At that time, Sherbrooke had a population of 15,000, two-thirds of whom were French Canadians. Once the majority, Anglophones have had their own daily newspaper since Cookshire publisher LS Channell founded The Sherbrooke Daily Record in 1897. Until this historic date, there was only one weekly newspaper for Francophones. Eyes: Le Progrès de l'Est, founded in 1883 and owned by L.-A. Belanger.
La Tribune's subscription then costs $1.50 per year ($3 at home), or “one cent” per copy. The first issues consist of six pages in which the focus is on the series between articles and advertising. The monthly supplement contains more and better photos than the daily edition.
It was in this “media” context that La Tribune was born, at the initiative of a young French-speaking Protestant lawyer named Jacob Nicol.
Nicol is 33 years old and was born in Roxton Pond. He is a pillar of the Liberal Party. He became provincial treasurer in 1921, legislative councilor in 1928, before being appointed senator in 1944.
If the name Jacob Nicol is closely linked to the name La Tribune, it would be unfair to attribute the title of founder to him alone. In his History of Sherbrooke (Volume 3), published in 2002 by Éditions GGC, Jean-Pierre Kesteman describes the circumstances that led to the founding of La Tribune:
“In 1910, a second English-language newspaper, the Daily News, published some editions, but was purchased by a Montreal printer, Michael A. Foley, who was immediately joined by Me Jacob Nicol, a Sherbrooke lawyer, and then Mgr. E.C joined Tremblay, prosecutor of the seminary, with the aim of founding a French-language daily newspaper. Those were the beginnings of La Tribune. In 1913, Foley sold his shares to lawyer Nicol, laying the foundation for a press empire that would establish the fame, if not fortune, of this future Liberal senator. »
A version confirmed by Professor Guy Laperrière of the History Department at the University of Sherbrooke in a text published in 1985 to mark the daily's 75th anniversary.
Still, he adds, “It was Nicol who raised the necessary funds to launch La Tribune with the region's Liberal MPs: Sydney Fisher (Brome) and Edmund W. Tobin (Richmond).”
Professor Laperrière added that La Tribune presents itself “as a family newspaper independent of political parties” and that it “will be dedicated to promoting Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships from the start.”
By the time La Tribune was born, local politics was already attracting attention. The local council, led by Mayor Charles-Walter Cate, is immersed in debates about the economic and energy potential of the Magog and Saint-François rivers. Should we then, yes or no, municipalize electricity? The issue divides English-speaking and French-speaking elected officials so much that it leads to a series of referendums. Private electricity companies, including Sherbrooke Railway & Power (SRP), are using all means at their disposal to prevent the project from going ahead.
After several contacts with elected officials and the business community, council members Daniel McManamy (mayor 1893–1894) and Donat-Édouard-Oscar Denault (mayor 1920–1922) managed to convince the majority of their colleagues. The municipalization of the electricity companies is taking shape, allowing the city to invest in the construction of new dams and attract new companies to which it will grant “more than competitive” tariffs.
The Tribune will not remain on the sidelines of the debate. While the new daily's management published a number of articles on the subject, it endorsed the project that would lead to the creation of Hydro-Sherbrooke several decades later.
Although the population was predominantly French-speaking, Sherbrooke was still considered an “English bastion” at the time.
In the town hall, the tradition was respected that the city was led alternately by an English-speaking and a French-speaking mayor until Armand Nadeau succeeded J. Émile Lévesque in 1955.
In the Quebec parliament, where Prime Minister Lomer Gouin's Liberal Party has ruled since 1905, Liberal Pantaléon Pelletier represents the Sherbrooke constituency. After his first election in 1900, he rose to become Speaker of the Legislative Assembly before resigning in 1911 and being appointed Quebec's agent-general in London.
That same year, an English-speaking Conservative MP, Arthur Norreys Worthington, represented the Sherbrooke constituency in the Ottawa Parliament. Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal Party is in power. Worthington was seriously ill and decided not to run again in the election on September 21, 1911. He died a few months later and his funeral was celebrated with great pomp. In an article in La Tribune on February 10, 1912, we read that 2,000 people descended on Dufferin Street to see his remains one last time.
“To the sound of a sad military march, the procession made its way to St. Peter's Church […] Dick, the deceased's favorite horse, the same one with which he had undertaken the South African campaign in 1900, immediately followed his master's remains. The burial took place in the Union Cemetery on Rue Belvédère.