Grande Noirceur

The Grande Noirceur (French pronunciation: ​[ɡʀɑ̃d nwaʀsœ:ʀ], English, Great Darkness) is a name that refers to the conservative policies undertaken by the government of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis in the 1936-1939 and 1944-1959 period.

Duplessis favoured rural areas over city development and introduced various agricultural credits during his first term. He also was noted for meagre investment in social services. Duplessis also opposed military conscription and Canadian involvement in World War II.

Duplessis's party, the Union Nationale, often had the active support of the Roman Catholic Church in its political campaigns and employed the slogan Le ciel est bleu; l'enfer est rouge: Heaven is blue (Union Nationale); hell is red (Liberal). Only during the labour strikes in the 1950s did the Church break with the Union Nationale by supporting the unions.

Duplessis championed anti-Communism and also opposed trade unions such as the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC). He introduced several laws that were criticised by the unions, most notably the Padlock Law, which initially was a law that would eliminate Communist propaganda.

In 1949, Duplessis also tried to introduce a copycat law of the U.S Taft-Hartley Act, created in 1947, which would have eliminated certain rights for union groups that were acquired by the Labour Relations Law of 1944, the equivalent of the American Wagner Act of 1935. It was withdrawn due to the fierce opposition by union groups.

Duplessis later reintroduced a nearly similar law in 1954, known as Bill 19, that would force union groups to ban any members that supported Communism; any group would lose its trade-union accreditation if there was a single member that had ties with Communist groups or supported the ideology. The party lost even the support of the Catholic union group and forced it to review its structure which would lead to the creation of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN).

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