The “great darkness”

Maurice Duplessis’s third term in office as premier of the province of Quebec, from 1948 to 1952, was marked by the emergence of serious opposition to his government. A group of artists, mainly from the visual arts, denounced the traditionalism of Quebec society and its resistance to progress. Other avenues of criticism would link the Duplessis regime’s conservatism to the social, educational, economic, and political stagnation of the province. All these adversaries helped portray the Duplessis regime, in a none-too-subtle manner, as a period of “great darkness.”