Robert Bourassa
Encyclopedia
Jean-Robert Bourassa, was a politician in Quebec
, Canada
. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec
in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier.
family in Montreal
, the son of Adrienne (née Courville) and Aubert Bourassa, a port authority worker. Robert Bourassa graduated from the Université de Montréal
law school in 1956 and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec
the following year. On August 23, 1958, he married Andrée Simard, an heiress of the powerful shipbuilding Simard family of Sorel, Quebec. Later, he studied at the University of Oxford
and also obtained a degree in political economy
at Harvard University
in 1960. On his return to Quebec, he was employed at the federal Department of National Revenue as a fiscal adviser. He also worked as a professor of public finance at Université de Montréal and Université Laval
.
(MLA) for the riding of Mercier
in 1966, then went on to lead the Quebec Liberal Party on January 17, 1970. He positioned himself as a young, competent, administrator. He chose "100 000 jobs" as his slogan, which emphasized that jobs creation would be his priority. Bourassa felt the extensive hydro-electric resources of Quebec were the most effective means of completing the modernization of Quebec and sustaining job creation. He successfully led his party into government in the 1970 election
, defeating the conservative Union Nationale
government and becoming the youngest premier in Quebec history.
One of Bourassa's first crises as premier was the October Crisis
of 1970, in which his labour minister, Pierre Laporte
, was kidnapped and murdered. Bourassa requested that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
invoke the War Measures Act
to resolve the situation. The decision, although controversial, helped the police and government forces avert further abductions. After Laporte's kidnapping, it is said that Bourassa barricaded himself and his cabinet behind heavy layers of security.
Bourassa and Trudeau often clashed over issues of federal-provincial relations and Quebec nationalism
, with Trudeau opposing what he saw as concessions to sovereignism.
During his time in power, Bourassa implemented policies aimed at protecting the status of the French language in Quebec. In 1974, he introduced Bill 22
. However, this legislation was soon superseded by the Charter of the French Language
also known as Bill 101, introduced by the Parti Québécois government that replaced him in 1976. By making French the official language of Quebec, Quebec was no longer institutionally bilingual (English and French). Many businesses and professionals were unable to operate under such requirements. Bill 22 angered Anglophones while not going far enough for many Francophones; Bourassa was vilified by both groups and lost the 1976 election in a landslide.
Bourassa initiated the James Bay hydroelectric project
in 1971 that led to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
of 1975 with the Cree
and Inuit
inhabitants of the region. The Bourassa government also played a major role in rescuing the 1976 Olympic Games
in Montreal from the huge cost overruns and construction delays. Bourassa's government became embroiled in corruption scandals that led to his 1976 defeat.
Bourassa lost the 1976 provincial election
to René Lévesque
, leader of the separatist
Parti Québécois
. Bourassa resigned as Liberal Party leader, and accepted teaching positions in Europe and the United States. He remained in political exile until he returned to politics as Liberal leader on October 15, 1983. He was elected in the former Montérégie
riding of Bertrand (now Marguerite-D'Youville
) and regained the office of premier in the 1985 election
. However, Bourassa lost his seat to the Parti Québécois candidate Jean-Guy Parent. In 1986, he was elected in a by-election
in the Liberal stronghold of Saint-Laurent
after the MNA, Germain Leduc, left his seat vacant.
of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
to override a Supreme Court of Canada
ruling that declared parts of the Charter of the French Language unconstitutional, causing some English-speaking ministers in his government to resign. A few years later, however, he introduced modifications to the language charter. These compromises reduced the controversy over language that had been a dominant feature of Quebec politics over the previous decades.
Bourassa also pushed for Quebec to be acknowledged in the Canadian constitution as a "distinct society", promising Quebec residents that their grievances could be resolved within Canada with a new constitutional deal. Early in his first time in office, he participated in an attempt at constitutional reform, the Victoria Charter
of 1971. It quickly unravelled when Bourassa backed away from the proposed deal after it was strongly criticized by Quebec opinion leaders for not giving Quebec more powers. In his second time in office, Bourassa worked closely with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
and received many concessions from the federal government, culminating in the Meech Lake Accord
in 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord
in 1992. The Meech Lake Accord failed in June 1990 when two provinces, Manitoba and Newfoundland, refused to ratify the agreement their premiers had signed. The Charlottetown Accord was defeated in a nationwide plebiscite in 1992. That failure revived the Quebec separatist movement.
In 1996, Bourassa died in Montreal of malignant melanoma at the age of 63, and was interred at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
in Montreal.
announced that Montreal's Parc Avenue would be named after Bourassa. On November 28 the Montreal city council voted in favour (40-22) of renaming Parc Avenue after Bourassa. If, as had been expected, Quebec's Toponymy Commission
had approved the name change, all of Parc Avenue and its continuation, Bleury, would have been renamed Avenue Robert Bourassa. This would have caused the newly named street to intersect René-Lévesque Boulevard, named after a long time political rival to Bourassa. That boulevard, in turn, had been renamed from Dorchester Boulevard in 1987, in a decision that was also not without controversy. This decision by the City of Montreal without any consultation with the people of the city caused an immediate controversy, though many of those opposed to the change considered it a fait accompli
. The proposal spawned substantial grass-roots opposition, both because of the lack of prior citizen input and because Parc is itself a meaningful street name, associated with the city's Mount Royal
park. In addition to protests and active opposition by a committee of Montreal residents and businesses opposed to the name change, an online petition garnered more than 18,000 virtual signatures against this renaming. On February 5, 2007, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay
withdrew his proposal to rename Parc Avenue.
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier.
Early years and education
Bourassa was born to a working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
family in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, the son of Adrienne (née Courville) and Aubert Bourassa, a port authority worker. Robert Bourassa graduated from the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
law school in 1956 and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec
Barreau du Quebec
The Bar of Quebec is the provincial law society for lawyers in Quebec, Canada...
the following year. On August 23, 1958, he married Andrée Simard, an heiress of the powerful shipbuilding Simard family of Sorel, Quebec. Later, he studied at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and also obtained a degree in political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1960. On his return to Quebec, he was employed at the federal Department of National Revenue as a fiscal adviser. He also worked as a professor of public finance at Université de Montréal and Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
.
First term
Bourassa was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of QuebecLegislative Assembly of Quebec
The Legislative Assembly of Quebec was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature until 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, the upper house of the legislature, the Legislative Council, was abolished...
(MLA) for the riding of Mercier
Mercier (provincial electoral district)
Mercier is a provincial electoral district in Quebec, Canada that elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The district is located in Montreal. It is bounded to the north and east by the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the south by Rue Rachel and to the west by Avenue de l'Esplanade. The...
in 1966, then went on to lead the Quebec Liberal Party on January 17, 1970. He positioned himself as a young, competent, administrator. He chose "100 000 jobs" as his slogan, which emphasized that jobs creation would be his priority. Bourassa felt the extensive hydro-electric resources of Quebec were the most effective means of completing the modernization of Quebec and sustaining job creation. He successfully led his party into government in the 1970 election
Quebec general election, 1970
The Quebec general election of 1970 was held on April 29, 1970 to elect members of the National Assembly of Quebec, Canada. The former Legislative Assembly had been renamed the "National Assembly" in 1968...
, defeating the conservative Union Nationale
Union Nationale (Canada)
The Union nationale was a political party in Quebec, Canada, that identified with conservative Québécois autonomist nationalism. It was created during the Great Depression and held power in Quebec from 1936 to 1939, and from 1944 to 1960 under the leadership of Premier Maurice Duplessis, and...
government and becoming the youngest premier in Quebec history.
One of Bourassa's first crises as premier was the October Crisis
October Crisis
The October Crisis was a series of events triggered by two kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec during October 1970 in the province of Quebec, mainly in the Montreal metropolitan area.The circumstances ultimately culminated in the only peacetime use...
of 1970, in which his labour minister, Pierre Laporte
Pierre Laporte
Pierre Laporte was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician who was the Deputy Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec before being kidnapped and killed by members of the group Front de libération du Québec during the October Crisis. Mr...
, was kidnapped and murdered. Bourassa requested that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
invoke the War Measures Act
War Measures Act
The War Measures Act was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended"...
to resolve the situation. The decision, although controversial, helped the police and government forces avert further abductions. After Laporte's kidnapping, it is said that Bourassa barricaded himself and his cabinet behind heavy layers of security.
Bourassa and Trudeau often clashed over issues of federal-provincial relations and Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
, with Trudeau opposing what he saw as concessions to sovereignism.
During his time in power, Bourassa implemented policies aimed at protecting the status of the French language in Quebec. In 1974, he introduced Bill 22
Official Language Act (Quebec)
The Official Language Act of 1974 , also known as Bill 22, is an act of the National Assembly of Quebec which made French the sole official language of Quebec, a province of Canada...
. However, this legislation was soon superseded by the Charter of the French Language
Charter of the French Language
The Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
also known as Bill 101, introduced by the Parti Québécois government that replaced him in 1976. By making French the official language of Quebec, Quebec was no longer institutionally bilingual (English and French). Many businesses and professionals were unable to operate under such requirements. Bill 22 angered Anglophones while not going far enough for many Francophones; Bourassa was vilified by both groups and lost the 1976 election in a landslide.
Bourassa initiated the James Bay hydroelectric project
James Bay Project
The James Bay Project is a series of hydroelectric development with a combined installed capacity of over 16,000 megawatts built since 1974 for Hydro-Québec by the on the La Grande and other rivers of Northern Quebec....
in 1971 that led to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
The James Bay And Northern Quebec Agreement was an Aboriginal land claim settlement, approved in 1975 by the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec, and later slightly modified in 1978 by the Northeastern Quebec Agreement, through which Quebec's Naskapi First Nations joined the treaty...
of 1975 with the Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
and Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
inhabitants of the region. The Bourassa government also played a major role in rescuing the 1976 Olympic Games
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
in Montreal from the huge cost overruns and construction delays. Bourassa's government became embroiled in corruption scandals that led to his 1976 defeat.
Bourassa lost the 1976 provincial election
Quebec general election, 1976
The Quebec general election of 1976 was held on November 15, 1976 to elect members to National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. It was one of the most significant elections in Quebec history, rivalled only by the 1960 general election, and caused major repercussions in the rest of Canada...
to René Lévesque
René Lévesque
René Lévesque was a reporter, a minister of the government of Quebec, , the founder of the Parti Québécois political party and the 23rd Premier of Quebec...
, leader of the separatist
Quebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
. Bourassa resigned as Liberal Party leader, and accepted teaching positions in Europe and the United States. He remained in political exile until he returned to politics as Liberal leader on October 15, 1983. He was elected in the former Montérégie
Montérégie
Montérégie is an administrative region in southwest Québec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Granby, Longueuil, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sorel-Tracy, and Vaudreuil-Dorion....
riding of Bertrand (now Marguerite-D'Youville
Marguerite-D'Youville
Marguerite-D'Youville is a provincial electoral district in Quebec, Canada that elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The municipalities of Boucherville and Sainte-Julie are situated in this district. In the 1995 Quebec referendum it voted 59% for Quebec to separate...
) and regained the office of premier in the 1985 election
Quebec general election, 1985
The Quebec general election of 1985 was held on December 2, 1985, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The Quebec Liberal Party, led by former premier Robert Bourassa, defeated the incumbent Parti Québécois, led by premier Pierre-Marc Johnson.This election...
. However, Bourassa lost his seat to the Parti Québécois candidate Jean-Guy Parent. In 1986, he was elected in a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
in the Liberal stronghold of Saint-Laurent
Saint-Laurent (provincial electoral district)
Saint-Laurent is a provincial electoral district in Quebec, Canada that elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The district is located in Montreal...
after the MNA, Germain Leduc, left his seat vacant.
Second term
In his second term, Bourassa invoked the notwithstanding clauseSection Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause , or as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to override certain portions of the Charter...
of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
to override a Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
ruling that declared parts of the Charter of the French Language unconstitutional, causing some English-speaking ministers in his government to resign. A few years later, however, he introduced modifications to the language charter. These compromises reduced the controversy over language that had been a dominant feature of Quebec politics over the previous decades.
Bourassa also pushed for Quebec to be acknowledged in the Canadian constitution as a "distinct society", promising Quebec residents that their grievances could be resolved within Canada with a new constitutional deal. Early in his first time in office, he participated in an attempt at constitutional reform, the Victoria Charter
Victoria Charter
The Victoria Charter was a set of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada in 1971. This document represented a failed attempt on the part of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to patriate the Constitution, add rights and freedoms to it and entrench English and French as Canada's official...
of 1971. It quickly unravelled when Bourassa backed away from the proposed deal after it was strongly criticized by Quebec opinion leaders for not giving Quebec more powers. In his second time in office, Bourassa worked closely with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
and received many concessions from the federal government, culminating in the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
in 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...
in 1992. The Meech Lake Accord failed in June 1990 when two provinces, Manitoba and Newfoundland, refused to ratify the agreement their premiers had signed. The Charlottetown Accord was defeated in a nationwide plebiscite in 1992. That failure revived the Quebec separatist movement.
Final years
Bourassa retired from politics in 1994. He was replaced as Liberal leader and premier by Daniel Johnson, Jr., who lost an election to the sovereignist Parti Québécois after only nine months.In 1996, Bourassa died in Montreal of malignant melanoma at the age of 63, and was interred at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Founded in 1854, Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is a 343-acre cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of chemin Côte-des-Neiges and up the slopes of Mount Royal...
in Montreal.
Quotations
- "No matter what anyone says and no matter what anyone does, Quebec is, today and forever, a distinct societyDistinct societyDistinct society is a political term especially used during constitutional debate in Canada, in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, and present in the two failed constitutional amendments, the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord...
, free and capable of assuming its destiny and development." (watch excerpts of original speech) (watch English dubbing) Meech Lake Accord.
Posthumous homage
- A statue and a memorial of Bourassa was unveiled in front of the National Assembly on October 19, 2006.
- The City of Quebec renamed Highway Du Vallon, a major road in Quebec City, after Bourassa in late 2006.
Parc Avenue controversy
On October 18, 2006 Montreal Mayor Gérald TremblayGérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay is a Canadian politician and businessman currently serving his third term as mayor of Montreal and as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community...
announced that Montreal's Parc Avenue would be named after Bourassa. On November 28 the Montreal city council voted in favour (40-22) of renaming Parc Avenue after Bourassa. If, as had been expected, Quebec's Toponymy Commission
Commission de toponymie du Québec
The Commission de toponymie du Québec is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicize Québec's place names and their origins according to the province's toponymy rules.It also provides recommendations to the government with regards to...
had approved the name change, all of Parc Avenue and its continuation, Bleury, would have been renamed Avenue Robert Bourassa. This would have caused the newly named street to intersect René-Lévesque Boulevard, named after a long time political rival to Bourassa. That boulevard, in turn, had been renamed from Dorchester Boulevard in 1987, in a decision that was also not without controversy. This decision by the City of Montreal without any consultation with the people of the city caused an immediate controversy, though many of those opposed to the change considered it a fait accompli
Fait Accompli
Fait accompli is a French phrase which means literally "an accomplished deed". It is commonly used to describe an action which is completed before those affected by it are in a position to query or reverse it...
. The proposal spawned substantial grass-roots opposition, both because of the lack of prior citizen input and because Parc is itself a meaningful street name, associated with the city's Mount Royal
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
park. In addition to protests and active opposition by a committee of Montreal residents and businesses opposed to the name change, an online petition garnered more than 18,000 virtual signatures against this renaming. On February 5, 2007, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay is a Canadian politician and businessman currently serving his third term as mayor of Montreal and as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community...
withdrew his proposal to rename Parc Avenue.
See also
- Robert Bourassa's speech on the end of the Meech Lake Accord
- Politics of QuebecPolitics of QuebecThe politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of the province is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, the legislature, and cabinet reside.The...
- List of Quebec Premiers
- Quebec general electionsQuebec general electionsThis article provides a summary of results for the general elections to the Canadian province of Quebecs unicameral legislative body, the National Assembly of Quebec...
- Timeline of Quebec historyTimeline of Quebec historyThis article presents a detailed timeline of Quebec history. Events taking place outside Quebec, for example in English Canada, the United States, Britain or France, may be included when they are considered to have had a significant impact on Quebec's history....
- Prime Minister nicknaming in Quebec
- Boubou MacoutesBoubou MacoutesLes Boubou Macoutes was the popular nickname of special inspectors who visited the homes and investigated suspected "welfare cheats" in the Canadian province of Quebec during the second government of Premier Robert Bourassa, in the 1990s....
- Robert-Bourassa generating stationRobert-Bourassa generating stationThe Robert-Bourassa generating station is a hydroelectric power station on the La Grande River that is part of Hydro-Québec's James Bay Project in Canada...
and reservoirRobert-Bourassa ReservoirThe Robert-Bourassa Reservoir is a man-made lake in northern Quebec, Canada. It was created in the mid 1970s as part of the James Bay Project and provides the needed water for the Robert-Bourassa and La Grande-2-A generating stations. It has a maximum surface area of , and a surface elevation...
External links
- National Assembly biography (in French)
- The Trickster: Robert Bourassa and Quebeckers 1990-1992 JF Lisée book on Bourassa available online on Google Print.
- CBC Digital Archives: Robert Bourassa: Political Survivor
- Robert Bourassa, by Daniel Latouche