René Lévesque is the man who will have marked the journalism and political life of Quebec during the second half of the last century. He is still present and very much alive, 35 years after his death. Had he lived, we would celebrate with him his hundredth birthday on August 24. In all the polls conducted since his departure, he remains the most popular politician among all the former premiers of Quebec since 1792. Why?
His years in journalism spanned forty years, from 1936 to 1976. Indeed, from the age of 14 in his native Gaspé, on the airwaves of the radio station CHNC (Charles Houde New Carlisle), he found the path to follow for his whole life; learn, inform, communicate. He became a freelancer for newspapers and radio stations in Quebec City, where his family then lived. He abandoned his law studies to devote himself to this job he adores. The war is raging in Europe, he wants to see and know what is happening there. He will have to wait until 1943, at his majority, to have all his freedom, obtain a passport and leave.
He wants to avoid conscription because he does not want to fight with the armies of the “Dominion of Canada”. He offered his services to the Americans and became a war correspondent. During these years in Europe, he rubbed shoulders with death, violence, terror, distress; he saw the destruction of towns and villages in France and Germany. René Lévesque will return from this war disturbed but, now a war reporter, he will quickly turn to his job as a journalist.
Radio-Canada offered him a job abroad and, over time, he became the star of this new medium, television. This is focus which comes to devote his talent, even if broadcast live and at a late hour. This is where he excels and performs best with his blackboard, white chalk and a cigarette. René Lévesque works alone and does all his research. He strives for excellence!
After the producers’ strike at Radio-Canada, his show was taken off the air, even though it was still very popular. René Lévesque sees this as a great injustice.
The autodidact he has become, always on the lookout for the latest news, freelance again, is therefore free.
Modernize Quebec
The political situation in Quebec is of great interest to him. The slogan “Maîtres chez nous” excites him more and more, he sees in it a great challenge: to defeat the Union Nationale to modernize Quebec, by transforming it into a new democracy, led by a brand new government open to changing mores by abolishing secret electoral funds. He will have a lot to do, but he decides to dive in and he will be elected MP in Montreal-Laurier. At just 37 years old, René Lévesque became a minister, holding two portfolios: Public Works and Natural Resources.
The story is well known; René Lévesque succeeded in convincing Jean Lesage and his colleagues to nationalize eleven companies and to make Hydro-Québec the spearhead of our nation’s economic recovery. Sixty years later, we must recognize this immense success. However, René Lévesque failed to convince Jean Lesage to put an end to the Liberal Party’s campaign fund. These years show him, however, that with the creation of new institutions, such as the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Société générale de financement and the Ministry of Education, Québec is increasingly taking charge economy and is experiencing unprecedented cultural effervescence.
Quebec could go further towards its political sovereignty, while maintaining economic ties with the rest of Canada. René Lévesque’s model is the Treaty of Rome signed in 1957, between six sovereign European countries, which remain so, but come together in a common market: it is the Europe of nations.
He perfected a formula he called sovereignty-association, which he had accepted by the association of his riding of Laurier and which he presented to the 1967 Liberal convention in Quebec. Jean Lesage refuses to discuss it, as well as to put it on the agenda. It will be the rupture; René Lévesque leaves the Liberal Party.
All hopes allowed
In 1968, he created a new political party, the Parti Québécois. The difficult years begin: the elections of 1970, the October crisis, the brutality of the federalists, the elections of 1973; morale is low. After seven years of effort, 30% of the votes, only six deputies. René Lévesque persists and continues to recruit candidates across Quebec and feverishly prepares for the 1976 election. For him, this will be the election of the last chance.
Things get complicated for the Bourassa government — rumors of scandals and shenanigans, the Olympic Games in Montreal — and the atmosphere becomes unbreathable after only three years of its second mandate. To everyone’s surprise, the tide turned during the election campaign, the return of the Union Nationale shuffled the cards, the PQ made gains in the regions, and the improbable happened: the first sovereigntist government was elected with a majority with 41 % of votes cast.
On the evening of November 15, 1976, René Lévesque, in his speech at the Center Paul-Sauvé, said: “I never thought I could be so proud to be a Quebecer as tonight. »
This pride, we shared it with him. After so many years of effort, all hopes for the new country are allowed. The Council of Ministers is set up and the major reforms are carried out. René Lévesque is deeply democratic: the first major change is the urgency of the reform of the financing of political parties; otherwise, one cannot speak of true democracy.
The Lévesque government was able to govern Quebec for nine years over two terms. The bond of trust with the population has not been denied, even in difficult circumstances. The Law on the popular consultation made it possible, for the first time, to decide on its political status. Even if strong, so-called creative, tensions arose in our political formation after the defeat of the Yes party, and especially after the unilateral and immoral patriation of the constitution by the Trudeau government, against the assent or agreement of Quebec, the respect for the vote cast during the referendum, even painful, best illustrates the personality of Prime Minister Lévesque, who said on the evening of this referendum in front of thousands of supporters expressing their confidence in him with long applause: “If I understood you correctly, you are saying: see you next time. »
Succession will come
René Lévesque did not want to hold another referendum on sovereignty immediately, and committed to it during the 1981 campaign. Convinced that time had to be given time: never give up on the objective of making the country of Quebec, master of its destiny, respectful of its minorities and open to the world.
During his last improvised speech to the National Assembly, on June 20, 1985, he clearly expressed his thoughts by saying: “New generations of Quebecers will be better than us, [ils] will be infinitely more competent than we have ever been and will go much further, I believe, will go beyond all constitutional history, to the creation of a country for a people. I am deeply convinced that they are equipped for this. »
At the end of the evening, he submitted his resignation as Prime Minister, convinced that our youth would take over one day or another.