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Branch/service. United States Army. Years of service. 1944–45. Rank. Liaison officer. Battles/wars. World War II. René Lévesque GOQ ([ʁəne leˈvɛːk] Quebec pronunciation ⓘ; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985.
- Gaspé Childhood
- Journalism
- Lesage Cabinet
- Parti Québécois
- Pq Comes to Power
- 1980 Referendum
- Constitution Battle
- Final Years in Office
- Legacy
Lévesque grew up in the remote, coastal town of New Carlisle, among the fishermen and farmers of the Gaspé peninsula. Because there was no hospital there in 1922, he was born in nearby Campbellton, New Brunswick, the eldest child of Dominique Lévesque, a prominent lawyer, and Diane Dionne. Although the Lévesques were well-to-do, poverty was dire in...
Lévesque had discovered radio journalism in 1938, his last summer in New Carlisle. In Québec City he worked at CBV, a regional Radio-Canada station. When the Second World Warbroke out, he was keen to get into the action, not as a soldier but as a war correspondent. Radio-Canada refused to send him, so in 1944 Lévesque found a position in London wit...
Lévesque joined Jean Lesage's Liberals in the provincial election of 1960, becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Montréal and helping to defeat the old Union nationalegovernment. It was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution, and Lévesque became one Lesage's most popular and energetic Cabinet ministers — helping to modernize Québec, to e...
In 1966, the Lesage government was defeated and Lévesque — increasingly nationalistic, and critical of his party's relations with the federal government — quit the Liberals the following year to found the Mouvement souveraineté-association, which in October 1968 became the Parti québécois. The move was hardly surprising. Through the 1960s, even as ...
In the next election, in 1976, Lévesque and his party faced off against the now-unpopular Liberal regime of Robert Bourassa, weary after years in power and beset by scandal and accusations of nepotism. Lévesque promised good government. He also downplayed the PQ's essential goal — sovereignty — while reassuring Québecers that a PQ government would ...
In the fall of 1979, as time was running out on his government's mandate, Lévesque finally introduced in the National Assembly a plan for sovereignty-association — a politically independent Québec, still economically tied to Canada. A referendum on the question was scheduled for 20 May 1980, only months after the defeat of Joe Clark'sConservatives ...
Against all expectations, the PQ was re-elected in 1981, with Lévesque heading his second majority government. The party may have been helped at the polls by the emergence of new battle lines pitting Lévesque and other provincial premiers against Trudeau, who had announced his intention to repatriate the Constitution from Britain and to proceed uni...
Lévesque returned to the National Assembly to face the hard task of governing. Confronted with economic recession and spiralling provincial deficits, his government met with considerable opposition and public disapproval, including illegal public-sector union strikes, when it attempted to reduce spending to solve its grave financial problems. There...
Lévesque enjoyed two years of retirement, before his heart gave out on 1 November, 1987. In that time he wrote his memoirs, which proved hugely popular. Upon his death, he was remembered across the country, by friends and foes alike, as a giant of Canadian politics. Lévesque's mark on Québec, and Canada, is as indelible as any leader that province ...
Aug 20, 2024 · René Lévesque (born August 24, 1922, Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada—died November 1, 1987, Montreal, Quebec) was the premier of the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec (1976–85) and a leading advocate of sovereignty for that province. Lévesque went to school in Gaspésie and afterward to Laval University, Quebec.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
In 1976, the Parti Québécois won a majority in Quebec under the leadership of René Lévesque. Short of stature, balding, and with a cigarette in hand, Lévesque seemed like an unlikely personality to become premier at first glance. However, by embracing Quebec nationalism and remaining determined through times of hardship, Lévesque was able ...
May 11, 2018 · René Lévesque. As premier of the province of Quebec, Canada, from 1976 to 1985, René Lévesque (1922-1987) was the first French-Canadian political leader since confederation to attempt, through a referendum, to negotiate political independence for Quebec. René Lévesque was born in New Carlisle, in the Gaspé region of Quebec, on August 24 ...
René Lévesque is the Premier of Quebec (from 1976 to 1985) and head of the Parti Québécois. René Lévesque is a sovereignist and believes that Quebec should be an independent country. In this way, Quebeckers would be able to make their own decisions about their future. That’s why there’s a referendum tonight.
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René Lévesque realized very early in life that he was born to be a leader. The eldest of four children, he made an impression on everyone, both at the local school in New Carlisle and at the Séminaire de Gaspé, where he began his classical studies in September 1933. When he arrived at the seminary, one of the first questions he asked its ...
