Really Short Bio
1936 - Maurice Duplessis had become premier of Quebec for the first time.
1939 – Duplessis lost the election.
1944 – Duplessis regained the position of premier and kept it till death.
1959 – Maurice Duplessis dies.
Goals/Promises:
1936 – To end the Depression. He planned to do so by ending the control English Canada and the US had over the economy of Quebec.
He desired to protect traditional Quebec society. The Catholic Church held one of the most important roles in doing so.
Under Duplessis
Outside interests still controlled Quebec during Duplessis’s two decade rule. Most of Quebec’s new industry was owned and dominated by the English. Companies such as Northern Electric functioned out of Montreal with “white collar” English-speaking office workers and “blue collar” Francophone factory workers.
In 1949, the Asbestos strike rose. The cause were four companies owned by American or English Canadians while a large majority of the workers were Francophones. There workers were paid low wages and exposed routinely to potentially carcinogenic (cancer causing) asbestos. The companies discouraged unions and Duplessis opposed anything that looked like socialism.
Safer worker conditions and a salary raise were demanded during a strike in February 1949. Police were sent in by the provincial government to break up the strike and as the four month strike continued there was violence on both sides.
Duplessis had promised to guard Quebec from English exploitation but in this case he favored the outside owners against the workers.
Some Church leaders took the side of the workers during the strike but ordinarily there was a strong collaboration between the Roman Catholic Church and Duplessis. The Church was a considerable power in Quebec, so much so that in 1960, any child born in Quebec received a baptismal certificate instead of a birth certificate. Everyone in Quebec was expected to be a regular church-goer.
The Church also cooperated with the government with the handling of illegitimate children, which were put into orphanages to be raised by nuns because of society’s outlook on unwed mothers. Among these children, more than a thousand were wrongly diagnosed as mentally disabled and taken out of school to serve in hard manual labor.
The biased education system under Duplessis was run by the Church and funded politically. Instead of teaching business, science and technology (like the English taught) the Church taught religious studies, literature and history. This was done in an attempt to counteract the influence of the modern English world but it resulted in Quebec graduates not being capable of competing with people taught elsewhere.
By the 1950’s it was known by many that Duplessis’ Union Nationale government provided provincial money in the form of public works projects such as roads or bridges to the constituencies that elected Union Nationale candidates. But these allegations didn’t stop Duplessis from being re-elected right to the very end, which for him was in 1959.
Despite wanting the best for Quebec and its culture, Duplessis and his government caused more harm than good. First of all, Duplessis wasn’t prepared to go against the English on his own, which is obvious by his decision to support them during the Asbestos strike. Second, because of his poor and biased education system many Quebec graduates were rendered unable to compete in the job market. And thirdly, any government that has to bribe people to get re-elected is clearly not a very effective government at all.
1936 - Maurice Duplessis had become premier of Quebec for the first time.
1939 – Duplessis lost the election.
1944 – Duplessis regained the position of premier and kept it till death.
1959 – Maurice Duplessis dies.
Goals/Promises:
1936 – To end the Depression. He planned to do so by ending the control English Canada and the US had over the economy of Quebec.
He desired to protect traditional Quebec society. The Catholic Church held one of the most important roles in doing so.
Under Duplessis
Outside interests still controlled Quebec during Duplessis’s two decade rule. Most of Quebec’s new industry was owned and dominated by the English. Companies such as Northern Electric functioned out of Montreal with “white collar” English-speaking office workers and “blue collar” Francophone factory workers.
In 1949, the Asbestos strike rose. The cause were four companies owned by American or English Canadians while a large majority of the workers were Francophones. There workers were paid low wages and exposed routinely to potentially carcinogenic (cancer causing) asbestos. The companies discouraged unions and Duplessis opposed anything that looked like socialism.
Safer worker conditions and a salary raise were demanded during a strike in February 1949. Police were sent in by the provincial government to break up the strike and as the four month strike continued there was violence on both sides.
Duplessis had promised to guard Quebec from English exploitation but in this case he favored the outside owners against the workers.
Some Church leaders took the side of the workers during the strike but ordinarily there was a strong collaboration between the Roman Catholic Church and Duplessis. The Church was a considerable power in Quebec, so much so that in 1960, any child born in Quebec received a baptismal certificate instead of a birth certificate. Everyone in Quebec was expected to be a regular church-goer.
The Church also cooperated with the government with the handling of illegitimate children, which were put into orphanages to be raised by nuns because of society’s outlook on unwed mothers. Among these children, more than a thousand were wrongly diagnosed as mentally disabled and taken out of school to serve in hard manual labor.
The biased education system under Duplessis was run by the Church and funded politically. Instead of teaching business, science and technology (like the English taught) the Church taught religious studies, literature and history. This was done in an attempt to counteract the influence of the modern English world but it resulted in Quebec graduates not being capable of competing with people taught elsewhere.
By the 1950’s it was known by many that Duplessis’ Union Nationale government provided provincial money in the form of public works projects such as roads or bridges to the constituencies that elected Union Nationale candidates. But these allegations didn’t stop Duplessis from being re-elected right to the very end, which for him was in 1959.
Despite wanting the best for Quebec and its culture, Duplessis and his government caused more harm than good. First of all, Duplessis wasn’t prepared to go against the English on his own, which is obvious by his decision to support them during the Asbestos strike. Second, because of his poor and biased education system many Quebec graduates were rendered unable to compete in the job market. And thirdly, any government that has to bribe people to get re-elected is clearly not a very effective government at all.