Robert Bourassa

UXL Newsmakers, (2005)

Robert Bourassa

Robert Bourassa (1933-1996) was Premier of the province of Quebec for two terms, 1970-1976 and 1985-1993. Bourassa's support for both nationalism and federalism made him an ambiguous leader. He coined the phrase distinct society to specifically identify Quebec's French bourgeois citizenry.

Robert Bourassa was born on July 14, 1933, to a lower middle-class family in Montreal's east end. His father, a federal civil servant, worked for the Montreal port authorities. From the age of 12, Bourassa knew he wanted to be a politician. He confided to a classmate, Jacques Godbout (now a well-known author and film director), that "one day, I'll be premier of Quebec." Bourassa served as premier of Quebec from 1970-76 and also from 1985-93. He died of cancer at age 63 on October 2, 1996, after battling the disease for six years.

Bourassa graduated from Quebec's prestigious Jesuit college, Jean-de-Brébeuf, in 1953. He earned his law degree, along with the Governor General's medal, from the University of Montreal (1956). A Royal Society of Canada scholarship led to a Master of Laws (LLM) in political economy from Oxford University (1959) and a Ford Foundation Scholarship from Harvard (1960) enabled him to earn a Masters degree in public finance and financial law. From 1960-63, Bourassa worked as an economic advisor and fiscal advisor to the Federal Ministry of Revenue and taught economics at the University of Ottawa.

Bourassa married Andrée Simard, daughter of the wealthy Simard shipbuilding family, in 1958. The marriage cemented his ties with the Liberal party and gave him crucial contacts in the business community. The Bourassa's had two children, a son and a daughter.

Bourassa served as secretary and director of research for the Quebec Royal Commission of Inquiry on Fiscal Policy from 1964-65. During this time he gained confidence and encouragement from Premier Jean Lesage and was elected as the Liberal member for the Mercier riding. He returned to Ottawa as advisor to the Ministry of Finance from 1965-66.

As a novice member of the Quebec National Assembly, Bourassa struggled in the wake of the Liberal party's 1966 electoral defeat to convince René Lévesque not to leave the party. Bourassa, who believed that Quebec should be independent, was convinced that effective political independence for Quebec could only be achieved through monetary and fiscal independence. However, Lévesque left the Liberal party in 1968 to become the founding leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ). Lévesque's coalition movement dedicated itself to achieving political independence for Quebec while continuing economic association with the rest of Canada. Bourassa and Lévesque remained political rivals for the rest of their careers.

The Liberal party, using the theme "Quebec au Travail, " won the 1970 provincial election and Bourassa became Quebec's youngest premier. After only six months in office, Bourassa faced a major crisis when the Front du Libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorists kidnapped the British trade commissioner, James Richard Cross, and the minister of immigration and labour, Pierre Laporte. The FLQ cited the government's refusal to negotiate release of FLQ members who had been jailed for acts of terrorism as the reason for the kidnappings. Premier Bourassa called upon the federal government's Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, to declare a state of apprehended insurrection and to invoke the War Measures Act. In response to the government's sending in military forces, the terrorists murdered Pierre Laporte. By the end of the October Crisis, the FLQ terrorists had been arrested and deported. Both the Bourassa and Trudeau governments suffered considerable political damage when it became known that nearly four hundred alleged separatists had been jailed by the Quebec provincial police without charges ever being made.

Bourassa's well-known and long-standing ambiguity between nationalism and federalism and between cultural/social sovereignity and economic feudalism surfaced during his first administration. When the Victoria Charter came up for ratification in 1971, Bourassa, in response to pressure from the Québécois neo-nationalists, refused to allow the Quebec government to ratify the charter. (The Victoria Charter entailed the patriation of the 1867 British North American Act, a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and an amending formula that granted Quebec a veto over all future constitutional reforms. However, it did not entail any additional distribution of powers. The PQ and other francophones considered Quebec's independence in areas of immigration and communications essential for their "distinct society" and were staunchly opposed to ratification of the Charter.) Constitutional wrangling grew increasingly intense and bitter over the next two decades.