Anyone who has ever met René Lévesque has been struck by his apparent shyness, his simplicity, but also by his magnetism, the intensity that emanated from this man of action and conviction. In fact, he spent a good part of his life trying to win over to his idea, sovereignty-association at the time—with a hyphen—a majority of Quebecers who were far from convinced and of whom we would say today that they are elsewhere.
As recalled by Guy Lachapelle’s book published on the occasion of the 100e birthday of the former prime minister — Rene Levesque. A man and his century —, his vision of the world comes to him from his years spent as a war journalist in Europe and Asia, as well as from this post-war period from which emerged the UN, the idea of a confederal Europe and the movements of emancipation that led to the independence of dozens of colonies. “The self-determination of peoples — and obviously that of Quebeckers — and respect for human rights will be key elements [de ses] reflections,” writes Guy Lachapelle, who has brought together a hundred chronicles, speeches and speeches written by the founder of the Parti Québécois. Because René Lévesque wrote a lot and, as a fine observer of the international scene, he commented on the evolution of a world undergoing profound transformation.
The idea of a people that decides for itself and achieves independence is not a withdrawal into itself, as we would still have us believe today, but a modern idea, fundamentally humanist, based on openness to the world. But also, for Lévesque, the interdependence of nations is not dependence.
The sovereignist leader had a “democratic obsession”, to use the words of his chief of staff, Martine Tremblay. We know the reluctance of the PQ Premier with regard to Bill 101, these “legislative crutches” which he found “humiliating” and which we could get rid of once Quebec became a normal country. A priority, Bill 2 of the first Lévesque government dealt with the financing of political parties, the end of slush funds, of course, but above all, a means of ensuring the stranglehold of citizens on the parties thanks to popular financing. And in the process, the PQ government reformed the Election Act and adopted the Popular Consultation Act. Lévesque also had in his boxes a bill on a proportional voting system which was blocked by the tenors of the party. It is an idea that is still circulating and which almost came to fruition, had it not been for the cowardice and lack of vision of CAQ members who are salivating, while complaining, about the prospect of electing a record number of deputies. backbench.
René Lévesque was not, however, the passive servant of public opinion, a trend today among proponents of electoralism who, glued to the moods of the majority, have neither great project nor great vision to offer him. His government was resolutely progressive, as evidenced by the breadth of reforms it carried out.
The PQ leader was not afraid to address opponents to present his point of view, especially to Anglophones. In 1978, just after the adoption of the Automobile Insurance Act, which deprived lawyers of the windfall from civil liability lawsuits, he showed up at the convention of the Barreau de Québec and the Canadian Bar (Quebec) for talk about the complementarity of individual rights and collective rights, noting that the lawyers had not succeeded in reconciling the respect of individual rights and the promotion of social rights, a presentation which retains its topicality.
In a letter with a personal tone addressed to “a young francophone from elsewhere” — we understand that he is an African from a colony that has become an independent country — Lévesque underlines that French, “it is our identity same”, an identity “slyly undermined, diminished as much by the arrogant power of an external majority and its “occupiers” as by the daily resignation of too many notables and politicians […] “. He again points out to his imaginary interlocutor: “What you see around you, in fact, is one of the last colonial situations in the world. »
There is no denying it: René Lévesque will have had a profound influence on the Quebec nation. His openness to the world, his humanism, this freedom, both individual and collective, that he has constantly promoted are among the universal values that Quebecers cherish and defend. But what keeps his thinking completely current is that fundamentally, the state of subordination of Quebec that he described has not really changed. As to what he would do today, one can only speculate. But, in our opinion, he cannot despair.