Paddling with the Current

D.M.L. Farr is professor emeritus of history at Carleton University,
where he taught Canadian political history and the history of Canada’s
external relations.

Paddling with the Current is a small book with a long title. The title
derives from a collection of Pierre Trudeau’s writings, Against the
Current (1996). It is Claude Couture’s contention that Trudeau, along
with many others, misunderstood the nature of Quebec society. In
emphasizing English and American ideas on individual rights and in
applying them to Quebec, he hardened the nationalism he was so
determined to supplant.

The notion that Quebec before the Quiet Revolution was a monolithic
society, largely rural and dominated by a traditionalist church, is a
myth, Couture claims. In reality it was highly urbanized and
industrialized and home to a range of expressions of liberal thought.
One such thinker was Йtienne Parent (1802–74), the subject of a long
chapter in Couture’s book. Parent, drawing on European and American
sources, recommended a progressive agenda for Quebec’s political and
economic life. He was but one of the exponents of liberal ideas in the
so-called collectivist Quebec of the 19th century.

Claude Couture teaches political science in the Faculté Saint-Jean at
the University of Alberta. His work was originally written in French and
has been translated by a colleague. It is not an easy book to read,
since it deals largely with theoretical and social science concepts. It
is based on an exhaustive reading of the literature on Trudeau,
nationalism, and liberalism as well as the history of Quebec. The
bibliography alone takes up 15 pages in a 137-page text. Still, it is an
original attempt to subject Trudeau’s views, so widely accepted today
in English-speaking Canada, to critical scrutiny. Couture quotes
approvingly George Grant on Trudeau: “I distrust his distrust of
traditional French Canada.” The book is an earnest explication of this
theme.