René Lévesque - named "extraordinary Canadian" - from Maclean's

"Péquiste with a Canadian soul" is touted for his bedrock values

TORONTO , Sept. 17 /CNW/ - René Lévesque an "extraordinary Canadian"? Even the suggestion will make many in Canada - and Quebec - bristle. Yet, throughout his political career - and, indeed, even in his attempts to make Quebec a sovereign state - Lévesque demonstrated what are considered bedrock Canadian values: honesty, centrism, a commitment to democracy and non-violence. With groundbreaking transparency and anti-corruption legislation, writes Maclean's Quebec bureau chief Martin Patriquin , Lévesque's Parti Québécois effectively put an end to a political environment long dominated by favouritism and barely concealed fraud. Plus, it ushered in Bill 101 that showed how Québec could assert itself within Canada .

Lévesque, named one of 18 Extraordinary Canadians by Penguin Books, is the subject of Extraordinary Canadians: René Lévesque by Daniel Poliquin . In an excerpt in Maclean's, the author writes about how this great man with the red eyes and the trail of cigarette smoke, changed not only Quebec , but Canada .

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