The Dandurands

Raoul and Joséphine Dandurand were among the glamour couples of Edwardian Canada. He was a dashing senator for the division of De Lorimier, and she was a leading feminist and femme de lettres. He was Wilfrid Laurier’s Quebec homme de confiance, with contacts across the country, especially in business circles. She was belle époque brains and elegance personified — a perfect candidate to represent Canada at the Exposition universelle of 1900, in Paris. Together, Raoul and Joséphine were much admired, but their memory has long faded. Not even Sandra Gwyn referred to them in her superb The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier, which won a Governor General’s Award in 1984.

In addition to their exceptional careers in public service, the authors Marie Lavigne and Michèle Stanton‑Jean have contributed mightily to the writing of women’s history in Quebec, including with their 2017 biography of the suffrage pioneer...