In 1935 he left Quebec with his spouse to study philosophy and social sciences at the Sorbonne. After studying abroad, Laurendeau relinquished his separatist persuasion and began to be more preoccupied with the American threat to French-Canadian culture than with that threat posed by English Canada. Upon returning home, he served as director of the "L'Action nationale" magazine from 1937 to 1943 and from 1949 to 1953, which had been under his father's direction in the past. As a journalist and editorialist, Laurendeau broached a myriad of topics, from nationalism, to World War II, to federalism, to separatism and bilingualism/biculturalism, but always from essentially the same platform. Laurendeau subscribed to tenets of Christian humanism throughout his long career. He was concerned for the good of the collective and ever suspicious of those who wished to concentrate power in the hands of the few. Additionally, Laurendeau believed that even though Quebec constituted a minority in Canada, their position as a unique province with a unique culture were to be respected and not undermined by a central (majority/anglophone/Protestant) power based in Ottawa.