On the Record

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

This is an important statement by a leading figure in the movement for
an independent Quebec. It was begun after the founding of the Bloc
Québécois and published in Quebec under the title А visage découvert
in 1992. Now it has been translated and brought out with a more prosaic
English title. On the Record is partly an autobiography, partly a
political testament. Under the first heading it reveals little, but it
succeeds admirably in conveying Lucien Bouchard’s convictions on what
must be done to complete, as he sees it, “the unfinished country” of
Quebec.

Bouchard is an authentic child of “the kingdom of the
Saguenay”—with, one imagines, a loyalty to the region above and
beyond his loyalty to Quebec. He was born in humble circumstances,
received a strict education at the local classical college, and went on
to study law at Laval during the heady days of the 1960s. Here he met
many of the young men who were to be the lay leaders of Quebec during
and after the “Quiet Revolution.” One of these was Brian Mulroney,
who apparently took the time to coach Bouchard in spoken English. But
there is little in the book on the basis of the personal ties between
the two men. While refusing to enter the political arena, Bouchard
actively assisted René Lévesque’s party as an organizer and speech
writer. Then in 1985 came Mulroney’s invitation for Bouchard to become
ambassador in France with the goal of promoting la francophonie, the
unification of French-speaking countries. Meeting his staff in Paris for
the first time, Bouchard made a Freudian slip when he toasted the
strengthening of ties between France and Quebec.

The interest of the book picks up when Bouchard joins the Mulroney
cabinet in 1988. For Bouchard, the Meech Lake Accord was the essential
constitutional change; he could not countenance the modifications to the
agreement proposed by the special Commons committee under Jean Charest.
He stormed out of the government and founded the Bloc Québécois. The
final chapters of Bouchard’s account are excitingly told and offer a
trenchant exposition of his views on the need for an independent Quebec.
At the end of his stay in Mulroney’s cabinet he believed he was cut
out of the constitutional decision-making process, more sinned against
than sinning. History will decide.

The style of On the Record is rather flat, which may be the fault of
the translation. Bouchard emerges from its pages as a clever, dynamic,
and thoroughly committed separatist. It is important to have his
justification for his actions as we approach what he terms the “moment
of truth” in our life as one country.