Bourassa

Tony Barclay is a retired juvenile corrections probation officer and a
former public-health research associate at the University of Toronto.

This book is not a biography of Premier Bourassa. Perhaps, indeed, the
most revealing thing about the man in the book is the charming picture
taken with his son. Most of the text is a journalistic account of events
in Quebec since his first election. While it concentrates on Bourassa
and therefore says almost nothing about René Lévesque and his term in
office, it is essentially a political history—a history written from
the point of view of a Quebec nationalist.

This book is full of nuggets of information about personalities and
relationships that will probably be new to those living outside Quebec.
While readers from English-speaking Canada may well disagree with the
judgments expressed about Canadian politicians, these judgments are
clearly well informed. Moreover, as the book progresses it becomes more
and more lively. The author is in his element as he describes the
maneuvering about the Meech Lake agreement—although I, for one, feel
that he entirely misses the point in analyzing the reasons for its
rejection. The book not only completely underestimates the importance of
the position of Native Canadians and the appeal of Clyde Wells to
English-speaking Canadians outside Newfoundland; it also leaves out the
serious reservations of women’s groups. These flaws substantially
weaken the author’s conclusions about that episode of our history.
Unfortunately, his view is widely shared in Quebec.

Perhaps the most interesting and disturbing element in the book is the
last two chapters. Vastel seems to harbor ideas about the English press
that come close to paranoia. He discusses the events around the Oka
crisis in terms of Quebec under siege. In the last chapter, he discusses
Bourassa as a possible leader for an independent Quebec. He concludes
that a man who would risk his life to see his province through the Oka
crisis—as Bourassa did, by postponing much-needed surgery—is indeed
worthy of such a role.

This book, stating as it does a view that is not always widely
appreciated in English Canada, should be read by serious Canadians who
seek to understand the position of French-Canadian nationalists.