During the 1970 October Crisis Ryan was accused of participating in a plot to overthrow Robert Bourassa's recently elected government.

Bourassa lost the 1976 election and his own MNA seat to the Parti Québécois under René Lévesque, in part due to the editorial position of Le Devoir under Ryan's stewardship.

This attack outraged many women voters in Quebec, especially since Madeleine Ryan was very active in political and social circles.

Trudeau also said that Ryan's initial campaign efforts of talking to small groups of people was insufficient, which resulted in the federal cabinet minister Jean Chrétien being sent in to help the federalist side.

The loss was widely blamed on Ryan's campaign style, which was criticized for being old-fashioned and ill-suited for the television age.

After the Liberals regained power under Bourassa in the 1985 election, Ryan became one of the most important members of the government and served as Minister of Education.

Those who followed his career, as a publisher and later as a politician, noted that he also opposed the existing federal status quo, which he considered as too centralized, despite statements to the contrary by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.