| After leaving my home and watching family and friends scatter to
other parts of the country, primarily due to his parties' utter
ruination of the social and economic fabric of Quebec life, I
personnally cannot say that this man left a great legacy to the
Canadian or Quebecois people.
In his early days, Rene was the champion of the average worker.
He started as a journalist with a vision of his province and its
people taking its rightful place in the Canadian "experiment" as
I believe he called it. Partners. He originally viewed Canada as
a merger between two companies. He was later to join the provincial
Liberals and became wholly responsible for the nationalization of
what is now known as Hydro Quebec. During the period of the "quiet
revolution", (letter bombs were not so quiet), he became less moderate.
He spoke openly of a seperate society, attracting those leftist,
militant seperatists (who were underground) as well as the average
young quebecois; 14-25 years old.
Amazingly, just 6 short years after the Laporte murder by militant
seperatists, Quebecois voted in a government led by Rene whose primary
platform was GOOD, HONEST GOVERNMENT and secondarily, seperation.
Pinochio (popular nickname for Bourassa),warned us that if we thought
things had been bad under the Liberals,(especially Bill 23),
just wait until the PQ got in. He, unfortunately, was right. All
that time we that Pinocchio was just another arrogant politician in the
style of Pierre Trudeau.
At first it seemed like they were passing mostly social reforms.
Paid presciptions for senior citizens. Improvements in government
housing programs. Cleanup of much of the graft and corruption that
decades of Liberal/Union Nationale rule had wrought. Then came Bill
101 and the Language Police and the dictums that permitted only
children of Quebec born English parents to attend English schools
and regulations that prohibited intercompany correspondence from
being issued in English, etc. Then there was a union strike at United
Aircraft that resulted in a law preventing employers from hiring
scab labour during a strike; literally putting management at the
mercy of the unions. Another strike at Baie James in which workers
went on a rampage and destroyed over $350 million of equipment,
etc. The case was "settled " out of court by the Justice dept.
for a paltry $300,000. Finally there were allegations, about the
graft going on in the various government beauracracies, about Claude
Charron stealiing a coat from Eatons, about another government minister
molesting young girls and of course the scandal over the governments'
video facilities being used to make pornographic films.
By the time of the PQ's demise, so much industry had left the province,
and so little confidence in the economies ability to sustain itself was
left. Montreal, once the proud financial capital of Canada, the
cosmopolitan city teeming with the arts and sports, is now a poor
reflection of Toronto.
Am I bitter? Somewhat. I left of my own accord; like most of my
family and friends, for the greener pastures of Ottawa and Toronto
and Calgary. I live now in New Jersey and work in New York. I hope
one day to return to live in Canada, but I know I can never return
to live in Montreal. BTW I was, unlike many others, employed at the
time of my departure but I didn't see much of a future.
Carol
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| Being a misplaced Montrealer living in Toronto, I too have some
bitter feelings in regards to Rene Levesque. However, these feelings
fall far short of the respect I have for the man. He tried to make
Quebec a better place for people who have been placed on the back
burner in their own province. I may not agree with his politics
but he tried to make his province a better place, and isn't that
the job of a premier? He will be missed.
Ron
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|
As a final note of irony, the proud city of Montreal has decide
to rename Dorchester Blvd to ... can you guess? That's right ...
Levesque Blvd. BTW Levesque Blvd is home to
Air CANADA
Revenue CANADA (Quebec office)
CANADIAN National Railroad
CANADIAN Broadcasting Corp.
Royal Bank Of CANADA (good thing their letterhead is 1 Place
Ville Marie).
Jeez they didn't even wait for the Statue to be erected. They probably
construct a new park in Westmount, just where Dorchester...whoops
Levesque Blvd begins.
Nice going Jean Dore, (mayor of Montreal).
Carol
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| I can understand the bitterness that Quebec anglophones feel when
Levesque's name is mentioned, but I can hardly sympathize. The
events of the Quiet Revolution and the later rise to power for
the Parti Quebecois were a result of years of anglophone domination
of the Quebec economy. What now exists in Quebec is an economy
that is powered by thousands of young entrepenuers. The move of
the Canadian financial community from Montreal to Toronto had started
years before Levesque. With the free trade deal, these new
entreprenuers will rebuild the economic strength of Quebec. The
language laws were too strict, but on the whole, I believe Rene
Levesque did what had to be done to return Quebec to the majority
of the province.
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| First of all, the anglophone domination that Quebecois resent was
that of a central government that seemed more responsive to the
needs of Ontario. In fact there was a great deal of similarity in
the expressed comments of western Canada with the Quebecois. Quebec
did not like being told that its natural resources were under the
control of the Ottawa government when it tried to unilaterally sell
uranium mining rights to an American consortium. It also did not
feel that the various Canadian trade commissions around the world
were representing the Quebec exporters effectively.
The move of Canadas' financial industry actually got underway in
the fall of 1975 when it became more apparent that a separatist
government was more than a possibility. Royal Bank Of Canada, Bank
of Montreal began to shift more of their central decision making
to their divisional offices, (including Calgary) and made plans
to decentralize first as a precautionary measure. In fact, when
I was with BOM in 1974, our marketing group was concerned that the
"Montreal" in our name was the reason for declining market share
in the western provinces. The conclusion was to bring the title
"The First Canadian Bank" to greater preeminence. Subsequently new
products were called "First Canadian xxxxx.
Montreal will never regain her status as Canada's financial capital.
Additionally, it will take a long time for Montreal to become the
thriving economy it once was.
Carol
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Hmm,
I didn't see any arrogance in .6. All I read was, presumably
fact and Carol's first-hand experiences in the matter in question?!?
If you don't like facts and/or other people's opinions Monsieur LeDuc,
I humbly suggest that you may have a problem!
Don H.
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