Talk:René Lévesque

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Former FA This article is a former featured article candidate. Please view its sub-page to see why the nomination did not succeed. For older candidates, please check the Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Archived nominations.
This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

I'm a little confused. The English version says Lévesque was born in New Brunswick("René Lévesque was born in a hospital of Campbellton, New Brunswick."), whereas the French version says he was born in Quebec ("Né à New Carlisle au Québec"). I suppose I will try to resolve this, but maybe someone with a little more expertise on this man should verify these. -- edisk

Not 100% sure, but I think I remember the deal: New Carlisle is little on near the border of New Brunswick. He was born at the hospital of Campbellton, New Brunswick, but he was raised in New Carlisle in Quebec. -- Mathieugp 02:23, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It was with considerable trepidation that I approached a copyedit of someone who was so loved and controversial, but I think that some of the text in the previous version was awkward and difficult to read. I have also made a few changes where I felt there was clear POV. THe articles remains a bit "breathless". It comes across as having been written by an admirer of the man, and not as being a dispassionate encyclopaedia article. Kevintoronto 11:13, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I agree. I also thougth the article was far from being encyclopedic. There are very few facts, and a lot of talking about how much he was loved by the people. It is true that his popularity was uncommon for a politician, but there is so much more to cover. I'll have to get reading on him and come back to this article with more information. -- Mathieugp 16:53, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)
This article is heavily biased. Who says the sovereignty vote was "approved by 40 per cent of the voting population"? First of all, it was approved by 40% of voters, not eligible voters, so this statement is misleading. For the record, 34.37% or eligible voters supported the PQ. As well, a way to avoid bias and include more precise information would be saying something along the lines of "40.44% supported the PQ, while 59.56% did not". -- Joechip from Sask
The preceding critique seems to detract from the discussion of this article's neutrality.
Be that as it may, I've clarified the numbers. DS 14:13, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Prime Minister vs. Premier

I changed "Prime Minister" for Premier, because Prime Minister only applies at the federal level in English. The proper word is "Premier". In French (the probable language of the person who wrote the article), we use Prime Minister (premier ministre) for both the Federal and provincial levels, but this is not the case in English.

    • A picky point here on my part, but both uses in English are correct, it is just that in Canada the predominant style is to distinguish the heads of government of Canada and the provinces in the above-mentioned fashion.

It isn't "wrong" to call the Canadian leader "premier" - in fact, this frequently is the case for foreign publications, such as the New York Times.

159.33.10.92 20:51, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect from Lévesque

I'm a little confused by the redirect from "Lévesque" to "René Lévesque". Lévesque is a common last name in Francophone Canada; although René is the best known by this last name, others can be found on the first page of a search for it. Andrew pmk 01:07, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV tag

The following passage seems to betray a particular POV:

"He is remembered for his staunch morals and honesty, for his humility, and the humanism he strove to bring to all aspects of public service. In every discussion concerning the application of laws, he would insist that regulations and the practical control of operations take into account that civil servants were, above all, servants of the people. He used all his power as premier to ensure that every civil servant did his or her duty efficiently, while respecting equally each individual who came into contact with the government."

Would anyone object if I were to delete it?

After that passage is removed, are there any remaining NPOV concerns? At that point, should the NPOV tag be removed? HistoryBA 01:54, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Since there were no objections, I have removed the NPOV tag and the passage quoted above. HistoryBA 23:13, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
Since there continue to be no objects, I'm removing the POV check tag from this page to remove it from the backlog. -- ShinmaWa(talk) 03:51, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Small edit: removed 2005 tv series information, as it clearly never aired.

[edit] His political philosophy

I correspond on-line with a fellow American who lived in Montreal during the 1980 referendum. He was not a Levesque fan, and wrote -- these are his words, not mine -- "I am pretty sure that Levesque would have had Quebec annexed to the Soviet Union, could he have made the deal." Is this an accurate examination of Levesque's political philosophy, had he become the President of a hypothetical Republic of Quebec? Or does this person have it all wrong? Was Levesque a centrist, moderate left, or hard left? I'm very curious about this, since I have strong interests in both Quebec and alternate history. -- Pacholeknbnj, 2:07 PM EST, 30 March 2006

Levesque would be a moderate left. In many respects, he is comparable to Ralph Nader only you replace the concern for natural ecology with the concern for cultural and linguistic diversity. Levesque became Premier of Quebec, however much like if Nader had become governor of an American State, he was limited by the means at his disposal and could not truly get us there. Here is what the government of Levesque tried to do while in power :
* Position French, the language of the majority of Quebecers, as the common public language of all Quebecers, instead of English, the language of the majority of Canadians in the other 9 provinces of the federation. A reminder that Quebec, was forcibly incorporated into a political union (see Act of Union 1840) with the very intention of making the then French-speaking majority of Canada a minority unable to govern itself. This goal was achieved, however Francophone Quebecers nevertheless resisted cultural assimilation to the English language. The PQ gave us the Charter of the French Language, which made French the sole official language of Quebec and defined individual as well as collective linguistic rights.
* Obtain, in a referendum, the support of the majority of Quebecers to negociate, with the federal state and the 9 other provinces, the secession of Quebec and the creation of a union similar to the then emerging European Union. In simple words: independence + interdependence.
* Transform Quebec into a respectable representative democracy. This gave the sucessful Act to govern the financing of political parties, and the unfortunately never adopted bill to move to proportional representation. The later failure is quite a pity. Drafted around 1984, this bill, had it been adopted, would have turned Quebec into the first North American State where the majority of elected representatives truly have the support of the majority of voters.
Since the 1980 referendum on Sovereignty-Association was rejected by a majority of 60% of the voters, Levesque did not achieve his most important goal. -- Mathieugp 00:04, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

WTF

[edit] Assessment

I have assessed this as B Class given its level of detail and organization, and as mid importance, as I believe that the subject of this article plays a strong role in the understanding of Canada. Cheers, CP 17:39, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Patriation

The word "patriate" exists in Canadian English, as defined on p. 1066 of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 1998 edition. "patriate" exists in Canadian English as a result of the patriation of the Canadian Constitution -- the word did not exist, and had to be invented. Ground Zero | t 01:27, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Huh - you learn something new some days. Okay, I'm fine with "patriate". Sarcasticidealist 01:30, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
I find I learn something new every day I'm on Wikipedia. Cheers. Ground Zero | t 01:32, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RCMP Dossier: "Supposed Communist"

Somebody should elaborate + explain his RCMP dossier, as a supposed communist "http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/11/19/DisbandRCMP/" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.68.236.67 (talk) 06:22, 20 November 2007 (UTC)