Founding Fathers: The Celebration of Champlain and Laval in the Streets of Quebec, 1878–1908

Gratien Allaire is a professor of history at Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Ontario.

In 2003, Année francophone internationale organized a conference to
honour Samuel de Champlain and the Tadoussac post of 1603. It was the
first of a series of events designed to commemorate Champlain’s
achievements over the next few years: the settlement of Sainte-Croix,
the founding of Quebec City, the “discovery” of Lake Champlain, and
the expedition to the Huron country. But Mgr Franзois de Montmorency
Laval, the founder of the Canadian Catholic Church, who died in 1708,
will not be remembered, in sharp contrast to 1908, when both he and
Champlain were celebrated in Quebec City, the culmination of almost a
half-century of discussions aimed at building the historical image of
the two men and presenting the public with two heroes and models. It all
started in 1877 with the discovery of Laval’s lost coffin by two
workers in the basement of Quebec City’s basilica.

Rudin’s study focuses on the four following “mega-events” staged
to honour two competing heroes, one religious, one secular, in the hope
that they would “shape public opinion”: the reburial of Laval’s
remains (1878), the erection of a monument to Champlain (1898), the
erection of a monument to Laval (1908), and the tercentenary of
Champlain’s founding of Quebec City (1908). Rudin points out that
“these four spectacles were the product of intense and often messy
negotiations among groups that did not necessarily see eye to eye about
either the form of the celebrations or the messages to be conveyed
thereby.” The public interest in these two heroes faded away not so
long after the events.

Founding Fathers has the distinct merit of discussing the evolution of
the commemoration and placing it in its historical context. During the
second half of the 19th century, ultramontanism was a strong influence
in Quebec society and politics, and Laval exemplified the collaboration
between church and state; at the turn of the 20th century, British
imperialism added its powerful force to Canadian politics and, despite
French-Canadian nationalists, Champlain was made into a Canadian hero.