They find me insistent, retired politicians. Each time I meet one (or one), I inquire about the progress of their memories. I do my best to make those who answer that they don’t do it, that they don’t care about it, feel guilty. I mention their responsibility to testify so that historians understand the time, the decision-making, the mood, the climate, the tension and the camaraderie. Not all have a nimble pen. I urge them to find a young author who will do the research for them and record, in detail, the course of their life.
Jean Lesage, Jean Drapeau, Claude Ryan have left us without leaving their versions of the facts, despite several years of retirement. Pierre Trudeau, with his biting writing, delivered lazy memories. Brian Mulroney did better, with a huge tome, like Jean Chrétien (see below). René Lévesque told the first part of his life well, but lacked perspective for the second. Jacques Parizeau gave himself over to Pierre Duchesne for a long time.
Obviously, each of these accounts is partial and one-sided. They are nonetheless enlightening and, cumulatively, bearers of truths. I could not have told, in my book on October 1970, the fascinating and sometimes bewildering debates which led two Councils of Ministers to decide on a night roundup and hundreds of arrests without the memories left by a dozen ministers since. de Bourassa and de Trudeau.
I am therefore happy to point out the contributions of the last 18 months of these decision-makers who have responded to their duty to remember.
David Cliche I have a particular affection for the posthumous book by Minister David Cliche, One Quebec. Dialogue with First Nations (1978-1995). Beauceron, geologist, a negotiator for a time for the Crees in their opposition to the Grande Baleine project, Cliche had his life during one foot among the Aboriginals, the other among the separatists. He tells how he was, in the pre-referendum year 1994-1995, the emissary of Jacques Parizeau in an ambitious attempt to multiply the territorial regulations and the statutes of autonomy of the First Nations of Quebec. MM. Parizeau and Cliche thought that these offers would result in the support of a certain number of these nations for the independence project. The proposals were well received, but no support materialized, on the contrary. Despite this setback, Cliche shows pugnacity and courage to then advance the files and brave some bullies. Max Gros-Louis, in the preface, pays him a fine tribute.
Dominique anglade If you think that the books written by aspiring prime ministers are necessarily off-putting, you haven’t read Dominique Anglade’s. The story she offers us in This Quebec that inhabits me will cause heart tremors in you, as it makes us experience the immense drama experienced when the Haitian earthquake swept away its own. The essence of this sincere and sensitive autobiography does not relate to politics and his time at the Couillard cabinet (that will come one day, we hope), but on attachment, uprooting, immigration, exile, adaptation and multiple personal identities.
Christine saint-pierre Jean Charest’s women ministers, who made up half of the government, were nicknamed the “Charest’s Angels”. I learn it from readingHere Christine Saint-Pierre. From rank school to ministerial rank. The MP offers no critical perspective on Charest’s management of the red squares crisis or on the cuts during the Couillard era. However, she mentions her successful fight to save the Ministry of International Relations from its demotion to secretariat status, desired by Martin Coiteux, and her lost fight to strengthen Bill 101 a bit. A well-conducted story in which Mr.me Saint-Pierre delivers a secret: she voted Yes in 1995.
Liza Frulla The former Minister of Culture under Robert Bourassa and Heritage under Jean Chrétien did not vote Yes in 1995, but… in 1980! What made him change his mind? “I had a hard time accepting that we would have scared the world so much to finally give up. I was too proud for that. “In the sympathetic biography devoted to him by Judith Lussier, Liza Frulla – The Passionaria, the energetic Frulla delivers herself without filter, including her way of imposing herself in boys clubs successive where she made a career.
Paul Begin The franchise is also at the rendezvous in the tome of the former Minister of Justice Paul Bégin, Looking for a country. Memories of an activist (1962-2002). He tells a double story. That of the surly student who turns into a lawyer, then into a Minister of Justice who will leave a strong mark: the introduction of the Civil Union for same-sex spouses – very daring for the time, in 2001 – , family mediation, the law on ethics and lobbying. That, then, of the disappointed and frustrated independence activist of this country which never ceases to be born. Very laudatory for Jacques Parizeau, he nevertheless has harsh words for René Lévesque, Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.
Jean Christian After two autobiographical volumes, the octogenarian has just given us a second collection of anecdotes, My new stories. Here is a man who has never left the first degree. With him things are simple: he was always right about everything, everywhere. However, he forgets to tell us how he rigged his first two elections (the conservative candidate was a friend of his, who was not campaigning) and how he was kicked out of power because 50% of his party’s delegates were getting ready. to deny him their trust. A future book: “My memory gaps”?
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