Archbishop A.-A. Taché of St. Boniface

Book excerpt: This study goes beyond the traditional "great man" approach to biography and incorporates the newer directions of social history to produce a critical study of a controversial religious figure in western Canada. A biography of Bishop A.-A. Taché is more than the story of an individual because it is the chronicle of the Catholic Church in Quebec and the Canadian North West. It is a study of how clerical elites influenced society and its evolution and an account of an attempt to transplant and nurture and idealized agricultural society of Quebec on the prairies. As a pioneer French Canadian Oblate missionary and bishop A.-A. Taché was associated with some of the most momentous events in western Canadian history: the Red River Insurrection, French Catholic colonization, the Saskatchwan Rebellion and the school and language controversies in Manitoba and the North West Territories. Taché was an authoritarian figure and this tendency was reinforced by religious and episcopal office. In practice he was a micro manager who desired to control everything. Despite his valiant efforts his vision of a sister province of Quebec in the West failed to materialize and Quebec failed to respond to his urgent pleas for immigrants and Quebec politicians undermined his efforts by suggesting that he had betrayed his native province. Taché’s career is also a chronicle of failure and frustration but he took consolation in the fact that he had not shirked his duty nor tarnished his honour. Within this context Taché’s actions are a reminder of sacred accords concluded between English and French, Catholic and Protestant in 1867 and 1870. As an administrator Taché’s forte was in managing the material assets of his diocese. On the other hand, he lacked interpersonal skills in dealing and relating with his clergy. In the final analysis Taché will always remain an enigmatic figure.