Trained as a barrister, Laurier practiced as an unremarkable lawyer in Montreal before becoming involved in politics. Laurier was a moderate member of the "parti rouge" or the Rogues sometimes anglicized as the Reds. Its members were formed in reaction to the corruption of the Conservative party which actively favored English-speaking big business. Anti-clerical, the Rogues were labeled irreligious by the Catholic Church (McNaught 160). Bishop Bourget of Montreal actively denounced them following the cue of Pope Pious IX who led a crusade against them. During this period Laurier was a member of Institut Canadien, a rationalist literary society characterized by its "semi-republicanist leanings" (McNaught 162). Within a short time, Laurier would reject this stance as naive. Instead, his political outlook advanced to a state where he "advocated the liberal parliamentary British tradition" (McNaught 162). Laurier began to shape himself as a candidate of compromise as he successfully did with Manitoba's premier Greenway in
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