Searching for Clarity

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 intelligent, wise, worldly and fair-minded. During the 1960s he was an influential advisor to several Quebec governments on such landmark projects as the nationalization of Hydro Quebec and the creation of the Quebec Pension Plan. In 1969 he joined the newly formed Parti Québécois and has been a commanding presence in the formulation and implementation of its policies. From 1976 to 1984 he was a very distinguished minister of finance and, as premier of the province in 1995, he was responsible for the conception and conduct of the second Quebec referendum. Now 80 years old, he continues to meditate and write on the subject of Quebec independence...