Cite Libre is a revival of the former Cité Libre that was inspired by the editorial leadership of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and other Canadian intellectuals. The new Cité Libre is a not-for-profit and comprehensive magazine. Editorially we seek to re-inspire a context of civic introspection on vital social, political, economic, cultural, environmental, and other quality-of-living issues which effect Canadians and peoples internationally.
Wikipedia lists Cité Libre as an influential political journal published in Quebec, Canada, through the 1950's and 1960's. Co-founded in 1950 by editor and future Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau, the publication served as an organ of opposition to the conservative and authoritarian government of Maurice Duplessis.
The journal published contributions by intellectuals such as Trudeau, Gérard Pelletier, René Lévesque, Pierre Vallières and other intellectuals and activists. In doing so, the journal gained a reputation for its avant-garde viewpoints at a time when anti-Duplessis views were difficult to get into print.
Many of the themes raised by the former Cité Libre found fruition during Quebec's Quiet Revolution of the 1960's. A number of the journal's contributors went on to take leading parts in that movement. As the 1960's progressed, Quebec society became divided between Quebec nationalists and sovereigntists such as Lévesque and Vallières and Canadian federalists such as Trudeau and Pelletier. This caused a rift among the journal's board members, ultimately leading to the magazine's evolution into a federalist journal. As well, the journal abandoned its earlier interest in socialist ideas and became more and more liberal in orientation.
The division among Quebec's left, as well as the entry of a number of Cité Libre editors/writers into electoral politics, led to the journal's demise in 1966.
Cité Libre was revived in July 1991 to help promote Canadian national unity in Quebec and combat the perceived (pro-Quebec nationalist) "political unanimism" in the province. In 1998, an English-language version (also under the name Cité Libre) was launched; unlike most other bilingual publications, both the French and English versions were identical in their respective content. Publication ceased (both in French and English) in 2000, officially because of the magazine's perception that separatism was defeated, thanks in particular to the Clarity Act.
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