POLI 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Grande Noirceur, Denys Arcand, Anti-Capitalism
17 May 2018
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THE RISE OF NEO-NATIONALISM (01.24)
- Duplessis’ era: aka La Grande Noirceur (the dark era of QC politics)
o Denys Arcand: draws parallel b/w Duplessis era and the more modern era (beginning of 70s)
Conclusion on Duplessis
- There’s some ambiguity regarding w/ Duplessis’ character as Premier of QC
1. First ambiguity: was he pro- or anti-business?
o During his election campaign discourses, he could be quite harsh regarding businesses by
saying it was important to defend the French-Canadians in the face of foreign capital. This
was an image that he used in his discourses: foreign capital invading QC
o At the same time, there was quite an economic boom at the time. It was partly due to the
WWII, but when you look at his gov’t’s policies, he was quite open to foreign investment
▪ Some say he was open to Americans exploit the natural resources of QC
▪ In practice, he really had a laissez-faire approach to QC’s economy
▪ This was a good thing at the time, but as a drawback: this continued the kind of
economic domination of QC by Anglophone capital & businesses
o Baltazar considers that D’s laissez-faire approach was almost a silent policy (in that he was
silent about it), but when speaking of QC’s economy, D was adopting a very strong anti-
business language & rhetoric
o Ambiguous: his rhetoric was anti-capitalism, anti-business, anti-foreign capital but at the
same time, in practice, he was open to foreign capital
2. Second ambiguity: Duplessis’ autonomous attitude
o In rhetoric, D was very autonomous: in favour of defending FC’s old traditions & values,
and standing up to the central gov’t in Ottawa
▪ This could be noted in D’s gov’t’s decision to create a QC tax-raising policy that is
distinct from the central gov’t’s state policy (création d’un impôt provincial)
[That we have 2 tax forms to fill out is due to the Duplessis gov’t]
o At the same time, in the 50s there was a push from the neo-nationalist circles in favour of
greater autonomy and greater independence of QC
▪ Some circles were really putting the idea of independence of QC on the table and
calling for more effort on the part of Duplessis for greater autonomy & independence
▪ Yet Duplessis didn’t seem interested in going much further
▪ This ambiguity has more to do w/ D’s very conservative view of QC society
▪ What D was interested in: survivance of French-Canadian people, not really
interested in their political emancipation & independence
▪ This meant adopting an autonomous posture vis-à-vis the central gov’t (like the 2 tax
forms & the adoption of the QC flag), but not more than that
c
- Duplessis era (1936-1959) is often referred to as the La Grande Noirceur
o It’s a black and white view → prof thinks some nuance is necessary
o This image has led to pushing to the side the 1939-44 period w/i this Grande Noirceur
o 1939-1944: Duplessis was not in power
▪ Liberal Parti (Premier = Godbout) won the elections
▪ Many of the reforms that would come into force in 60s have some of their roots then:
• Right to vote for women
o Adopted by Godbout gov’t – 23 years after adoption at federal level
• Hydro-Quebec was created
• Free & compulsory primary schooling
• Creation of Université de Montréal
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Duplessis is often characterized as an anti-intellectual Premier
• Creation of the Desjardins federation (Caisses Populaires)
▪ Important reforms adopted w/i the period de La Grande Noirceur
o In 1944, Duplessis came back to power
▪ Electoral map was not redrawn, which helped the UN stay in power until D’s death
▪ What we remember most about this period is D’s dominance of QC politics
▪ But seeds of reforms were already starting to appear
o Reason for return to Duplessis to power in 1944
▪ Electoral map was useful + conscription crisis at federal level
• In early 1940s, federal gov’t decided that CA should join the war in Europe
• Since the Canadian PM at the time (McKenzie) had pledged that CA would
not join the war, he decided to hold a referendum asking Canadians to
authorize him not to stand by this campaign pledge.
• Quebecers were against joining the war. This was seen as a promise not kept
by the federal liberal party.
• Since the Godbout gov’t (at provincial level) was also a liberal gov’t (which
was affiliated w/ federal liberal party), the decision hurt the Godbout gov’t
→ gave the impression that provincial liberals were colluding w/ the federal
• Duplessis was able to play on this during the campaign
[This would lead the provincial liberals to disaffiliate themselves w/ the
federal liberals in the 1950s]
• It was too easy for Duplessis to play on this bc UN was not affiliated w/ any
federal party → I’m my own leader, I’m not affiliated w/ any federal party
o Keep in mind that there was already a push in QC for social reform and the liberal party was
partly responsible for this effort to try to enforce reforms in QC → these reforms would be
put to a stop in 1944 w/ the return of Duplessis (for 15 years)
3. Ideology of ‘recoupment’ (rattrapage) (1945–1960)
- Period preceding the Quiet Revolution
- Rattrapage = catching up
- There was the growing feeling in QC among certain intellectual circles that QC society needed to
catch up; more precisely the QC gov’t needed to catch up to all the changes that happened in QC in
the post-war 1956-60 period. In this period, QC society & culture was changing quite a lot & quite
rapidly to the point that the institutions of the time (church & Duplessis regime) were starting more
and more to be out of date/touch w/ QC society.
- Players
o Journalists (like André Laurendeau at Le Devoir is a key representative of this new ideology)
o Union representatives
o Some intellectuals
o Students
o Artists (novelists like Hubert Aquin)
- They were saying: we need to get rid of this old ‘survivance’ ideology
o They were contesting the previous ideology, saying that it was increasingly out of touch
o We needed to fill the gap b/w the dominant ideology & the actual society/culture
o There was the need to take into account, politically-speaking, the socioeconomic changes that
happened following the end of the WWII: the economic boom, the fact that QC society was
urbanizing more and more, that QC society was industrializing more and more → there was a
need to take these important changes into account
o They would highlight that the discourse, structure & political grip of the Catholic church,
and of the D regime, were out of sync w/ society
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
