Robert Bourassa

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Robert Bourassa  GOQ MAEcon LLB
Portrait of Robert Bourassa during his second appointment as Premier of Quebec (1985–1994).
22nd Premier of Quebec
In office May 12, 1970 – November 25, 1976
Preceded by	Jean-Jacques Bertrand
Succeeded by	René Lévesque
In office December 12, 1985 – January 11, 1994
Preceded by	Pierre-Marc Johnson
Succeeded by	Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Born	July 14, 1933(1933-07-14) Montreal, Quebec
Died	October 2, 1996 (aged 63) Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Quebec Liberal Party
Profession	fiscal advisor, teacher, lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Robert Bourassa GOQ (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.

Early years and education

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 married Andrée Simard. Later, he studied at the University of Oxford and also obtained a degree in political economy at Harvard University in 1960. On his return to Quebec, he was employed at the federal Department of National Revenue as a fiscal adviser. He also worked as a professor of public finance at Université de Montréal and Université Laval.

Political life

First term

Bourassa was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (MLA) for the riding of Mercier in 1966, then went on to lead the Quebec Liberal Party 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. He successfully led his party into government in the 1970 election, defeating the conservative Union Nationale government^[2] and becoming the youngest premier in Quebec history.

One of Bourassa's first crises as premier was the October Crisis of 1970, in which his labour minister, Pierre Laporte, was kidnapped and murdered. Bourassa requested that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoke the War Measures Act to resolve the situation. The decision, although controversial, helped the police and government forces avert further abductions. After Laporte's kidnapping, it is said that 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.

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. 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. By making French the official language of Quebec, Quebec was no longer institutionally bilingual (English and French). Many businesses and professionals were unable to operate under such requirements. 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 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. Bourassa's government became embroiled in corruption scandals that led to his 1976 defeat.

Bourassa lost the 1976 provincial election to René Lévesque, leader of the separatist Parti Québécois. Bourassa resigned as Liberal Party leader, and accepted teaching positions in Europe and the United States. He remained in political exile until he returned to politics as Liberal leader on October 15, 1983. He was elected in the former Montérégie riding of Bertrand (now Marguerite-D'Youville) and regained the office of premier in the 1985 election. However, Bourassa lost his seat to the Parti Québécois candidate Jean-Guy Parent. In 1986, he was elected in a by-election in the Liberal stronghold of Saint-Laurent after the MNA, Germain Leduc, left his seat vacant.

Second term

In his second term, Bourassa invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override a Supreme Court of Canada 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.

Bourassa also pushed for Quebec to be acknowledged in the Canadian constitution as a "distinct society", promising Quebec residents that their grievances could be resolved within Canada with a new constitutional deal. Early in his first time in office, he participated in an attempt at constitutional reform, the Victoria Charter of 1971. It 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, Bourassa worked closely with federal Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and received many concessions from the federal government, culminating in the Meech Lake Accord in 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord in 1992. The Meech Lake Accord failed in June 1990 when two provinces, Manitoba and Newfoundland, refused to ratify the agreement their premiers had signed. The Charlottetown Accord was defeated in a nationwide plebiscite in 1992. That failure revived the Quebec separatist movement.

Final years

Bourassa retired from politics in 1994. He was replaced as Liberal leader and premier by Daniel Johnson, Jr., who lost an election to the sovereignist Parti Québécois after only nine months.

In 1996, Bourassa died in Montreal of malignant melanoma^[3] at the age of 63, and was interred at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.

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.

Posthumous homage

Statue of Bourassa on the grounds of the Quebec legislature

• A statue and a memorial of Bourassa was unveiled in front of the National Assembly on October 19, 2006. [1]
• The City of Quebec renamed Highway Du Vallon, a major road in Quebec City, after Bourassa in late 2006.

Parc Avenue controversy

• On October 18, 2006 Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced that Montreal's Parc Avenue would be named after Bourassa.[2]
• On November 28 the Montreal city council voted in favour (40-22) of renaming Parc Avenue after Bourassa.[3]
• If, as had been expected, Quebec's Toponymy Commission had approved the name change, all of Parc Avenue and its continuation, Bleury, would have been renamed Avenue Robert Bourassa. This would have caused the newly named street to intersect René-Lévesque Boulevard, named after a long time political rival to Bourassa. That boulevard, in turn, had been renamed from Dorchester Boulevard in 1987, in a decision that was also not without controversy.[4]

• This decision by the City of Montreal without any consultation with the people of the city caused an immediate controversy[5], though many of those opposed to the change considered it a fait accompli[6].
• The proposal spawned substantial grass-roots opposition, both because of the lack of prior citizen input and because Parc is itself a meaningful street name, associated with the city's Mount Royal park.[7]
• In addition to protests and active opposition by a committee of Montreal residents and businesses opposed to the name change, an online petition garnered more than 18,000 virtual signatures against this renaming. The petition is now closed
• On February 5, 2007, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay withdrew his proposal to rename Parc Avenue.^[4]

See also

• 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 Quebec
• Boubou Macoutes

References

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
• Robert Bourassa, by Daniel Latouche

Premiers of Quebec Chauveau · Ouimet · de Boucherville · de Lotbinière · Chapleau · Mousseau · Ross · Taillon · Mercier · de Boucherville · Taillon · Flynn · Marchand · Parent · Gouin · Taschereau · Godbout · Duplessis · Godbout · Duplessis · Sauvé · Barrette · Lesage · D. Johnson · Bertrand · Bourassa · Lévesque · P. Johnson · Bourassa · D. Johnson, Jr. · Parizeau · Bouchard · Landry · Charest