The Antagonist: Lucien Bouchard and the Politics of Delusion

D.M.L. Farr is professor emeritus of history at Carleton University and
the editor of Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

The author of a fine study of Jean Chrétien, Lawrence Martin has
written an arresting biography of Chrétien’s antagonist, the man he
calls the greatest threat to the unity of Canada in the 20th century. To
Martin, the dark and brooding Lucien Bouchard combines the fiery
intensity of the Créditiste leader Réal Caouette with the charm of
Pierre Trudeau and the common touch of René Lévesque. These traits,
which support his unique ability to tap into the “folk-soul” of
Quebec, have given Bouchard a mythic stature in his native province.
Martin focuses particularly on Bouchard’s career after he joined Brian
Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in 1984, painting a striking
picture of this driven, flawed man.

His portrait nicely complements Bouchard’s own memoir, On the Record
(1994), written while he was laying the foundation of his own separatist
party, the Bloc Québécois. It relies mainly on interviews with
Bouchard’s associates, both friends and foes, conducted during 1996
and 1997 and meticulously documented in 20 pages of notes. With so many
voices entering into the account, the style is uneven, ranging from
street colloquial to dispassionate commentary. This makes for vivid
reading even if it smudges the portrait at times.

The theme that Martin returns to again and again relates to
Bouchard’s inconsistencies, his ambiguities, his shifting stances.
Here is a man who in his 58 years has endorsed six political parties,
showing leanings that reflected, respectively, a family background in
the Union Nationale, a college flirtation with the New Democratic Party,
and a brief romance with Pierre Trudeau, and then serving successively
as a worker for René Lévesque in the 1970s, a partner of and adviser
to Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, a founder of the Bloc Québécois, and
now leader of the Parti Québécois. Martin provides an appendix titled
“The Contortions of the Mind.” Here he lists 50 examples of
occasions on which Bouchard has reversed himself or made statements that
are clearly at odds with established fact. It is a frightening
indictment of the premier of a province and a major player on the
Canadian political scene.

The Antagonist draws on the controversial psychiatric report, prepared
by Toronto’s Dr. Vivian Rakoff, that analyzes the symptoms of
Bouchard’s emotional instability. Rakoff finds a gnawing insecurity in
Bouchard as well as an immense vanity: “The true loyalty of Bouchard
is to himself.” The report is not reproduced in full, but Martin
convincingly links its findings to episodes and utterances in
Bouchard’s career.

This is a book with a disturbing subject. If the possession of power is
Bouchard’s ultimate goal—the power to create and then direct a 19th-
century-style ethnic state—then Canada is headed for tempestuous
times. Everyone concerned with the prospects of a united Canada should
be aware of the magnetic leader so well portrayed by Lawrence Martin.