Montcalm, Duplessis, Parizeau and the others

When they died, the Marquis de Montcalm and the Prime Ministers of Quebec Maurice Duplessis and Jacques Parizeau perhaps had some regrets, but they could say that they had fought with all their might for the French nation of America.

“To struggle against.” This is the theme of the second volume of Important figures in our historywhich has just been published by VLB under the direction of Éric Bédard, professor at TÉLUQ University.

“The 13 characters we present in this book have in common that they fought for principles. Soldier, printer, writer, journalist, farmer, politician or others, they have marked our history in their own way,” summarizes in an interview with Journal the director of this collection, which takes up the themes of the shows he hosted for seven years at MAtv.

Shadow characters

The book presents well-researched and admirably written biographies of sometimes very well-known personalities (in addition to Montcalm, Duplessis and Parizeau, the politicians Honoré Mercier and Ludger Duvernay are the subject of chapters), but most are less present in the collective memory.

Absent from Quebec toponymy, Hauris Lalancette (1932-2019), for example, is an Abitibian farmer who campaigned for the rights of peasants, notably as a political organizer. He is at the origin of three National Film Board films directed by filmmaker Pierre Perreault.

“Through its trajectory and its achievements, Hauris Lalancette represents all the utopian ambition of what will have embodied the hopes of the popular classes who fought to give themselves a future,” writes Robert Laplante.

Four women are among these notable figures: the trade unionist Éva Circé-Côté (1871-1949), the singer Pauline Julien (1928-1998) and two Marie Gérin-Lajoie; the mother (1867-1945) and the daughter (1890-1971). “The confusion between mother and daughter is doubly understandable,” writes historian Karine Hébert. In addition to having the same name, they worked together, for many years, to improve French-Canadian society and, above all, to improve the living conditions of women.

Little-known facets

Several journalists and printers are among these fighters. Librarian Mathieu Thomas takes us into the incredible life of one of them, Médéric Lanctôt.

Journalist, lawyer, rejected politician, respected then despised trade unionist, he ended his career in poverty and died at 38. “At the same time nationalist, independentist, cooperatist, associationist and proto-socialist, Médéric Lanctôt deserves to be recognized as one of the most original French-Canadian thinkers of his time,” writes Thomas.

Dave Noël presents us with the little-known side of Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who died the day after his most famous battle in 1759. Always presented as the vanquished in Quebec historiography, he nevertheless had a remarkable military career. In reality, the plains of Abraham were the scene of his only defeat…

Éric Bédard (dir.), Significant figures in our history, Vol. 2: FightVLB publisher, 344 p., $35.95.