The health of Premier Maurice Duplessis has been unwell since mid 1958. Suffering from multiple strokes since September 3, Le Chef Joseph Maurice Stanislas Le Noblet Duplessis passed away right after midnight of September 7th. Quickly, the Union nationale and the Quebec government got to work on finding a successor. This proved to not be easy.

The Vultures

Since 1957, many staunch opponents of Duplessis had joined the Union nationale in an attempt to direct the party away from Duplessis; in most cases the criticism of Duplessis being due to his corruption or his economic policy rather than anything else. With Duplessis dead, those who had rivaled him saw fit to bring themselves to power.

Behind closed doors, Commandant-en-chef of the MVSN Télesphore Daigle reached out personally to those he believed were best fit succeed Duplessis. The man in particular he sought was the economist Edras Minville. Minville, a staunch nationalist and supporter of a Catholic social system and economy, was a natural fit to many to succeed Duplessis while bringing in necessary reforms.

Finally on September 10th, the Emergency Legislative Council of the Pan-Quebecois National Salvation Government voted unanimously to elect Edras Minville as Premier.

Newly-appointed Executive Council

Notably, the Executive Council includes former Duplessis rivals such as Father Goulx as Minister of State, as well as Jeune-Canada radicals such as Laurendeau and Drapeau, who similarly have opposed Duplessis for his laissez-faire and anti-union legislation. The Minville government, despite its continuation in the Quebec tradition of Catholic nationalism, is set to be much more dynamic and radical economically than the staunchly liberal and free-market policies of the late Maurice Duplessis.