Quebec pays tribute to Landry

Former premier hailed as ‘patriot’ in political funeral ceremony

Former Quebec premier Bernard Landry planned much of his own funeral service, held Tuesday inside Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica, and his choices ensured the ceremony would be as political as it was religious.

Friends, family and former colleagues remembered Landry as a loving family man, an economic visionary, but above all a leader devoted to making Quebec a country.

Shortly after provincial police officers carried Landry’s casket into the church, Premier François Legault paid tribute to a man he called a “great patriot.”

“He was a great servant of the state,” said Legault, who held portfolios in Landry’s Parti Québécois government before he quit the sovereignty movement and eventually formed his own party, Coalition Avenir Québec.

Former premier Jean Charest praised Landry for his uncommon commitment to the Quebec independence cause.

“He had set himself a mission, and in this battle he never took a single day off.”

Quebec’s 28th premier, who died Nove. 6 at the age of 81, is recognized for helping Quebec’s tech sector flourish and for a landmark agreement with the province’s Cree. Ted Moses, who was grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees during the 2002 negotiations, remembered Landry as a “brother” and a friend of the Cree people.