Louis Robichaud: A Decade of Power

D.M.L. Farr is a professor emeritus of history at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

Admire him or not, Louis Robichaud “changed the face of New Brunswick” forever. In his ten years as Liberal premier in the sixties, he made the province officially bilingual, modernized the public service, and laid down a comprehensive social reform programme in the courts and in the education and health services. In his efforts to promote industrial development, the populist Robichaud clashed with K.C. Irving, the province’s most powerful businessman. These events coincided with unrest among the younger Acadians, especially the students at the Université de Moncton (a Robichaud creation). Thus, Robichaud’s ten years as the first elected Acadian premier were perhaps the most turbulent in New Brunswick’s history. Robichaud came away from the decade still only 45, the rest of his political career to be a long anti-climax.

This book is about Robichaud as the dynamic premier of an administratively backward and politically conservative province. It is a careful account of the legislation he sponsored, putting the government’s reformist measures in the context of the traditional society that was New Brunswick in the 1960s. It describes his government’s response to national issues such as bilingualism, with its local fallout in Acadian assertiveness. It patiently analyzes where Robichaud’s political strength was to be found in the province. Hints of Robichaud the private person come through, but mainly the book recounts the activities of a public figure.

Della Stanley is thoroughly grounded in the history and politics of her native province. She has read everything available, at least for the present, on the Robichaud decade. If at first she appears uncritical toward her subject, she shows her objectivity in a final chapter, an assessment of the Robichaud policies. She brings out the overconfidence of the government, its loss of touch with New Brunswickers, its failure to work out a strategy for economic development, and its reliance on Ottawa for transfer payments to support progressive but costly reform legislation. It is a fair appreciation, providing a necessary last word in what is a model biography of an important provincial leader.