The Gamble That Failed

November 15 still has a particular resonance for anyone who was in Quebec—or even, I suspect, in Canada—in the fall of 1976. It was election day—an election that felt like a mythic event even at the time. The stories have become part of Canada’s political lore: How Robert Bourassa had called an election on the pretext that he needed a mandate to stop Pierre Trudeau from patriating the constitution; how Jean Marchand and Bryce Mackasey, both former federal ministers, joined his team in a desperate attempt to renew a party that was widely seen as tired, weak and scandal ridden; how no one, inside or outside the Part Québécois, could bring themselves to believe that René Lévesque could actually win.

Certainly, Lévesque did not think so. He had virtually dismissed the party’s pollster, Michel Lepage, who had predicted the victory within a seat. He had been burned twice before, in 1970 and 1973, believing that the party could have a significant breakthrough and being...