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humanities 541 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 Learning to Look sometimes implies B memory is described as having the potential to >be turned into a constructive source of healing= B Clement=s speculative forays into the epistemological dimensions of representation are quite valuable, especially since these topics have obviously preoccupied Gallant. To this end, Clement is fluidly conversant with the work of Rudolph Arnheim, Arthur C. Danto, and Susan Sontag, among many others, though I=m surprised that, given her interests, Clement didn=t include Maurice Merleau-Ponty=s work on light and vision. All said, the book is certainly rich as it is. Gallant enthusiasts will be grateful for this study, but so will others; Learning to Look is to be recommended to anyone interested in contemporary writing. (MICHAEL TRUSSLER) Graham Fraser. René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power. 2nd edition McGill-Queen=s University Press. xlvi, 434. $70.00, $27.95 The decision to reissue Graham Fraser=s well-researched, lucidly written, and generally sympathetic journalistic account of René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power is inspired. As an added bonus, Fraser offers his readers a succinct preface describing the forces which precipitated Lévesque=s resignation in 1984 and the subsequent rise and fall of the party under Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard, and Bernard Landry between 1984 and 2001. Fraser=s 1984 study remains the most balanced descriptive account of the rise and fall of Lévesque=s PQ. He relates the fascinating transformation of Lévesque from highly popular Radio-Canada journalist into the most popular neo-nationalist minister in Jean Lesage=s Liberal government (1960B67), and yet again into the messianic founder and leader of a populist secessionist movement, the PQ, in 1968. Against enormous political odds, Lévesque led his fractious coalition of right- and left-wing secessionist forces into office following the unexpected, >shocking= election of November 1976. Fraser characterizes Lévesque=s first administration, 1976B81, as the >Politics of Pride.= It was, indeed, a period of heady political adrenalin during which every conceivable >progressive= francophone collectivist policy B the aggressive promotion of the French language with Camille Laurin=s Bill 101, building close ties with France and la francophonie, and expanding a comprehensive range of expensive health, social service, education, cultural, and environmental programs and crown corporations B seemed both necessary and feasible. Lévesque=s goal was to demonstrate that the francophone nation of Quebec should and could become an independent Québécois nation-state, equal with all other nation-states and fully capable of determining its destiny in the world. Fraser=s third section deals with the highly divisive referendum of May 542 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 1980. The PQ promised supporters a referendum on sovereignty, but Lévesque procrastinated on setting the question and the date until Joe Clark replaced Pierre Trudeau as prime minister in 1979. Fraser discusses but does not elaborate upon some theories as to why Quebec=s francophone new middle-class elite divided into federalist and secessionist camps. He might have pointed out that the deep chasm between Québécois federalists and secessionists reflected competing ideological conceptions B a neoliberal , interventionist, pluralistic state within the Canadian federation, and a homogeneous, Québécois nationalist state. This clash of neo-liberal and neo-nationalist ideologies emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, was consolidated during the various stages of Quebec=s Quiet Revolution after 1960, and resulted in the near-destruction of the Canadian nation-state in the 1995 referendum. Following defeat in the May 1980 independence referendum at the hands of a mission-oriented prime minister Trudeau, Lévesque=s PQ was granted a second mandate by disgruntled francophone voters. Fraser characterizes Lévesque=s second term as the >Politics of Humiliation.= The imperatives of realpolitik trumped nationalist fervour as an economic recession forced the government to rescind over-generous public sector pay hikes, thereby alienating its militants in the three major union centrals. The biggest setback came when Trudeau, supported by nine premiers, obtained the Constitution Act, 1982...

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