Once a month, The duty challenges history buffs to decipher a topical theme based on a comparison with a historical event or figure.
Prime Minister of Quebec from 1897 until his death in 1900, Félix-Gabriel Marchand is rather erased from our collective memory. Perhaps because he was already considered by many, during his lifetime, as a politician from another time; a scholar, recognized for his uprightness, in the midst of politicians who were increasingly businessmen. This portrait is undoubtedly to qualify. Be that as it may, Marchand almost engendered a first “Quiet Revolution”, as political scientist Gérard Bergeron put it at the end of the 19th century.e century.
1er October 1900, a crowd then estimated at more than 5,000 people attended the funeral of Premier Marchand, who had died a few days earlier. At the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, the Archbishop of Montreal, Paul Bruchési, is in charge of delivering the funeral oration for the deceased.
By appealing to his “candor as a bishop”, the priest punctuates his homage with a few discordant notes. Everyone understands that M.gr Bruchési once again expressed his dissidence in the face of the Prime Minister’s plans for the modernization of education in Quebec, which the prelate valiantly succeeded in defeating. Imagine: a Ministry of Public Instruction dependent on politics! During the oration, anger rose in Marchand’s son-in-law, Senator Raoul Dandurand, who came close, at least according to the historian Robert Rumilly, to causing a scandal in the middle of the church.
One thing is certain, decades later, Dandurand would write in his memoirs: “To use His Majesty’s own terms, I owe it to my frankness as a citizen to say that, Marchand’s bill in no way affecting the rights and prerogatives of the Church, it would have been becoming for His Majesty not to encroach on a domain which was not his. »
Result of the victory of Mgr Bruchési on Prime Minister Marchand: it will be another 64 years before the famous Ministry of Education is created. It will also be necessary to wait until 1968 for another of his most innovative proposals, the abolition of the Legislative Council (the Quebec Senate), to materialize. Despite these relatively daring proposals for the time, Marchand did not mark the imagination like Honoré Mercier, Louis-Alexandre Taschereau or Maurice Duplessis. For what ? A look back at his political life, to better understand this memory lapse.
collective amnesia
Born in Saint-Jean in 1832, first educated in English (his mother was of Scottish origin), Félix-Gabriel Marchand became a notary in 1855. It was one of the traditional professions of the French-Canadian bourgeoise. An exemplary citizen, he held just about every possible public office, from school counselor to prime minister, even including lieutenant-colonel in the militia.
As soon as he arrived at the Legislative Assembly as member for Saint-Jean in 1867, he denounced certain situations. Like many of his colleagues, Conservatives and Liberals alike, he worried very early on about the effects of emigration on the French-Canadian nation.
In 1868, he criticized the Conservative government for not encouraging manufacturing and agricultural industries to counter the exodus. He deplores the fact that the sons of farmers, “the nerve” of the population, are leaving Quebec for the United States. For him, colonization was the remedy against this “political calamity”, as he said in the chamber in January 1868. Unfortunately, the exploitation of natural resources quickly took precedence over the development of colonization, which did not fulfill its promises. .
In 1878-1879, in Joly’s short-lived Liberal cabinet, Marchand held the positions of secretary, registrar and commissioner of lands. Far from the image of the lost poet with his lyre, this faithful lieutenant manages public finances like a banker. He also attacks the abolition of the Legislative Council. For what ? The members of this institution, appointed for life, have the power to block the measures of the elected Assembly.
For the Minister, the measure is necessary to save money at a time when public finances are precarious. Moreover, it simplifies the workings of the State. The minister is, in this debate, “a model of parliamentary urbanity”, at least if we are to believe the newspaper The Event of July 17, 1878. The measure was adopted, but naturally blocked in the Council. Tenacious, Marchand returned to the charge in 1900 with the same result. It was not until 68 years later that the Legislative Council was abolished.
With the return of Honoré Mercier’s (National) Liberals to power in 1887, Marchand was appointed Speaker (President) of the Assembly. The decision was wise: a deputy for 20 years, Marchand was recognized by all for his culture and his honest character. In this function, his training as a notary serves him well. Wanting to avoid unnecessary expenses, he still manages finances carefully. Faced with the old practices of parties and deputies of placing relatives or supporters in Parliament when there were too many civil servants, he resisted.
The fall of the government of Honoré Mercier is brutal. From 1892 to 1897 Marchand was back in opposition. He occupies the difficult position of leader of the opposition and leader of a prostrate party. The man had been in parliament for 30 years when the tide turned and the Liberals, in the wake of Wilfrid Laurier’s victory in Ottawa, were re-elected in Quebec. Marchand becomes prime minister.
We have seen it: as a minister, he managed the finances of the State in a very prudent, even conservative way. But this is not, however, what we retain above all, then and since then, from Marchand. Rather, we recall his status as a scholar.
Indeed, Marchand is a writer who notably composes slightly spicy comedies. His friend Alfred de Celles, who prefaced his work Poetic and literary mixtures, published at the end of his life, in 1899, is happy: “It gives me particular pleasure to note your success, because you, a politician, you are part of our little literary fraternity, not very popular in the world where the We get rich and also, here and there, in the one where we govern. If we know how to appreciate the services rendered by the pen, we only show a slight esteem for those who hold it. They still have their importance. »
Why does De Celles oppose these two worlds, political and literary? Because, already, in politics, we are no longer impoverished. Since the construction of the railways in the 1860s, politicians have acquired extraordinary means of enrichment. As the Marxist historian Stanley Ryerson writes: “The method employed […] was to use government credits, loans, stock purchases and grants, based on the power of taxation, to direct, now and in the future, the savings of the population towards private enterprise projects. More often than not, the names of high dignitaries were mixed up with those of the promoters of the railways. »
Soon, it will be the exploitation of the paper and hydraulic resources of Quebec. With the same portrait of ministers involved, of members of the boards of directors of the companies that exploit the resources.
Political anomaly
And Marchand, in all this? We say it from another time. Even his sideburns—his favorites—are out of fashion. He died relatively poor. His successor at the head of Quebec, Simon-Napoléon Parent, died a lot less poor. As Rumilly wrote: “Mayor of Quebec, administrator of the SunChairman of Compagnie du Pont [de Québec], director of the Quebec Railway, Light and Company, counsel for the Molson Bank, Parent was neither a writer nor an orator, but a shrewd and above all happy businessman. »
Let’s not be perky either: there are a few clues that lead us to believe that Félix-Gabriel Marchand would undoubtedly have followed the path of exploiting Quebec resources, like his successor Parent. But, unlike this one and all those who will succeed him, Marchand is also a scholar. A kind of anomaly or anachronism in the heart of a busy political class.
Yet this is what gives him this status at the hinge between two worlds: he is the last man in a series of men of letters doubled as statesmen, very important during a good part of the 19th century.e century ; he anticipates a so-called quiet revolution which will only happen 60 years after his death.
What he proposes, however, is not revolutionary: standardized textbooks throughout Quebec, a new Ministry of Public Instruction, competent teachers among clerics and lay people. These are measured measures, not seeking to interfere with the religious authorities, but which will nevertheless be undermined by the latter.
Marchand, a progressive and modern man, had great ambitions. It announces the lineage of governments like those of Adélard Godbout and Jean Lesage. If his Education Act had been passed at the time, some statistics on education in Quebec would probably not have been the same.
Notably: shortly before 1960, 60% of Francophones had only a seventh grade; only 13% made it to grade 11; 3% of 20-24 year olds attended university. Faced with this rather heartbreaking portrait, it is better not to remember too much of Marchand and, above all, of what was missed in 1900.
To propose a text or to make comments and suggestions, write to Dave Noël at [email protected].