and grew up in a bilingual community. Some of his earliest recollec-
tions were of linguistic and religious differences and inequalities, and
his education in the seminary reflected the nationalist currents of the
1930s. In an article he wrote on 'la fête de Dollard' for the seminary
student paper L'Envol in 1936 he touched all the traditional bases of
French-Canadian national feeling--French origin, the 'glorious
annals' of history, language and religion, the struggle for survival, and
the 'mission of our race.' But then, almost apologetically, he turned to
'very prosaic' matters: 'In our country, we French Canadians are los-
ing enormous sums in all the areas of trade, finance, industry and ad-
ministration. Let us look to our pride and claim from the foreigners . . .
instead of the contemptible positions we have now, the high offices
that are our due; let us claim them and know how to reach them. On
the day we have done that we will be able to call ourselves our own
masters, but not until that day.

'Verdict: let us encourage always, with all our might, the enlight-
ened patriots who watch over and defend our interests, for on their
labours depends the future of our race in America' (quoted in Le
Devoir, December 7, 1976).

Expelled for flunking math from the Jesuit college where he had en-
rolled when his widowed mother moved to Quebec in 1938, Lévesque
went to Laval and completed his baccalaureate in 1941. In the fall he
entered law school, where not only did he find the law uninteresting
but he found broadcasting far more exciting. As a youth he had al-
ways wanted to be a writer or a journalist, and finally in December
1943 he dropped out of law school determined to become a writer.
However, in the winter of 1943 it was much more likely that he would
become a soldier. But before the Canadian army beckoned, a friend
found him a position with the American Office of War Information and
he spent the rest of the war in England and France as a broadcaster
and interpreter with the American army.

Returning to Canada he joined the CBC'S International Service. His
reputation as a broadcaster was established by his coverage of the
Korean war, after which he became director of Radio Canada's news
service. In 1956 he decided to freelance and soon launched 'Point de
Mire' ('Target') a television programme that was to make him
Quebec's best-known and most outspoken broadcaster. When the
producers on the French network went on strike in December 1958
René Lévesque was soon playing a leading role in the agitation. Be-
fore the strike ended in March, he had concluded that the stubborn

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