Paul Cerdan of the Free Quebec Party.
Paul Cerdan was a Francophone politician in the Confederation of Quebec at the turn of the nineteenth century, and one of the founders of the Free Quebec Party. Sobel describes Cerdan as a dull man who lacked the glamour and magnetism that the French community admired.
During the Trans-Oceanic War between Great Britain and France, Cerdan attempted to rally support for France among Quebec's Francophone inhabitants, but he was unsuccessful. After the turn of the nineteenth century, support for independence increased among Quebecois Francophones, and Cerdan and Pierre Ribot were able to organize the Free Quebec Party in 1810. The F.Q.P. did not go so far as to demand independence, but it did seek greater autonomy for Quebec. Although the F.Q.P. was regarded as a fringe group by Quebec's Anglophones, the Conservative Party formed an electoral alliance with them during Quebec's 1814 provincial elections. Although the Conservatives won control of Quebec's government in 1814, their policies proved too moderate for the F.Q.P., which turned to terrorism and acts of violence.
Sobel's sources for the life of Paul Cerdan are John Reynolds' Background for Rebellion: Quebec, 1800-1838 (New York, 1956); and Etienne Bayard's The Sputtering Fuse: The French Question in Quebec in the Nineteenth Century (Quebec City, 1967).