Taschereau was very much the grand seigneur, a Grande Allee aristocrat who supported the corporatist status quo. He was a bilingual corporate lawyer who sat on the boards of various companies while a Cabinet member, Attorney General and Premier (the premier traditionally held that post) with whom the province dealt such as LHP, RBC, etc. Duplessis represented their rival Shawinigan Water and Power (nationalized in 1962) in private life.
Taschereau had to drop his only Jewish MLA, Peter Bercovitch, from Cabinet because of the uproar: he would have liked to appoint him to Finance, but the climate precluded it. If Taschereau accepted the proposal, he would face heavy resistance from the public, his own backbenchers, the clergy* and the press. Another problem was that the Jewish community was divided between the wealthy/middle-class, secular, "downtowners" and the poor Jews "uptowners", with the poor favoring a separate system. Bercovitch took the side of the "uptowners", despite representing the "downtown" Jewish riding of St-Louis. As we know, they eventually created two systems, Catholic and "Protestant", which meant ABC in practice. During a time when the political climate was Marcosian corporatist post-1936, Jews were the subject of racist attacks from the pulpit and the nationalist press, Taschereau was not going to stake his government on minority rights.
*In 1924, Taschereau was libelled personally impious by several Quebec City clergymen and a Catholic daily. He successfully sued them for defamation in the $5000 range.
Taschereau had to drop his only Jewish MLA, Peter Bercovitch, from Cabinet because of the uproar: he would have liked to appoint him to Finance, but the climate precluded it. If Taschereau accepted the proposal, he would face heavy resistance from the public, his own backbenchers, the clergy* and the press. Another problem was that the Jewish community was divided between the wealthy/middle-class, secular, "downtowners" and the poor Jews "uptowners", with the poor favoring a separate system. Bercovitch took the side of the "uptowners", despite representing the "downtown" Jewish riding of St-Louis. As we know, they eventually created two systems, Catholic and "Protestant", which meant ABC in practice. During a time when the political climate was Marcosian corporatist post-1936, Jews were the subject of racist attacks from the pulpit and the nationalist press, Taschereau was not going to stake his government on minority rights.
*In 1924, Taschereau was libelled personally impious by several Quebec City clergymen and a Catholic daily. He successfully sued them for defamation in the $5000 range.