Talk:Maurice Duplessis
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[edit] POV
Sorry, but I have to call POV on those swipes at Duplessis' "left-wing" opponents and on the interpretation of his financial situation as being symbolic of his devout Christianity. If you can find reputable sources that indicate that most of Duplessis' opponents are "left-wing" and that suggest that his poverty was because of his charity, then they should be cited with the claims. Geoff NoNick 19:36, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
Yes, this is a pretty terribly biased article. Someone who knows something about it give us the other side. Perhaps some stuff can be brought in from Quiet Revolution.
- It's actually an OK article (not great, but all right) once you remove the two blatantly POV passages. What's missing is a political analysis: he was a canny, crafty politician, machiavellian even. And he was an intellectual with populist roots. A fascinating character, even if a little evil. Vincent 06:45, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Quebecers' Opposition To Conscription & Canadian Involvment In World War II, Duplessis Tidbits
Quebecers more or less did what Duplessis & the church dictated, or faced repression. I studied Canadian history, and wrote aplenty on Quebec as it was prior to the Quiet Revolution and I know for a fact that Quebecers in the early to mid 20th century had, in majority, no real freedom of thought under the Duplessis regime, and were kept in almost complete illiteracy so that they wouldn't really seek thought or ask questions. Duplessis made them believe what was convenient, and told them they were going to hell (Literally, go burn in a place ruled by the devil after they had died) if they didn't believe him. And then, those people went to church, and the clergy told them that if they didn't believe (and vote for) Duplessis, they would INDEED be denied heaven, and go to hell. And the people believed that, and feared it to the point of doing absolutely anything. So whether or not they actually opposed or supported anything or simply parroted the Duplessist view out of fear is pretty much up to debate. I've deleted that portion of the sentence because I feel that the opposition is questionable.
It was convenient for Duplessis that no Quebecers go to war because it would have resulted in casualties, which would have diminished Quebec's population/workforce. One of Duplessis' policies was "encouraging", via threats of damnation, women to reproduce until they couldn't anymore, so that the province's population would grow. More people meant more believers and more workers. There's been theories about a Duplessis Quebec/Axis connection or sympathy, but it is far-fetched and too "machiavellan", as one person said, even for Duplessis.
It was all about obeying the Ten Commandments of God & the Six Commandments of His Church, and living your life following the 7 Heavenly Virtues while evading the 7 Deadly Sins if you were a Quebecer in Duplessis' time. Law was that way, life was that way. You would have to explain yourself to your priest if you were obese because it was a sign of Gluttony, and some people were expelled from the church and from their town for it. People look at Islamic countries today with their laws based on the Qu'ran, and do not know that there was a Roman-Catholic state just like that within Canada less than 50 years ago.
It's a very little known part of history because it happened prior to the explosion of communications, and did not involve the international community. It didn't help matters any at all that nobody really cared and had much bigger fish to fry in Europe. Duplessis came into office "democratically" (Via threats of damnation and strong-arm tactics) and stayed in there "democratically" for 20 years, minus a couple of years during the war when he more or less got himself out of office (by calling an early election and letting the folks vote freely, which they did and resulted in a lost for him.) to let the Quebecers go to war without losing face. Then he got back into his office via the usual methods and remained there until he died. Then the whole regime collapsed.
In my opinion, my point of view I guess, he was more or less the very dangerous hybrid of a dictator and a cult leader, and there's more to him than we know, probably more than we'll ever know. His character would be worth studying, but good luck if you try actually digging in his life and regime. I tried. You see, Quebec today isn't the Quebec of then, it's a modern society, a secular democracy, and the people in charge, sometimes in the late 70's, decided that Duplessis was better off being forgotten altogether. So, his name & regime dissapeared from history courses in Quebec, and quite a few archive documents were "misplaced" as well. The time's newspapers are worthless in research, it's all about praise and preaching in there. Today, you're looking at the odd "Duplessis Orphan" survivor (A frightening concept that I suspect would probably embarass Quebec and the church very much should somebody find out what the whole deal was.) telling his story which is almost too horrible to believe and at 1960's revolutionaries writings, which there aren't many for the simple fact that most Quebecers couldn't write, if you want to get an idea.
Duplessis is one of those things where the line between Documented Fact and Original Research can be very blurry sometimes, because the facts are not unearthed yet.
Sorry for being rather lenghty here, I hope this can help improve the article. 67.68.57.181 07:58, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
You haven't studied Quebec history this much or watched the news in the last 10 years if you do not know of the Duplessis Orphans (of which there are lots of "survivors"). The Duplessis Orphans is simply a term used to describe orphans who had the bad luck of being young during the Duplessis regime. They where left under the (un)care of the fundamentalist Quebec Roman Catholic church, who viewed most of these kids as the product of sin (out-of-wedlock childs, and especially "teen-mother" childs were very often placed in orphanages at the time) and showed them very little christian virtues. To make a long story short, some (a lot) of the kids where incredibly mistreated by their church guardians and have recently campaigned for compensations and apologies from the government and the church.
