The three-piece suit stuck to Jacques Parizeau’s skin. It is in this costume from another era that the politician was cast in bronze last year for his monument inaugurated on Quebec’s Parliament Hill. The sculptors would never have dared to dress “Monsieur” in a casual turtleneck, as his image makers did during the 1973 election campaign. Let’s be freely comfortablecould we read on these amazing posters.
“Parizeau had made great efforts to radically change its image in the 1973 elections,” explains political scientist Alain Lavigne in an interview given on the occasion of the publication of Parizeau. Yes to country marketing. Usually, we look for the strengths of a politician or we try to improve them, but this was drastic! »
Scalded by his misadventure of the turtleneck, Parizeau takes refuge in his three-piece suit which serves as armour. The graduate of the London School of Economics takes care of his figure, unlike his boss, René Lévesque, whose slackness upsets those around him. “In 1976, he was almost forcibly dressed for his election poster,” says Lavigne. However, he will change when he becomes Prime Minister, he will no longer be the somewhat bohemian Lévesque of before. »
Flea market
The relationship to the image of politicians is at the heart of the work of Alain Lavigne, who first looked at Maurice Duplessis, then Jean Lesage before bringing together the inseparable Robert Bourassa and René Lévesque in an analysis of the marketing aspect of the 1970 election campaign. “It’s always the objects that challenged me,” explains the collector. I am interested in the professionalization of communication through material traces. »
Parizeau had made great efforts to radically change his image.
Le Parizeau de Lavigne brings together posters, brochures and macaroons produced over a quarter of a century. This corpus was formed in the mid-1980s, when the author got his hands on a mysterious wooden statuette representing the politician. “It is signed Wyug, but I never managed to find the artist,” he says, referring to this popular art object unearthed at the Sainte-Foy flea market.
The Lavigne collection includes the famous “piastre à Lévesque” which was distributed by the Liberals in 1973 to make fun of a possible Quebec currency. “The piastre, we see that it is payable to Parizeau who is presented as governor of the bank of Quebec”, observes Lavigne.
The economic backer of the Parti Québécois was entitled to its own “ecu” in 1979 as finance minister of the Lévesque government, courtesy of state officials who denounced the loss of their purchasing power. The satire is rather sympathetic if we compare it to the union buttons produced in the context of austerity of the early 1980s. “We cut in the fat”, we read on one of them showing the left thigh of Parizeau sliced with a kitchen knife!
Emotion
Through a hundred illustrations, Alain Lavigne’s book revisits six general elections and two referendums on independence. However, it was not until the 1989 campaign that Jacques Parizeau took center stage as leader of the Parti Québécois.
The aspiring prime minister changed his bourgeois figure as the 1994 elections approached, bringing him to power. “It’s his spouse, Lisette Lapointe, who will finally succeed in making him more accessible by having him wear suits that are a little more fashionable,” notes Lavigne. In addition to the jacket, the politician drops brilliantine in his hair.
If he likes to describe himself as a “soulless technocrat”, Parizeau is sensitive to the emotional aspect of politics. Evidenced by the bold advertising concept he chose for the 1995 referendum. “The Cartesian Parizeau knew that young people were affected by messages that were not just messages of reason,” says Lavigne.
In October 1995, Quebec was plastered with colorful posters emblazoned with a “Yes”, in which the letter “O” was replaced by a terrestrial globe, a daisy, a sign of peace and love or a Canadian dollar! The fleur-de-lys is conspicuous by its absence on these panels evoking openness to the world, the environment, peace… and a possible economic partnership with Canada.
The lyricism of this campaign contrasts with the banality of the advertisements for No, which nevertheless prevailed on the evening of October 30, 1995. Could reason be stronger than dreams? “It’s not a poster campaign that will make us win,” warns Lavigne, adding that advertising is not only intended to convince, but to consolidate his vote.
Parizeau gave everything during this referendum campaign, going so far as to reveal “his love life” to the magazine Last hour to be a little more human. “By becoming a politician, he accepted the rules, notes Alain Lavigne. Parizeau understands political marketing very well, and I find him rather agreeable! »