Robert Bourassa; Pragmatic Former Premier of Quebec

Robert Bourassa, the former Quebec premier whose wily political maneuvers kept the province’s separatists at bay and out of power for most of the last 26 years, died Wednesday of skin cancer in Montreal. He was 63.

Few politicians have played such a central role in Canada’s great struggle over whether French-speaking Quebec should remain a Canadian province or declare its independence. And Bourassa played his role with Machiavellian mastery.

Though a Canadian loyalist--Bourassa spoke out against separation when Quebec voters went to the polls on the issue in 1980 and 1995--he also paid fealty to the province’s unique brand of French-based ethnic nationalism. His government adopted a law in 1974 making Quebec’s official language French, in effect forcing immigrant children to go to French-language rather than English-language schools. And he formed temporary alliances with the separatists against what he called federal encroachment on Quebec’s “cultural sovereignty.”

Bourassa’s pragmatism led to charges that he was indecisive or opportunistic, but it paid off repeatedly with Quebec voters--he won four elections and lost one.

“On one level, he could be seen as manipulative, but at another level it really was the best way to defend the federal system in Quebec, and he was effective,” said Kenneth McRoberts, a political science professor at York University in Toronto and leading Quebec historian.

Bourassa’s obsession with politics developed early. A native of Montreal, he was telling friends by age 12 that he would be elected provincial premier one day. He achieved that goal in 1970 as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.

Within months of taking office he faced his first crisis. A separatist extremist group, the Front for the Liberation of Quebec, kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross and Bourassa’s labor minister, Pierre Laporte. Cross later was freed, but Laporte was murdered.

Unable to cope with the situation, Bourassa called on Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for help. Trudeau summoned the army and sent tanks into the streets of Montreal. Hundreds of separatists or suspected separatists were arrested but virtually none was charged with a crime. The crackdown crushed the FLQ, but it left wounds that still have not healed in Quebec.

Despite the upheaval, Bourassa was reelected once before losing office amid scandal in 1976 to the late Rene Levesque, founding father of Quebec separatism. Bourassa returned to power in 1985 in what was considered a remarkable comeback.

Diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 1990, he initially put off treatment to deal with what he considered more pressing matters of government. Citing his illness, he resigned in 1994, turning the premier’s office over to Daniel Johnson, a U.S.-trained economist.

Bourassa is survived by his wife of 38 years, Andree Simard, their two children and a grandson.