As chair of Montreal's largest school commission, Larivée was a prominent critic of René Lévesque's Parti Québécois (PQ), which governed Quebec from 1976 to 1985.
[2] In 1977, he openly defied the government's language policy to permit more than 800 children of immigrants to continue attending English classes until the end of the school year.
Larivée and his MSC-supported allies favoured retention of the Roman Catholic system, while rival candidates from the Regroupement scolaire progressiste (RSP) were open to the prospect of secularization.
[5] Larivée was required to face the electorate in the 1980 board election while the strike was still taking place and was re-elected by only twelve votes against a candidate endorsed by the teachers' union.
In 1981, the PQ government distributed materials critical of Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau's constitutional proposals to high school history teachers across the province.
[6] Larivée subsequently opposed the PQ government's prohibition against teaching English as a second language to children in French schools before the fourth grade.
He charged that several PQ ministers believed teaching second languages to young children would have detrimental effects, adding that he himself was entirely opposed to this viewpoint.
[9] A Montreal Gazette editorial from this time described him as an unknown quality in municipal politics, noting that he seldom said anything in caucus or the council chambers.
For his part, Larivée commented that he had not joined Drapeau's executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet) as doing so would have left him unable to handle his responsibilities as commission chair.
Larivée was re-elected to council in the 1994 municipal election as a candidate of Pierre Bourque's newly formed Vision Montreal, defeating incumbent MCM councillor Diane Barbeau in Hochelaga.
Larivée rejected the motion, declaring that it was based on a hypothetical scenario and further indicating that the city's legal department considered Montreal's status within Canada to be a matter outside municipal jurisdiction.
[16] After continued opposition requests, Bourque's trip was later reviewed by Montreal's ethics committee, which Larivée also chaired.