André Laurendeau: French-Canadian Nationalist, 1912-1968

James G. Snell is a history professor at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

André Laurendeau was at the centre of debate within Québec about the
character and future of the French-Canadian nation for more than 50
years. Horton takes full advantage of Laurendeau’s pivotal position in
the development of modern French-Canadian nationalism in this latest
biography of the man. The author uses Laurendeau very effectively to
present not only a revealing portrait of the man and his ideas, but also
an insightful account of many of the facets in the complex network of
Québécois views of themselves and of their future.

Born into a well-connected petit bourgeois family with both rural and
urban roots, the young Laurendeau quickly found himself in close contact
with key elements in the French-Canadian intellectual and nationalist
communities. He was trained to intellectual pursuits by Jesuit teachers
and at university found himself under the authoritative influence of
Abbé Groulx, a central figure within conservative, Catholic nationalism
in the province.

Laurendeau demonstrated intellectual capacity and growth during a
three-year sojourn in France in the late 1930s. He consciously exposed
himself to differing currents of thought and ideas, and in the light of
these fresh ideas reconsidered his own views about society and French
Canada’s future. Laurendeau returned to Québec in 1939 more concerned
to espouse a nationalism that encompassed the needs of a modernizing
industrial society. He articulated those views increasingly through the
relatively conservative nationalist organizations and media to which he
had access and then through the Bloc Populaire Canadien, a political
party that sought to voice nationalist demands in the mid-1940s.

During the 1950s Laurendeau enjoyed a position of great influence as
editor of the authoritative voice of Québec intellectuals and
nationalists, Le Devoir. Through his editorials and articles, he helped
to lead the attacks on the Duplessis government of the province,
supported the dramatic changes that began to occur during the Quiet
Revolution, and challenged the federal government to adapt federalist
structures to accommodate the “new” Québec. Laurendeau died while
chairing the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism that
resulted from this latter challenge.

In this finely written study, Horton gives the reader important
insights into many strains of nationalist thought in Québec and
provides a highly readable account of a towering intellectual figure.