Ni bleu ni rouge : la mouvance des « violets » dans le Canada français préconfédératif (1858-1867)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
RÉSUMÉ : La vie politique du XIXe siècle canadien-français a longtemps été réduite à l'antagonisme entre les « bleus » (conservateurs) et les « rouges » (libéraux radicaux), ou encore entre les ultramontains (droite religieuse) et les anticléricaux (laïcistes). Ces tensions tendent à masquer l'existence d'autres tendances, pourtant tout aussi importantes et influentes. Notre recherche propose d'explorer la genèse et la pensée politique d'un groupe ni rouge ni bleu durant la période préconfédérative, à savoir les « violets », une constellation d'hommes politiques et de penseurs de tendance centriste déjà identifiée par Jean-Paul Bernard en 1971. Qui sont les violets?? Comment s'est structuré leur réseau?? Et quelles idées portaient-ils?? Nous nous intéressons plus précisément à l'ère préconfédérative (1858-1867), un « moment violet » fondateur. Ce mémoire détaille d'abord la création d'une mouvance originale catholibérale, nationaliste et modérée à partir de l'Institut canadien-français de Montréal, du milieu journalistique et du monde parlementaire. Puis, il retrace le passage au pouvoir des violets sous le gouvernement de Louis-Victor Sicotte (1862-1863) et l'implosion (relative) de leur mouvance à l'approche de la Confédération. Le discours tenu par les violets est ensuite décortiqué en observant particulièrement son rapport aux grands pôles idéologiques du catholicisme, du libéralisme et du nationalisme. Il ressort de cette analyse un esprit d'équilibre original, marqué par le catholicisme libéral français, le jusgentilisme et une conception à la fois civique et culturelle de l'identité canadienne-française. L'esprit équilibriste des violets était également perceptible sur les enjeux linguistiques, constitutionnels, économiques, sociaux, politiques et militaires. Ce mémoire permet entre autres de nuancer la prétendue dépolitisation de la question nationale lors de la période post-1840, de relativiser l'incompatibilité des idées libérales modernes et du catholicisme au XIXe siècle et de souligner l'étonnante dimension internationale des idéologies présentées dans la presse bas-canadienne. Le groupe violet apparaît in fine comme une tendance politique autonome, bien distincte des rouges et des bleus, ce qui met en lumière un pan méconnu de l'histoire des idées au Québec. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en français : Canada-Uni, Canadiens français, Bas-Canada, Politique, Partis, Idéologies, Institut canadien-français, Journaux, Parlement, Nationalisme, Libéralisme, Catholicisme, Conservatisme, Confédération, Rouges, Bleus, Violets, XIXe siècle. -- \nABSTRACT : In Québec's historiography, 19th century French-Canadian politics had long been reduced to the antagonism between the "bleus" (conservatives) and the "rouges" (radical liberals), or between the ultramontanes (religious right) and the anticlericals (securalists). However, those tensions hide the existence of other significative and influent political trends. Our research proposes to explore the genesis and the political thought of the "violets," an independent and distinct group from the "rouges" and the "bleus," composed of several centrist politicians. This trend has been identified by Jean-Paul Bernard in 1971, but has not been explored anymore since. Who are the "violets?" How was structured their political and intellectual network? Which ideas did they promote? More specifically, we concentrate on the preconfederation era (1858-1867), which constituted a fundamental moment in the existence of the "violets" movement. This master's thesis first relates the creation of an original liberal, nationalist and moderate trend in Lower Canada, arising from the Institut canadien-français of Montréal, the press and the parliamentary arena. It then retraces the brief government of Louis-Victor Sicotte (1862-1863), which led the violets into power, and the implosion of their coalition at the dawn of Confederation. We also explain the ideological content of the "violet" movement, with a focus on the grand ideological triad of Catholicism, liberalism and nationalism. Their intellectual framework shows an original spirit of moderation and balance, marked by French liberal Catholicism, jusgentilism and a mixed civic and cultural conception of French-Canadian nationality. Those ideological patterns are perceptible on many topics, notably linguistic, constitutional, social, economic, institutional and military issues. This analysis nuances the old idea of the "depoliticization" of Québec national issues following the Rebellions of 1837-1838, relativizes the presumed incompatibility of modern liberal ideas and Catholicism in the 19th century and underlines the surprisingly international dimension of Lower Canada's press ideological discourse. In short, the "violets" appears as an autonomous political trend, distinct from the "rouges" and the "bleus," and their journey sheds light an unknown part of Québec's intellectual history. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en anglais : United Province of Canada, French Canadians, Lower Canada, Politics, Parties, Ideologies, Institut canadien-français, Newspapers, Parliament, Nationalism, Liberalism, Catholicism, Conservatism, Confederation, Rouges, Bleus, Violets, 19th century.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.015 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".