From Bourassa to Bourassa: Wilderness to Restoration

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McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2002 - Biography & Autobiography - 363 pages
Robert Bourassa, a pariah after losing power to the separatist Parti Québécois in the 1976 election, emerged a decade later from political exile to lead his party back to power. As he said: "I succeeded my successor." Claude Ryan, formerly the respected publisher of Le Devoir, had led the Quebec Liberal Party and the federalist coalition to a decisive victory in the 1980 referendum on Quebec sovereignty, but the uneasy alliance of Ryan and Pierre Trudeau did not survive the prime minister's unilateral patriation of the Canadian constitution. This contributed to Ryan's defeat in the 1981 Quebec election and to Bourassa's restoration.
First published to critical acclaim in 1984, this second edition of From Bourassa to Bourassa brings the story up-to-date, recounting Bourassa's landslide election victory in 1985 and his subsequent role in the Meech Lake Accord and the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the two issues that largely defined the decade of the 1980s for Quebec and for Canada.
 

Contents

A Change May Be in the Order of Things
3
Picking Up the Pieces
13
This Damn Word Irrevocable
27
Draft Ryan
33
Insider Outsider
44
Scarves and Balloons
55
The Ryan Express
70
Observe Judge Act
82
Two Hardheads
141
The Heirs of Lord Acton
152
The Favorite Son
161
May 20 1980
172
The Silent Spring
183
Bourassa Redux
205
Second Debut
233
Deal at Dawn
267

Non merci
92
IO Yvette
100
Le oui et le non
109
The Cousins
121
Such Good Friends
282
Annus Horribilis 1990
301
Copyright

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