P.Q.: Rene Levesque and the Parti Quebecois in Power

This is a delightful and informative book on the first round of the movement for an independent Quebec. The razer-thin margin of victory on October 30, 1995 of the opposition to an independent Quebec has most assuredly meant there will be another vote on the subject in the near future. Accordingly, the subject matter of this book will take on even more importance and cogency as time passes. The referendum held on October 30, 1995 was actually the second referendum held in the province on the question of independence. The first was held on May 20, 1980. The defeat of the movement for independence in that first rederendum marked the end of an era--the first upsurge of the Quebec independence movement. Graham Fraser's book tells the story of that era. Fraser begins with environment of disenchantment that had been felt by the French-speaking public of the province which resulted in the split in the Liberal party of the province of Quebec. Then on July 24, 1967, President de Gaulle of France came to Canada on an official visit to Montreal's Expo 67 and during a speech from the Montreal City Hall shouted "Long-live Free Quebec" in French. That statement caused a scandal in world diplomatic circles, but in Quebec it electrified the French-speaking public and set them on a course toward independent nationhood. In 1968, the political party called Parti Quebecois (or P.Q.) was formed and began running candidates for the provincial legislature on the platform of an independent nationhood for Quebec. Rene Levesque was elected President of the P.Q. and became head of the legislative delegation of the party as the P.Q. began to pick up a number of seats in the succeeding elections. In 1976, the P.Q. became the majority party in the Quebec legislature and Rene Levesque became premier of the province of Quebec. The major portion of the book then deals with the rule of the P.Q. in Quebec through the defeat of the referendum in 1980 and the internal stresses and dissentions within the P.Q. that followed as the P.Q. sought to keep Quebec nationhood as a live issue on the political scene. The book ends with the P.Q. still in power in Quebec in 1985. In order to understand the second upsurge of the movement for an independent Quebec which began in 1990 and led to the most recent 1995 referendum and most certainly will lead to a third referendum on Quebec independence, it is necessary to understand the roots of the movement. This book provides that understanding in a clear and inciseful way.