This summer, René Lévesque would have been 100 years old. Until August 24th, anniversary date, The duty highlights on all its platforms the memory of the founder of the Parti Québécois and one of the greatest prime ministers in history.
René Lévesque has written a great deal, infinitely more than any other Premier of Quebec. »
This is how former PQ Premier Lucien Bouchard describes his predecessor; A former journalist, René Lévesque was not only a politician, but a “popular pedagogue”, who regularly wrote down his thoughts on Quebec and its place in the world.
Political science professor Guy Lachapelle wanted to prove it. In Rene Levesque. A man and his centuryit brought together in 264 pages the many writings and speeches left behind by the founder of the Parti Québécois, whose 100th anniversary will be celebrated this year.e birthday. The anthology, whose official launch will take place on Monday, opens a window on Lévesquian thought, from his beginnings as a journalist in the 1950s to the twilight of his political career in the mid-1980s.
“Mr. Lévesque is an internationalist, a universalist. And for that, he stands out from all the leaders of political parties,” says Mr. Lachapelle in an interview with The duty. In his eyes, in the Parti Québécois, only Bernard Landry approached this way of thinking thereafter, and again.
To develop the collection of texts and “dissect the thought of Lévesque”, Guy Lachapelle and his team moved heaven and earth. “We brought in boxes,” he jokes. The anthology — published by Presses de l’Université Laval — contains articles written for The Journal of Montreal, The day and there Modern Reviewas well as speeches, or even interviews granted to the World and in the magazine Strengths.
The book is intended to be “an anthology of [la] political thought [de René Lévesque] on international issues and Quebec’s place in the world,” reads the cover. From his meetings with Fidel Castro and Eleanor Roosevelt to his criticisms of apartheid and the racism rife in the United States, via his studies of international independence cases, the former Prime Minister has his eyes turned to the world.
In “ Dark Africa — published in the Modern Review in March 1960 — he spoke of Africa which “made us dream”, with its colonies which were gradually freeing themselves from European empires, announcing a “French Commonwealth” teeming with autonomous republics. In “Are we coming back to Diên BiênPhu” — published in the Sunday-Tutin in 1968 — the former war correspondent sharply criticized the Vietnam War.
[René Lévesque] stands out from all political party leaders
“Vietnam is so far away. It’s been going on for so long. Whatever happens, it hardly affects anyone. Little by little, imperceptibly, we got used to such an escalation of inhumanity that, now, everything atrocious that happens there seems banal to us, ”he writes.
Trained as a war correspondent, René Lévesque learned his trade as an international journalist before becoming the host of the show focus, at Radio Canada. His habits did not leave him when he made the leap into politics, observes Guy Lachapelle.
“These are journalistic texts, he analyzes on the other end of the line. There was documentation work, there was research work. And I think he was influenced in his style by the great American magazines he liked to read: Newsweek, Time… »
Get inspired by others
If René Lévesque had a fascination for the world, it is also because he used it at home, raises Mr. Lachapelle. The anthology also presents a series of texts on the independence struggles of the time: Bangladesh, Scotland, Taiwan… “But Taiwan, precisely, what is it exactly? […] ? Is it still quite simply, as Mao proclaims, an indisputable part of a “one and indivisible” China? asks the father of sovereignty-association in a text published in the Montreal Journal in October 1971.
Guy Lachapelle observes that René Lévesque “draw [plusieurs] of its social projects” in others. “He said to himself: ‘If there are other countries that are capable of doing it, so can we.’ The self-determination of peoples, he talks about it at length,” he says.
By bringing together the writings of René Lévesque, Guy Lachapelle wanted to present the politician as the “man of the people” that he was. Throughout the book, he offers readers a glimpse into the thoughts of the former prime minister. “He liked talking to people. There are politicians today who are unable to look citizens in the eye. It bothers me. Mr. Lévesque felt close to people,” he says.
The political scientist invites current party leaders to put the anthology on their bedside table. Lévesquian universalism is no more, he asserts, and Quebec comes out the loser. “International relations under François Legault are moribund. There is no more passion, there is no more anything… Under [Philippe] Couillard, it was the same thing,” he said.
Nearly 100 years after the birth of René Lévesque, Mr. Lachapelle urges today’s politicians to draw inspiration from the “greatest prime minister we have had in Quebec”, a “resolutely progressive” man, a ” great democrat” supporter of “living together”.
The recipe is easy to find… He left traces of it.
Rene Levesque. A man and his century
is available in bookstores.