The Bloc Populaire Canadien and the Origins of French-Canadian Neo-nationalism, 1942–8

MICHAEL D. BEHIELS TheBloc Populaire Canadien andtheOrigins ofFrench-Canadian Neo-nationalism, Le Canadaaux Canadiens, le QuebecauxQu•b•cois!• Cettedictature•conomique,faiseuse d'esclaves et crOatrice de mis•re,estfille du lib•ralisme•conomique. 2 THESE TWO NATIONALIST SLOGANS express thefundamentalaspirations oftheBlocPopulaireCanadien.The BlocPopulaire, bornoutofadual concern overthepossibility ofconscription foroverseas service andthe erosion of Quebec's autonomy at thehandsof a centralizing federal government, achievedonly minimal politicalsuccess. In the •944 provincial election theBlocreceived •5percentofthepopularvotebut managed toelectonlyfourcanadidates, including itsprovincial leader Andr6 Laurendeau,to the Legislative Assembly. The results of the The authoracknowledges thatthetermneo-nationalism hasbeenusedin a restricted sense torefertothose proponents of Qu6b6cois nationalism whoadvocate anindependent andsocial democratic Quebec.The restrictive usefailsto take intoaccount thoseQu6b6cois nationa. lists who,sincethe 194os, havearticulated a secular, state-centred, urban industrial, and liberal nationalism which does not advocate political independence for Quebec. At present Ren6Levesque andClaude Ryanarethetwomainspokesmen for thesetwovariants of contemporary Qu6b6cois neo-nationalism. Theauthor would tiketothank Juliette R6millard, secr6taire delaFondation Lionel-Groulx, for helpfulguidance throughthevarious collections relatedto theBlocPopulaireCanadien. MaximeRaymond, Programmef•ddral duBloc(Montr6al,Le BlocPopulaire Canadien, Document no9), 4. The slogan wasfirstsuggested bythedirectorof Le Devoir, Georges Pelletier,in 'La liberationdesesprits s'envient~elle?' LeDevoir,•5 aofit •94•. MaximeRaymond, Programme provincial duBloc(Montr6al,LeBlocPopulaire Canadien,Documentno lo), 7 CanadianHistorical Review,LxIII, 4, •98• ooo8-3755/8•/• •oo-o487$o•.•5/o ¸ University of TorontoPress 488 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW •945 federalelectionwereevenmorediscouraging. With less than8 per cent of the vote, two Bloc candidates,Maxime Raymond,the federal leader, and Ren• Hamel, won election to the House of Commons. 3 The disintegrationwhich had set in soon after the provincial election wasaccentuated sharply. The Blocdid notsurvive to contest anothercampaign. The Bloc Populaire'shistoricalsignificance obviouslywas not political.Rather,itsimportanceemerges from the factthattheBloc was from the start much more a movement of socio-economic and ethnic protest andreformthanagenuine political party.Thefounders chose deliberately toadoptthetermBlocPopulaire ratherthan'party' and Maxime Raymondstressed continuously that the Blocwasa movement of 'ideas'rather thana replicaof the excessively partisan old-lineparties. 4Asisthecase withmostmovements ofsocio-economic reform,theirimpactislongterm.Consequently, acloser scrutiny and analysis oftheBloc's policies andprogramisessential if theorigins and natureof contemporaryFrench-Canadian neo-nationalism are to be fullydivulgedandunderstood. Accordingto established interpretation,the Bloc'spoliciesand programhavebeenequated,by-and-large, with thoseof the Action LibOrale Nationaleof the •93os.Consequently, theyareviewed asan integraldimensionof the ideologyof traditionalFrench-Canadian nationalism. 5 This nationalist ideologyhasbeencharacterized and viiifled with the three terms of agriculturalism,anti-statism, and messianism. These three dominant elements of traditional FrenchCanadian nationalist ideology symbolized, according toMichelBrunet, a generalwayof thinking, 'une philosophie de la vie qui id•alisele passe, condamne lepresentetsemerledel'ordresocial moderne.C'est un refusde l'•tgeindustrielcontemporain quis'inspire d'uneconceptionstatique delasocietY. 'a 3JeanHamelin,Jacques Letarte,et MarcelHamelin,'Les•lections provinciales dansleQuebec,' Cahiers deG•ographie deQuebec, •v, 7,oct.•959-mars•96o,49-5o, andMurrayBeck,Pendulum ofPower: Canada's Federal Elections (Scarborough, Ont. •968), 253-7 4 Robert Rumilly, Histoire delaprovince deQuebec (Montreal1969),x%75;Maxime Raymond, Maxime Raymond ditpourquoi il lance unnouveau mouvement politique (Montreal •942), 8 5 MasonWade,TheFrench Canadians, •76o-•967, 2 vols.(Toronto•968),•, 98•; Rumilly, Histoire delaprovince deQuebec, x%259;HerbertQuinn,TheUnion Nationale (Toronto1968),153-4- He referstotheBlocproponents asradical nationalists butdoesnotexplainfullytheuseof theterm. 6 MichelBrunet,'Troisdominantes delapenske canadienne-francaise: l'agriculturisme , l'anti-•tatisme etlemessianisme,' in Brunet,Lapresence anglaise etles Canadiens (Montreal •964), • •9 THE BLOC POPULAIRE CANADIEN 489 No doubt, this is a partially valid interpretationof the Bloc movement's nationalist aspirations and socio-economic reform program .Yet,itdoes asevere injustice totheBloc's original contribution to the evolutionof nationalist ideologyin Quebec.In referenceto the ideological turmoilofthe •93os,FernandDumonthasremarkedquite perceptively that 'c'estde l'int6rieur,h partir d'unevisiondu monde acquise etcomment(•e danslesid6ologies, queleQuebec contemporain a faitsapremiere"r6volution" incertaine. '7In fact,theBlocPopulaire movementis an excellentexample of this processof ideological mutationandtransition continuing andaccelerating in the •94os. The Bloc failed, in part, as a political party becauseit was neverunitedasa movement.At root of the crisisplaguingthe Bloc was the ideologicalclash between traditional French-Canadian nationalismand the emergingelementsof secular,urban-oriented neo-nationalism. There was, of course,the longstandingconflict between nationalists who, in the Bourassa tradition, favoured a pan-Canadian francophone nationalism symbolized bytheacceptance of bilingualism andbiculturalism, andtheirnationalist critics who,in theTardivel-Groulxtradition,clamoured for anincreasingly Quebeccentrednationalismleadingto a more autonomous, self-governing French-Canadian society. Theseconflicting aspirations wereaccentuated further by the developmentof...