Maurice Duplessis

Maurice Duplessis is presented less through private life than through the reach of his political power: he launches an election campaign as a defender of Quebec against Ottawa, while government contracts have helped make a local ally wealthy and influential. His rhetoric and patronage give the political struggle in Touladi both a provincial frame and material stakes.

Campaign and Political Persona

At the end of May, Duplessis opened an election campaign with a forceful speech at Château Frontenac. He cast himself as a champion of Quebec, promising to protect its language, faith, and people from encroachment by Ottawa. The narrative shows this public persona reaching beyond the speech itself: in Touladi, his supporters promptly mobilized for the Blues, while opponents gathered around the Reds.

Patronage and Local Power

Duplessis’s political influence is tied to the fortunes of Romuald Bolduc, a committed supporter. The provincial government had awarded Romuald lucrative rural-electrification contracts, which helped build his wealth and secure his power in Touladi. That connection gives the local contest a material dimension: the Blue organization operates within a network where political loyalty and economic advantage reinforce one another.

The account does not make Duplessis the direct author of the intimidation that follows. Roland Bolduc threatens the young Red organizers, and Clovis Lacroix is warned that his teaching post is at risk if he continues his political activity. Their actions belong to the local factional struggle, even as the campaign Duplessis has opened provides its larger political setting.

Death and Afterlife in Touladi

Duplessis died on September 7. His passing becomes the subject of a bitter confrontation between Romuald and La Grébiche: Romuald, a staunch supporter whose prosperity had been aided by Duplessis’s government, reacts angrily when she declares that the premier’s death marks the beginning of his own decline. She then curses Romuald and his descendants. The text presents the curse as part of the village’s remembered story, not as proof that Duplessis’s death caused the later events attributed to it.

The election’s announced victory for Duplessis does not bring celebration to Touladi. On polling day, violence between local factions leaves Roland Bolduc near death, and the village falls into mourning. Years later, after Roger Bolduc disappears in the collapse of the World Trade Center, Loïc recalls the curse and reads it as prophetic. In this way, Duplessis remains present in the novel through the political loyalties he fostered, the local power they supported, and the ominous memory attached to his death.