Approaches to politics

In the 1950s Pierre Ellion Truc au wa: working out his funda-
mental philosophy of politics. At the same time he was at the
centre of every attempt to rally the forces of opposition to the
corrupt and despotic Duplessis régime in Quebec. In 1958, for
the weekly paper then edited by Jacques Hébert, he wrote a
series of twenty essays on Cuebec politics in the fifties that were
enlivened by numerous witty and vigorous attacks on the spokes-
men of reaction
In the spring of 1979 Mr Trudeau, now prime allowed
Mr Héiert, now a leading Montreal book-publis! er, to reissue
the essays in book form. They were published under the title
Les Cheminement de la politiq and are presented here in
English for the first time.
E sides being a fascinating commentary on the state of Quebec
polics is the decade before the Quiet Revolution, the essays
from a cle r, simple, sober sta en ant of the author's considered
conclusions on the relations between the individual and the
state, on he sources of political power, and on the nature of
politie justice, and devazcracy. They are essential reading
both tis supporters and opponents of the man who rose so su:
denly to ve leadership of Canada in 1968, because the set forth
in fundane ntal terms what he believes government wad poli-
tic. to be Sout.
Ramsay Couk con iributes an important introductory essay, The
Coming of the Quiet (Bavolution', kad Jacques Hébers intro-
duition to the original French ed ion provides an essential
perst mal reminiscence of the Pierre Trudeau of the fifties.