CanadaWho was René Lévesque?
René Lévesque was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, in 1922 and raised in New Carlisle on Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. He served as a war correspondent in Europe and became a star television journalist with Radio-Canada's Point de mire. Elected as a Liberal in 1960, he was a leading minister in Jean Lesage's Quiet Revolution government. He left the Liberals in 1967 to found the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association, which became the Parti Québécois in 1968. He was premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985 and died in 1987.
Political views
Championed the nationalization of Quebec's private electricity companies, approved in a 1962 election fought under the slogan 'Masters in our own house'.
Source: biographi.caFounded the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association in 1967, proposing a sovereign Quebec in economic association with Canada.
Source: assnat.qc.caEnacted the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101), making French the normal language of work, instruction, commerce and business, and banning non-French exterior commercial signs.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgInsisted that English schools and language rights for Quebec's anglophone minority be protected, against opposition within his party.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReplaced secret election funds with public party financing in 1977, banning corporate donations and capping individual contributions.
Source: biographi.caCreated a public and compulsory automobile insurance system that took effect in 1978.
Source: biographi.caHeld the 1980 referendum seeking a mandate to negotiate sovereignty-association, which was rejected by 60 per cent of voters.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgImposed wage cuts on public sector workers by law in 1982 when unions refused to give up benefits.
Source: biographi.ca
Legacy
Admirers in Quebec remember Lévesque as a committed democrat who pursued independence only through elections and referendums, cleaned up party financing and gave francophones greater economic control through Hydro-Québec and language law. He also threatened to resign rather than abolish English-language public schools. Critics in English Canada and among Quebec's anglophone and immigrant communities saw Bill 101, including its ban on English commercial signs, as an infringement of minority rights. His government's 1982 wage rollbacks angered the public sector unions that had backed the party, and his 1984 'beau risque' of cooperating with Brian Mulroney's government angered committed sovereigntists and led some senior members to resign. No Quebec premier has since endorsed the 1982 constitution, which his government refused to accept.