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Munro, Kenneth J.
About the author: Dr. Munro received his PhD from the University of Ottawa. He is currently Professor in the Department of History & Classics at the University of Alberta. His earlier monograph The Political Career of Sir Adolphe Chapleau, Premier of Quebec 1879-1882 was published by Mellen in 1992.
2001 0-7734-7556-7F.-X.-A. Trudel was a lawyer, politician, and journalist, a maverick and free spirit who undermined all the institutions and values he professed to hold dear. He was a forceful proponent of Roman Catholicism of the harsh conservative ultramontane variety who disobeyed ecclesiastical authority; he stressed family values but neglected his wife and children in his pursuit of fame and fortune; a conservative; an anti-Semite; personal in his attacks on those who disagreed with his point of view. He was a strong French Canadian nationalist . He died a lonely figure disliked and ridiculed by almost everyone he had come into contact with during his rather short lifetime. The man behind the self-righteous exterior is revealed in this biography, his public career fleshed out through a clearer understanding of his personal life. The biography also gives focus to the many uncertainties and cross-currents in Quebec in the years following Confederation.
1992 0-7734-9494-4
Adolphe Chapleau, former Premier of Quebec, Secretary of State in Ottawa, and Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, was the hinge that allowed Quebec to switch from Conservative dominance under Macdonald to Liberal dominance under Laurier. The prevailing interpretation of his failure blames the English-speaking Conservative anti-French attitudes. This work contends that while there was tension between English and French-speaking Conservatives, the real reason for Chapleau's failure rested on his own shoulders, his personal inability to dominate Quebec.