[LINK] "‘What would Napoleon do?’"

[rfmcdonald]

Martin Patriquin of MacLean's had an interesting article up describing the peculiar identification of many Québécois with Napoleon. They could empathize with this Frenchman who had been defeated, coqnuered, by the British.

“Napoleon is in the cultural DNA of French Canadians,” says [Senator Serge] Joyal, whose work on Napoleon’s influence on Quebec will be published this fall. “When the British defeated Napoleonic France, French Canadians were put in a situation where commerce, international relations, leadership were in British hands. So in order for them to maintain their language, culture and institutions, they had to constantly affirm their identity. The person who best personified this resistance was Napoleon. Very quickly, they took up Napoleon as a hero in their battle against the English.”

[. . .]

For an abiding example of Quebec’s Napoleon mania, consider this: Boucherville native Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, technically the country’s first prime minister and early resister against British might, fashioned himself after Napoleon, even tucking his hand inside his coat while promenading on the streets of Montreal, London and Paris—where he was often mistaken for Napoleon. Portrait artists, says historian Desmond Morton, knew to draw LaFontaine with Napoleon in mind, if only to ensure their patron’s favour. And LaFontaine’s Napoleonic affliction continued even after he broke with Quebec’s nationalist ranks and made peace with the British.

Quebec premier Honoré Mercier, meanwhile, wrote a 60-page treatise on how Napoleon was a victim of the British. His frequent, fiery speeches on the subject—he was premier between 1886 and 1892—would become an enduring strain of Quebec nationalist thought. (There is a certain irony in this: as emperor, Napoleon was opposed to the nationalist movement in his native Corsica.)

In the years immediately following the emperor’s death, “Napoleon” became the most popular given name for boys in Quebec. (Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, was the nom du jour for young girls.) There were no Napoleons serving in Quebec’s legislative assembly in 1821; by 1867 nearly two dozen had passed through. Quebec City had two mayors named Napoleon, while journalist Napoléon Bourassa served in the Quebec legislature, Canada’s House of Commons and Montreal’s nationalist Société St Jean Baptiste. “We all had Uncle Napoleons and Aunt Josephines in our family,” says Joyal.