Voice from the Past

Out of Canada's past came a once-great voice. It was the voice of 75-year-old Henri Bourassa, the bearded lion of Quebec nationalism.

Those who knew their Canadian history could hardly believe their ears: Henri Bourassa advised French Canadians, when there was no candidate for the isolationist Bloc Populaire, to vote for the socialist C.C.F. On second thought, Canadians realized that the advice was not so surprising after all. Henri Bourassa simply believed that the C.C.F. was likely to be more nationalistic than other parties opposing the Bloc, acted accordingly.

Unholy Alliance. Bourassa's sudden reappearance in the news evoked memories of a great figure in Canadian history. Thirty years ago Nationalist Bourassa formed an "unholy alliance" with anti-nationalist Tories to defeat French Canada's No. 1 statesman, Sir Wilfred Laurier.

For 15 years as Prime Minister, Laurier had ruled Canada and the Liberal Party. Under him Canada had grown to nationhood. Bourassa approved when Laurier compelled Britain to acknowledge Canada's autonomy. But when Laurier sent Canadian contingents to fight in the Boer War, Bourassa turned against him.

When Laurier sought re-election in 1911 on a platform of tariff reciprocity with the U.S., he found himself denounced by Bourassa's nationalists as an imperialist, by the Tories of English Canada for disloyalty to Britain. Defeated and embittered, Laurier retired to the Opposition, never regained office, died in 1919. Bourassa's nationalist faith deeply affected French Canadian thought. Although he finally quit politics in 1935, he emerged in World War II to fight conscription as bitterly as he had fought the sending of Canadians to South Africa.

Today, in semiretirement in Montreal, Henri Bourassa is still slim, still wiry. His old voice has cracked a little, but he is thoroughly unreconstructed. Last winter he advised French Canadians not to believe German atrocity stories, told them that only an alliance between Franco, Salazar, Petain and Mussolini would save the world from Communism.

He is writing his memoirs.

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