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Secondary 4 History of Québec and Canada study materials
Secondary 4 History of Québec and Canada study resources

Secondary 4 History of Québec and Canada: The Duplessis Era and the Quiet Revolution (1945–1960s): Modernization, Welfare State and New Nationalism

Secondary 4 History of Québec and Canada · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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The Duplessis Era and the Quiet Revolution (1945–1960s): Modernization, Welfare State and New Nationalism

1945–1960s covers two regimes: Duplessis's Union nationale and the Quiet Revolution. The exam asks you to contrast them - patronage, rural conservatism and Church control against state intervention, secularization and a new nationalism.

Duplessis (1944–1959)

  • Patronage ("the Union nationale machine"), weak labour law, and the 1937 Padlock Law used against unions and leftists (repealed 1957).
  • The Asbestos strike (1949) - some 5,000 workers, with support from Archbishop Charbonneau - becomes a symbol of resistance.
  • Rural ideal, colonization of new regions, hostility to federal grants to universities and, from 1954, a Québec income tax defended in the name of autonomy.
  • Education, hospitals and charities left largely to the Church; the later Parent Report exposes the cost.

The Quiet Revolution (1960–1966)

Lesage's Liberals win in 1960 with "Maîtres chez nous":

  • Hydro-Québec takes over eleven private companies (1963), a symbol of francophone control of the economy.
  • Ministry of Education (1964), Parent Report, CEGEPs (1967), free and compulsory schooling to 16.
  • Hospital insurance (1961), Québec Pension Plan (1965), Bill 16 (1964) giving married women legal capacity.
  • Secularization: the state takes over schools and hospitals; practice and vocations collapse through the 1960s.

Nationalism

  • 1963: Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.
  • 1967: de Gaulle's "Vive le Québec libre!"; the RIN and other independence movements grow.
  • 1968: Parti québécois founded; 1969: Bill 63 on school language; Johnson's "Égalité ou indépendance" (1966).

Worked example

Compare a 1955 Union nationale pamphlet praising rural parishes with the 1963 Parent Report recommending a unified, secular, ministry-run school system. Reasoning: both are primary sources with purposes (electoral and policy). Identify the shift in who should provide education - Church to state - and connect it to the demand for a qualified francophone workforce in an industrializing economy. That link earns the analysis mark.

Traps

  • Starting the Quiet Revolution in 1945 rather than 1960.
  • Saying Hydro-Québec was nationalized in 1944; the 1963 takeover of private companies is the symbol.
  • Confusing the Asbestos strike (1949) with the 1972 Common Front.
  • Claiming Duplessis abolished the Padlock Law: he created it in 1937 and it was repealed in 1957.