From “Masters in Our Own House” to “Free in Our Own House”

Thoughts on the Legacy of an Electoral Slogan in Quebec

Bibliographic Data

ID20460659
AuthorsAlexandre Turgeon (Université Laval, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume54
Issue3
Pages314-331
Publication date2024-07-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe American Review of Canadian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0272-2011 • E-ISSN: 1943-9954
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02722011.2024.2394910
OpenAlexW4406839745
LanguageEN
References cited9

“Masters in our own house” (“Maîtres chez nous”). No electoral slogan is better known or cited more often in all of Quebec’s documented literature. This was the electoral slogan used by the Liberal Party of Quebec in 1962, during the campaign to nationalize hydroelectricity led by René Lévesque, Minister of Natural Resources in Jean Lesage’s “équipe du tonnerre.” Sixty years later, another slogan echoes the original one: “Free in our own house” (“Libres chez nous”). This was the electoral slogan used by Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party of Quebec during the 2022 electoral campaign, marked by the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond the obvious nod to “Masters in our own house,” where one word replaces the other, how does “Free in our own house” resonate with or differ from its illustrious predecessor? Does the “our own” used in both electoral slogans refer to the same collective subject? In other words, is the desire to be “Masters in our own house” still relevant today, in the early 21st century? These are the questions we intend to answer in this research note

Green house · House of Representatives · Political science · Politics · Slogan · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Law · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis

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