Maurice Duplessis

Maurice Duplessis (born April 20, 1890, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada; died September 7, 1959, Schefferville, Québec, Canada); controversial Premier of Québec from 1936 to 1940 and 1944 to 1959.

Maurice Duplessis

Quotes

• Less than fifteen cents to the province and more than twenty-five cents to Ottawa, this is far from being excessive!
  • Bill 43, Québec Legislative Assembly, January 14, 1954

• This is about an admitted attempt, encouraged from outside, to challenge and break the State's authority. That is intolerable. Whoever deviates from this policy that I have established, privately or publicly, will be expelled from the Union Nationale.
  • Response to the 1949 asbestos miners' strike on CBC radio.

Quotes about Maurice Duplessis

• The period leaves no one indifferent. And that was our goal. We present the facts. It's up to the public to decide.
  • Stephane Filion, a co-ordinator of a celebration in his hometown of the 40th anniversary of Duplessis' death.

• The saying goes that after the death of every great man there's a long period of ingratitude. I find Maurice Duplessis's period is lasting pretty long.
  • Bureau-Dufresne, surviving relative of Duplessis.

• Over the last 40 years, talking about Duplessis has become like talking about the devil himself.
  • Jean-Marc Beaudoin, columnist at the Trois-Rivières daily Le Nouvelliste, in 1999.

• If I never read a business page, my admiration for him would be complete.
  • Robert Fulford, commenting on Conrad Black's biography of Duplessis.

• Before Duplessis died, we’d all go to church and make our sign [of the cross], and a year later we didn’t go to Mass any more. So we looked for another set of values, one that was all-enveloping, like the Church.
  • Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe