“They’re all rotten, the Rouges! And this Mercier, what a scoundrel! He has so much money that he built himself a mansion out in the country while our poor farmers are starving.”
The departure of the head of the Liberal Party gives new impetus to the Duplessis family for whom politics is the mainstay of their existence. Maurice, constantly overhearing his father’s propaganda, picks up his words: “They’re all rotten, those Rouges!” This makes his parents laugh. Eventually, might he not also represent the riding? A future premier, perhaps?
In 1897, Nérée fights yet another electoral campaign like a soldier in the line of fire. Maurice loves accompanying him. Sometimes, he even improvises short harangues in support of his father. One day, he slips into the crowd gathered around the podium not far from the church and the small restaurant where they sell penny candy.
“Go and pass around these pamphlets to those who seem less interested, and also to the women. They don’t vote but they can influence their husbands,” Nérée tells his son before climbing up onto the podium. He is determined to point out the broad lines of his platform while reviling liberalism, branding it a social plague.
But his adversaries are tough. Some of them have even stormed the square. Maurice can’t believe it. They are heckling his father and shouting hostile slogans: “You’re a traitor, Nérée. The Bleus are scoundrels, rogues!”
What is the meaning of these words? Since John A. Macdonald agreed to the hanging of Louis Riel, the Conservative Party bears the blame for this emblematic death. Luckily for the Duplessis family, the Saint-Maurice riding is Conservative through and through. In May 1897, Nérée is re-elected member of the Quebec legislature but this time he has to sit in the Opposition. Liberal Felix-Gabriel Marchand has won fifty-one seats against twenty-three Conservatives.
Maurice is the only boy in a family of five children. Mischievous, spoiled by his sisters Etiennette, Marguerite, Gabrielle, and Jeanne, he knows they will always forgive him his pranks. One day at mealtime, his father, losing patience, orders him abruptly:
“Maurice, stop being so silly at the table!”
Instead of stopping, the young boy gets up and answers back:
“There! Now I can go on… I’m no longer at the table.”
Maurice is very amusing. He knows how to win people. His mother makes a fuss over him. His sisters lavish affection on him. Nérée says of his eight-year-old son that he is a troublemaker, like his ancestors. “He’ll go far. He’s not afraid of discipline.” When it’s time to think about his education, his parents choose one of the best schools for this lively and resourceful boy. It is autumn of 1898. Maurice Duplessis is enrolled as a student at College Notre-Dame, Montreal.
Montreal seems to be at the other end of the world. The first few weeks are very difficult for the young boarder – the long corridors, the dark dormitory, the classrooms with their blackboards. From the window of the refectory, the boy tries to glimpse the blue of the sky poking through the trees. The school, run by the Brothers of the Holy Cross congregation, is located in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, a rather remote spot but recently accessible by tramway. The landscape, with Mount Royal right across from the college, reminds him of the Mauricie region.
Maurice Duplessis is an obedient pupil who works hard to obtain good marks. His notebooks are filled with expressions of praise, stamps, and stars; his report cards are satisfactory. He looks like a model pupil dressed in a blue blazer with brass buttons, short pants, and a white shirt with a hard collar. In June, when the prizes are handed out, he doesn’t mind if he is not first in all subjects. What is important is his parents’ presence in the hall. And knowing that he will spend the summer in Trois-Rivières. At last, he will be able to play baseball with Paul, Robert, and Jean, his little neighbours from Hart Street whom he hasn’t seen for ten months.
At Collége Notre-Dame, there is someone who performs miracles!
Maurice comes home full of stories about his life in Montreal. His mother listens to him. He tells her that one day, as he was walking down the corridor, he noticed a strange little man with a threadbare cassock.
“Everyone calls him the ‘greasy brother’ because he helps cure wounds with oil. But I call him by his real name: Brother André. And he’s a friend.”
Brother André is very devout, humble. He reminds Maurice of people he knows in Trois-Rivières. He has the same humility and generosity of spirit. Brother André is the college doorman. Often he is tired after his long day. To help him, Maurice offers to fetch the pupils and bring them to the common room. From then on, they become close. The child admires the Brother who speaks of St. Joseph like a friend.
“You know, Mother, Brother André says that one day he will have an oratory built on Mount Royal in honour of his patron saint, Joseph. Many people laugh at him but I don’t. I’m sure he’ll succeed.”
He admires such determination. Maurice is discovering the mysterious power that this humble man exercises over others. A kind of charisma. It fascinates him.
After he graduates from Collége Notre-Dame, Maurice continues his classical studies at the Trois-Rivières Seminary. Even though he is only a teenager, people are already taking notice of his talent as an orator.
“Why not come to the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin Academy?” a friend asks one day. “You like history and politics. I listened to your arguments about the Boer War and they were very convincing. You can take part in the debates we are organizing around certain themes. Next week, it will be Lincoln and the War of Secession. We need someone who will defend the Confederates. It’s a thankless role, but I can see you standing up for those who have been defeated.”
What an opportunity! Maurice is enthusiastic. He joins this group of young people who engage in spirited verbal matches. Elegant in his three-piece suits, with a trim moustache and his hair slicked back, he is impressive. And when he participates in the debates, he stirs up the audience. He soon stands out from the group.
“Who is that boy who speaks so well?”
“He’s the son of Nérée Duplessis, the former representative for Saint-Maurice. Watch him, he’ll go far, this young man. They say he can’t be beaten when it comes to politics.”
His reputation grows. His father, who holds a salon, introduces him to his friends, well-known members of the Conservative Party. Maurice talks about current affairs with historian-politician Thomas Chapais and two former premiers, Louis-Olivier Taillon and Edmund James Flynn. The year is 1908 and Trois-Rivières is slowly recovering from the great fire of June 22. Rumour says that the fire started in a stable with horses for hire. It spread like wildfire, destroying the centre of town. The business sector, the post office, the offices of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the beautiful parish church – a whole architectural heritage turned to ashes. The fire couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Industrialization had just started to draw rural families into the towns. But Trois-Rivières cannot compete with Montreal and Quebec City. Maurice reassures Thomas Chapais, who is worried about how the region will develop. He tells him that neither the Wabasso Cotton Company nor the Shawinigan Water and Power Company are about to leave town. And that reconstruction will help modernize their small city.
“Trois-Rivières, with the help of American capital, can become the new economic centre of Quebec,” says Maurice. “We have the forests for logging and the factories for producing pulp and paper. Loggers and workers come from everywhere to work here in the Mauricie region. And we are at midpoint on the river, which gives us the most sought-after resource in the twentieth century: electricity. The Shawinigan Power Company is our trump card. The fire is out; water is our future.”
Maurice’s intuition is accurate. He understands the challenge of the future. When he speaks, it’s easy to imagine that one day he will run for office.
“But I’m not even old enough to vote yet. First, I want to study law