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Robert Bourassa, premier of Quebec (born on July 14, 1933, at Montreal, Que.; died there on October 2, 1996). After studying law in Montreal, and at the universities of Harvard and Oxford, Bourassa became an expert on taxes. Early in the 1960s he worked in Ottawa as a civil servant and as a university professor. He returned to Quebec and won a seat in the Quebec National Assembly in the provincial elections of 1966 as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. Bourassa was seen as a calm, passionless, technically competent politician. He was elected leader of the Quebec Liberal Party in January 1970. During the general elections of April 1970, he promised to create 100 000 jobs and to fight against separatism. His party won a sweeping victory. At 37, he was the youngest-ever premier of Quebec. In October 1970 the Front de Libération du Québec, a group on the fringe of the independence movement, kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross and Pierre Laporte, Bourassa's right-hand man in the Cabinet. When Laporte was murdered, Bourassa turned to Ottawa for help and troops were sent to Montreal. Bourassa and his party were re-elected in 1973. He pressed on with the mammoth James Bay hydroelectric project, but grew unpopular. During the election of 1976 his government was accused of corruption and lost badly to the Parti Québecois (PQ), led by René Lévesque. Bourassa lost his seat in the National Assembly. He spent the next years at universities in Europe and the United States. He returned in 1980 to support the Non side in the PQ campaign to negotiate separation from Canada. Bourassa was re-elected leader of the Quebec Liberal Party in 1983. In 1986 he led his party to a sweeping defeat of the PQ. He personally failed to gain a seat but was soon elected in another riding, completing his remarkable comeback. During his second term as premier of Quebec, Bourassa played a leading role in negotiating the Meech Lake Accord and strongly supported free trade with the U.S. During constitutional talks in 1992, he softened his stand on the demand for a reformed Senate in return for a guarantee for Quebec of 25% representation in the House of Commons, though the resulting Charlottetown Accord failed to get support in Quebec and in other provinces. In 1993 Bourassa received treatment for skin cancer, and announced that he would resign after the 1994 leadership convention. Related Articles: MEECH LAKE ACCORD; OCTOBER CRISIS.
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