today.
Bouchard is from the generation that discovered the world through the voice of René Lévesque. “I remember his reporting during the Korean War. Television arrived in Jonquière in 1955. We were far from everything. Our link with the world was first and foremost Radio-Canada. And first René Lévesque, who traveled the world and explained it to us. The show focus, it was the treat of the week. He was an extraordinary teacher. It was part of my public education. »
Then, to everyone’s surprise, Lévesque joined Jean Lesage’s Liberals in 1960. “He was the leaven in the dough. The nationalization of electricity was a fight against English-Canadian capitalism. It had to be financed in New York. Already, he registered his political commitment under the sign of the promotion of the interests of Quebec. He was our hero! »
He remembers seeing him arrive—very late, of course—in front of a group of students in 1962, during a symposium on the future of federalism. Hair dishevelled, tired, gray complexion… After a cigarette and a coffee, Lévesque came back to life and began to improvise a luminous talk in which he deviated from the party line and made a radical critique of the Canadian regime.
He wasn’t afraid to tell strikers, “Hold on, guys,” even if they were in opposition to his government. That’s why people loved him: his sincerity. His fight against the corruption of political mores, too.
Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec
Lévesque’s commitment turned “into a tragedy”, says Bouchard, when he decided to break with the Liberal Party, which refused to follow him towards a more assertive nationalism in 1967. While Lévesque founded the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association, which would become the Parti Québécois, Bouchard campaigned to make speeches in favor of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Bouchard in turn broke with Trudeau’s federalism, after the October 1970 crisis and the application of the War Measures Act. He takes his Parti Québécois membership card.
His first meeting with Lévesque, in 1973, did not go very well. We are in the middle of an election campaign and Bouchard is designated as the driver of the leader of the PQ.
“I was very embarrassed, paralyzed. In the evening, at a supper, I was like a carp. Robert Bourassa had just made a very aggressive speech, saying that if the PQ is elected, it would have to grovel before the financiers of Wall Street. I made a very aggressive exit in front of Lévesque. He stopped me right away: ‟Me Bouchard, please, no, I know him, Robert Bourassa, he is very good, very nationalist, but not as much as the rest of us… That’s not how we talk about our political adversaries.
“I felt that I had lost face. He taught me a lesson…”
Obviously, Lévesque did not hold it against him. Three years later, he tries unsuccessfully to convince him to be a candidate. Then, as a sign of great confidence, he entrusted him with the mandate to negotiate with the public service on behalf of the government, in 1978 — against the advice of Jacques Parizeau. And again in 1981, when the Lévesque government finally decreed a general reduction in salaries of 20%.
“I have never been intimate. But I saw how he functioned as head of government. He was not very interventionist. His ministers had a lot of latitude. He judged them by results. »
He was the opposite of Bourassa, on a personal level. Bourassa was very warm in private, but flat in public. Lévesque, charismatic in public, seemed distant, reserved in private, even intimidating.
Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec
Between these two negotiations, there was the failed referendum of 1980, then the constitutional negotiations of 1981, where Quebec was isolated and refused to sign the new constitutional text.
When Lévesque decided to take “the great risk” of renewed federalism, Bouchard had a ringside seat. He is not only a close friend of Mulroney, but also the author of the famous speech of Sept-Îles, promising the signature of Quebec at the bottom of the Constitution “in honor and enthusiasm”.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec
Mulroney appoints Bouchard ambassador to Paris. He must then meet with every prime minister in Canada.
“It went very well. Until I arrived in Quebec. I was received like a dog in a bowling game. Bernard Landry had refused to see me. They delegated a civil servant to me… When Lévesque found out about that, he called me and invited me to Lac à l’Épaule. I got there, he was coming out of the lake. He was very warm. He said to me: ‟you have a mandate, the Francophonie”. »
Until then, France refused the creation of the organization if Quebec was not a represented government, even if it was not a sovereign state – which Ottawa refused.
When the first summit took place in Quebec City in 1987, Lévesque had become a journalist again and was covering the event for TVA. He died that year.
The two saw each other one last time around this time. Lévesque was released from all political office.
“With the result of 1980, I told him: it does not promise much. He said to me: ‟No, but everything is possible, Mrs.e Bouchard (he always called me Maître Bouchard). Just because we failed doesn’t mean it’s over.” »
He never said that Quebeckers had lacked courage. He knew that they were ben maganés by History. He wanted a mandate to negotiate. That was the strategy.
Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec
“We needed a report from the people, to be able to say to Ottawa: ‟I am not only an individual, I have a mandate to renegotiate the terms of the confederation agreement, in a radical way.” It is amazing what could have been accomplished. That was the plan, in 1995 too. We got closer. But we didn’t surrender.
“What’s left of him?” The essential. This character that we followed with affection, admiration. Which is closer to the hearts of Quebecers than to their memory. He is the idea Quebeckers have of a prime minister. He had a fusional, personal relationship with Quebecers. Even for the federalists, it is true.
“He proposed a very demanding project: that we are totally responsible for our successes and our mistakes. His social struggles, for integrity, social justice, economic development, youth, those have succeeded. His government is one of the best in the history of Quebec, he made it progress. But his main fight was not successful.
“For me, he is a champion, but a champion who has not triumphed. »