Reed Scowen

Jacques Parizeau, known to everyone in his home province as “Monsieur,” is the world’s leading authority on the Quebec separatist movement. No one alive today possesses an equivalent experience with the theory and practice of the project to get Quebec out of Canada. With a PhD from the London School of Economics, Parizeau is highly…

Provincial politics in Canada can be a messy business and our ten premiers don’t get a lot of respect. Submerged in the politics of the street, kept in their rooms when Canada is on display at the G8 or he United Nations, they have no “national” mission to offer their citizens (except in Quebec). They materialize en groupe from time to time—to demand more money from Ottawa—and then disappear back into their local newspapers where they are called to account for overcrowded emergency…

Gore Vidal once described Moby Dick as “a very bad masterpiece,” and most readers will understand exactly what he meant. Notwithstanding the book’s mythic grandeur, that huge chapter on “the whiteness of the whale,” for instance, has to be one of the most indigestible bits of fiction ever written. It was in the same spirit as Vidal’s observation that the LRC editorial staff planned this December’s holiday…

Even the most assiduous readers of the LRC may react with dismay when faced with the review of a book about the international relations of a Canadian province. Are we looking at a new cure for insomnia? However, when the province in question is Quebec, the pulse quickens a bit because we can be sure that the story will be a passionate one and a lot of thought will have gone into…