Robert Bourassa

Robert Bourassa GOQ MAEcon LLB
22nd Premier of Quebec
In office May 12, 1970 – November 25, 1976
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Hugues Lapointe
Preceded by	Jean-Jacques Bertrand
Succeeded by	René Lévesque
In office December 12, 1985 – January 11, 1994
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Gilles Lamontagne Martial Asselin
Preceded by	Pierre-Marc Johnson
Succeeded by	Daniel Johnson, Jr.
MNA for Saint-Laurent
In office January 20, 1986 – January 11, 1994
Preceded by	Germain Leduc
Succeeded by	Normand Cherry
MNA for Mercier
In office June 5, 1966 – November 25, 1976
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	Gérald Godin
Personal details
Born	Jean-Robert Bourassa (1933-07-14)July 14, 1933 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	October 2, 1996(1996-10-02) (aged 63) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Quebec Liberal Party
Profession	financial advisor, teacher, lawyer

Jean-Robert Bourassa,^[1][2] GOQ (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔbɛʁ buʁasa]; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as the 22nd 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, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier. The span between his two mandates is the longest of any Premier, Bourassa also has the longest span between his first and last day as a Quebec Premier.

Early years and education

Bourassa was born to a working class family in Montreal, the son of Adrienne (née Courville) and Aubert Bourassa, a port authority worker.^[3] 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, an heiress of the powerful shipbuilding Simard family of Sorel, Quebec. 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 as Premier

Bourassa was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (MLA) for the riding of Mercier in 1966, then won the Quebec Liberal Party leadership election 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^[4] 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.

Bourassa and Trudeau often clashed over issues of federal-provincial relations and Quebec nationalism, with Trudeau opposing what he saw as concessions to sovereignism. In 1971 he participated in an attempt at constitutional reform, the Victoria Charter, which quickly unravelled when Bourassa backed away from the proposed deal after it was strongly criticized by Quebec opinion leaders for not giving Quebec more powers.

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 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.^[5] He remained in political exile until he returned to politics by winning the Quebec Liberal Party leadership election on October 15, 1983. On June 3, 1985, he won a by-election in Bertrand.

Second term as Premier

Bourassa regained the office of premier in the 1985 election. However, he lost his own seat to the Parti Québécois candidate Jean-Guy Parent. On January 20, 1986, he was elected in a by-election in the Liberal stronghold of Saint-Laurent after the sitting Liberal MNA Germain Leduc resigned to vacate it.

During his second term as premier of the province, 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. He worked closely with 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 sovereigntist Parti Québécois after only nine months.

In 1996, Bourassa died in Montreal of malignant melanoma^[6] 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." (watch excerpts of original speech) (watch English dubbing) Meech Lake Accord.

Posthumous homage

• A statue and a memorial of Bourassa was unveiled in front of the National Assembly on October 19, 2006.^[7]
• The City of Quebec renamed Highway Du Vallon, a major road in Quebec City, after Bourassa in late 2006.
• In Montreal, the portion of Rue University from Bonaventure Expressway to Sherbrooke Street was renamed Boulevard Robert-Bourassa.^[8]

Park Avenue controversy

On October 18, 2006, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay announced that Montreal's Park Avenue would be named after Bourassa.^[7] On November 28 the Montreal city council voted in favour (40-22) of renaming Park Avenue after Bourassa.^[9] If, as had been expected, Quebec's Toponymy Commission had approved the name change, all of Park Avenue and its continuation, Bleury, would have been renamed Robert Bourassa Avenue. 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.^[10] This decision by the City of Montreal without any consultation with the people of the city caused an immediate controversy,^[11] though many of those opposed to the change considered it a fait accompli.^[12] The proposal spawned substantial grass-roots opposition, both because of the lack of prior citizen input and because Park is itself a meaningful street name, associated with the city's Mount Royal park.^[13] 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.^[14] On February 5, 2007, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay withdrew his proposal to rename Park Avenue.^[15] However, there is a Robert Bourassa Blvd., located in the Duvernay district of Laval, Quebec.

In March, 2015, a section of University Street (from Notre-Dame Street to Sherbrooke Street) in the downtown core of Montreal was renamed Robert-Bourassa Boulevard.

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
• Robert-Bourassa generating station and reservoir

References

External links

• 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

Election results (partial)

Quebec provincial by-election, January 20, 1986: Saint-Laurent
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	16,020	82.70	+8.48
	New Democratic	Sid Ingerman	1,701	8.78	+5.36
	Parti indépendantiste	Gilles Rhéaume	778	4.02	–
	Green	Jacques Plante	278	1.44	–
	Humanist	Anne Farrell	202	1.04	–
	Independent	Vincent Trudel	177	0.91	–
	Independent	Martin Lavoie	70	0.36	–
	United Social Credit	Léopold Milton	66	0.34	–
	Non-affiliated	Patricia Métivier	49	0.25	–
	Independent	Jay Lawrence Taylor	31	0.16	–
Total valid votes			19,372	98.65	–
Total rejected ballots			266	1.35	–
Turnout			19,638	46.19	-26.22
Electors on the lists			42,514	–	–
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec provincial by-election, June 3, 1985: Bertrand
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	15,490	57.97
	Parti Québécois	Francine Lalonde	10,217	38.23
	Independent	Joseph Arthur Laurent Alie	408	1.53
	United Social Credit	Joseph Ranger	182	0.68
	Commonwealth	Paul Rochon	162	0.61
	Non-Affiliated	Carolle Caron	135	0.51
	Non-Affiliated	Patricia Métivier	129	0.48
Total valid votes			26,723	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			567
Turnout			27,290	68.61
Electors on the lists			39,776
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

Quebec general election, 1976: Mercier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Parti Québécois	Gérald Godin	13,450	51.38	+9.57
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa (incumbent)	9,714	37.11	-15.76
	Union Nationale	Giuseppe Anzini	1,975	7.55	+5.97
	Ralliement créditiste	Robert Roy	647	2.47	-0.64
	NDP - RMS coalition	Henri-François Gautrin	139	0.53	-
	Communist	Guy Desautels	116	0.44	-
	Workers	Gaston Morin	77	0.30	-
	No designation	Louise Ouimet	58	0.22	-
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec general election, 1973: Mercier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	13,757	52.87	+6.22
	Parti Québécois	Louis O'Neill	10,877	41.81	+4.47
	Parti créditiste	Georges Brault	809	3.11	+0.03
	Union Nationale	Jean-Louis Décarie	411	1.58	-11.03
	Marxist–Leninist	Robert-A. Cruise	70	0.27	-
	Independent	Guy Robillard	53	0.20	-
	No designation	Jeannette Pratte Walsh	23	0.09	-
	No designation	Guy Robitaille	18	0.07	-
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec general election, 1970: Mercier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	15,337	46.65	+2.38
	Parti Québécois	Pierre Bourgault	12,276	37.34	-
	Union Nationale	Conrad Touchette	4,145	12.61	-29.71
	Ralliement créditiste	Clément Patry	1,011	3.08	-
	Independent	Paul Ouellet	106	0.32	-
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec general election, 1966: Mercier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Bourassa	11,759	44.27	-9.80
	Union Nationale	Conrad Touchette	11,241	42.32	-1.18
	RIN	André Dagenais	3,115	11.73	-
	Ralliement national	Roger Smith	335	1.26	-
	Independent	Lucien-Jacques Cossette	112	0.42	-
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

National Assembly of Quebec
Preceded by Jean-Baptiste Crépeau (Liberal)	MNA, District of Mercier 1966–1976	Succeeded by Gérald Godin (Parti Québécois)
Preceded by Denis Lazure (Parti Québécois)	MNA, District of Bertrand 1985–1985	Succeeded by Jean-Guy Parent (Parti Québécois)
Preceded by Germain Leduc (Liberal)	MNA, District of Saint-Laurent 1986–1994	Succeeded by Normand Cherry (Liberal)
Party political offices
Preceded by Jean Lesage	Leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec 1970–1976	Succeeded by Gérard D. Levesque
Preceded by Gérard D. Levesque	Leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec 1983–1994	Succeeded by Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Government offices
Preceded by Jean-Jacques Bertrand (Union Nationale)	Premier of Quebec 1970–1976	Succeeded by René Lévesque (Parti Québécois)
Preceded by Pierre Marc Johnson (Parti Québécois)	Premier of Quebec 1985–1994	Succeeded by Daniel Johnson, Jr. (Liberal)
Political offices
Preceded by Gérard D. Levesque (Liberal)	Leader of the Opposition in Quebec 1985–1985	Succeeded by Pierre-Marc Johnson (Parti Québécois)

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 Marois Couillard Book:Premiers of Quebec Category:Premiers of Quebec Portal: Quebec

Leaders of the Quebec Liberal Party Joly de Lotbinière Mercier Marchand Parent Gouin Taschereau Godbout Marler (interim) Lapalme Lesage Bourassa Levesque (interim) Ryan Levesque (interim) Bourassa Johnson Charest Fournier (interim) Couillard

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 91267968 LCCN: n50042125 ISNI: 0000 0001 1507 203X GND: 119151588 SUDOC: 028391284 BNF: cb120236127 (data) NLA: 35020698