Robert Bourassa
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A portrait of Robert Bourassa, taken during his second term as premier of Quebec (1985â€"1994). |
Robert Bourassa (
July 14,
1933 –
October 2,
1996) was a politician in
Quebec,
Canada. Born in
Montreal, he served as
Liberal Premier of Quebec from
May 12,
1970 to
November 25,
1976. He served as premier again from
December 12,
1985 to
January 11,
1994.
Robert Bourassa graduated from the
Université de Montréal law school in 1956 and was admitted to the
Barreau du Québec the following year. Later, he studied at the
University of Oxford and also obtained a degree in
political economy at
Harvard University. He led the Liberal Party of Quebec into government in the
1970 election, defeating the conservative
Union Nationale government.
As Premier of
Quebec, he played a critical role in the
October Crisis of
1970 in which his labour minister
Pierre Laporte was murdered. It was Bourassa who pushed the Prime Minister of Canada,
Pierre Trudeau, to declare a state of emergency, which resulted in the Canadian army patrolling the streets of major cities in Quebec and in the national capital,
Ottawa. After Laporte's kidnapping, Bourassa barricaded himself and his cabinet behind heavy layers of security.
Bourassa and Trudeau often clashed over issues of federal-provincial relations and
Quebec nationalism with Trudeau opposing what he saw as concessions to
sovereigntism. Trudeau also looked down on Bourassa personally, once referring to him as a
mangeur d'hot dog (a hot dog eater). (Trudeau later admited the comment was a friendly poke at Bourassa's habit of bringing this choice of food to meetings, saying that the original sentence was more like "Bourassa brought his hot dogs, we are ready to talk." - From Trudeau's TV biography)
During his time in power, Bourassa implemented policies aimed at protecting the status of the French language in Quebec. In
1974, he introduced
Bill 22, the first legislation designed to strengthen the position of French within Quebec. However, this legislation was soon superseded by the
Charter of the French Language also known as Bill 101, introduced by the
Parti Québécois government that replaced him in
1976. Nonetheless, Bill 22 perhaps had a greater impact than Bill 101. By making French the official language of Quebec, that meant that Quebec was no longer institutionally bilingual (English and French). Many businesses and professionals were unable to operate under such requirements and an estimated 300,000 emigrated to neighbouring Ontario, enabling
Toronto to overtake
Montreal as the business capital of Canada. Bill 22 angered Anglophones while not going far enough for many Francophones; Bourassa was vilified by both groups and lost the 1976 election in a landslide.
Bourassa lost the
1976 Quebec provincial election to
René Lévesque, leader of the
separatist Parti Québécois. When Bourassa lost his own seat in the National Assembly, he described himself as "having his head chopped off, with people still looking for it." Bourassa remained in political exile until
1983 when he returned to provincial politics. He resigned as Liberal Party leader, and accepted teaching positions in Europe and the United States. He subsequently returned to politics as Liberal leader on
October 15,
1983, and regained the office of premier in the
1985 election.
In his second term, he invoked the
notwithstanding clause of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override a
Supreme Court ruling that declared parts of the Charter of the French Language unconstitutional, causing some English-speaking ministers in his government to resign. A few years later, however, he introduced modifications to the language charter. These compromises reduced the controversy over language that had been a dominant feature of Quebec politics over the previous decades. The majority of Quebecers reached a consensus on accepting the new status quo.
Bourassa also pushed for Quebec to be acknowledged in the Canadian constitution as a "distinct society", promising Quebecers that their grievances could be resolved within Canada with a new constitutional deal. However, Prime Minister Trudeau successfully opposed Bourassa in both of his administrations. Early in his first term, he participated in an early attempt at constitutional reform, the
Victoria Charter of
1971, which quickly unravelled. In his second term, he worked closely with federal Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney and received many concessions from the federal government, culminating in the
Meech Lake Accord and the
Charlottetown Accord. When both of these accords failed to be ratified, the constitutional reform efforts collapsed, reviving the separatist movement.
Bourassa initiated the
James Bay hydroelectric project in 1971 that led to the
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975 with the
Cree and
Inuit inhabitants of the region. The Bourassa government also played a major role in rescuing the
1976 Olympic Games in
Montreal from the huge cost overruns and construction delays incurred by the mismanagement of the project by mayor
Drapeau's administration. However, Bourassa was accused of simply throwing money to bail out the Montreal Olympics without taking the much-needed steps of providing additional oversight, and his government became embroiled in corruption scandals that led to his
1976 defeat.
Bourassa retired from politics in
1994 in poor health and having lost the popularity that had returned him to the premier's office. He was replaced as Liberal leader and premier by
Daniel Johnson, Jr., who lost an election to the separatist Parti Québécois after only nine months.
In
1996, he died in
Montreal of
skin cancer at the age of 63, and was interred at the
Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec.
*No matter what anyone says and no matter what anyone does, Quebec is, today and forever, a distinct society, free and capable of assuming its destiny and development. (
listen) (
watch excerpts of original speech) (
watch English dubbing)
Speech given on June 22, 1990, at the National Assembly, in the wake of the Meech Lake Accord's demise.
He won the
1970 election and the
1973 election, lost the
1976 election, retired and returned, won the
1985 election and
1989 election, and resigned in
1994.
*
Robert Bourassa's speech on the end of the Meech Lake Accord*
Politics of Quebec*
List of Quebec Premiers*
Quebec general elections*
Timeline of Quebec history*
Prime Minister nicknaming in QuebecLes Boubou Macoutes*
National Assembly biography (in French)
*
The Trickster: Robert Bourassa and Quebeckers 1990-1992 JF Lisée book on Bourassa available online on Google Print.
*
CBC Digital Archives: Robert Bourassa: Political Survivor
