Robert Bourassa

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A portrait of Robert Bourassa, taken during his second term as premier of Quebec (1985–1994).

Robert Bourassa (July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as Liberal Premier of Quebec in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970 to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985 to January 11, 1994.

1 Early life
2 Political Life
- 2.1 First term
- 2.2 Second term
3 Final years
4 Quotations
5 Posthumous Homage
6 Renaming Parc Avenue?
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Robert Bourassa was born in Montreal in a working class family to Aubert Bourassa, a port authority worker, and Adrienne Courville.^[1], Robert Bourassa graduated from the Université de Montréal law school in 1956 and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec the following year. On August 23, 1958, he marries Andrée Simard. Later, he studied at the University of Oxford and also obtained a degree in political economy at Harvard University in 1959-60. On his return to Quebec, he was employed at the National Revenue Department as a fiscal adviser. He also worked as a professor in public finances at Université de Montréal and Laval University

[edit] Political Life

[edit] First term

He was first elected as an MLA in 1966, then went on to lead the Liberal Party of Quebec on January 17, 1970. He positioned himself as a young, competent, administrator. He chose "100 000 jobs" as his slogan, which emphasized that jobs creation would be his priority. Bourassa felt the extensive hydro-electric resources of Quebec were the most effective means of completing the modernization of Quebec and sustaining job creation. His leadership in the James Bay Project (French: projet de la Baie James), which refers to the construction of a series of hydroelectric power stations in northern Quebec, would later become his most recognized feat. He successfully led his party into government in the 1970 election, defeating the conservative Union Nationale government^[2] and becoming the youngest Premier of Quebec.

One of his first crises as Premier of Quebec happened during the October Crisis of 1970 in which his labour minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and murdered. It was Pierre Trudeau who pushed the Premier of Quebec, Bourassa, to declare a state of emergency^{[citation needed]}, 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 sovereignism. Trudeau also looked down on Bourassa personally, once referring to him as a mangeur d'hot dog (a hot dog eater), though Trudeau later admitted in his TV biography that 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."

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 superceded 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.

[edit] Second term

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. Early in his first time in office, he participated in an early attempt at constitutional reform, the Victoria Charter of 1971, which quickly unravelled when Bourassa backed away from the proposed deal after it was strongly criticized by Quebec opinion leaders for not protecting Quebec's traditional veto power on constitutional amendments. In his second time in office, 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.

[edit] Final years

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.

[edit] Quotations

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.

[edit] Posthumous Homage

A statue and a memorial of Bourassa was unveiled in front of the National Assembly on October 19, 2006. [1]
The city of Quebec intends to ask the government about renaming highway Du Vallon, a major road in Quebec city, after Bourassa. [2]

[edit] Renaming Parc Avenue?

The city of Montreal intends to rename a street after Bourassa, as announced on October 18, 2006 by Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay.
All of Parc Avenue and its continuation, Bleury down to Viger would be renamed Avenue Robert Bourassa. This will cause the newly named street to cross René Lévesque Boulevard, named after a long time political rival to Bourassa.
This decision by the City of Montreal without any consultation with the people of the city has caused an uproar and a lot of controversy, especially as Parc is itself an historical street name, associated with the city's beloved Mount Royal park.[3]
There is an online petition against this renaming. [4]
The city council is set to vote November 27 and opponents believe they are within five votes of defeating the motion. [5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ (French) Robert BOURASSA. Assemblée Nationale (French). Retrieved on 2006-08-31.
^ Downey, Donn. Former premier fought for Quebec, A14. The Globe & Mail, October 3, 1996.

[edit] External links

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

Preceded by: Jean-Jacques Bertrand	Premier of Quebec 1970-1976	Succeeded by: René Lévesque
Preceded by: Pierre-Marc Johnson	Premier of Quebec 1985-1994	Succeeded by: Daniel Johnson, Jr
Preceded by: Jean Lesage	Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party 1970-1976	Succeeded by: Gérard D. Lévesque
Preceded by: Gérard D. Lévesque	Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party 1983-1994	Succeeded by: Daniel Johnson, Jr.