Adélard Godbout

See also: Godbout (homonymy)

Joseph-Adélard Godbout (September 24th 1892 - September 18th 1956) was a Agronome and politician Québécois (Canadian). It was briefly Prime Minister Quebec in 1936, and again of 1939 with 1944. He was also chief of the Liberal party of Quebec (PLQ).

Biography

Adélard Godbout was born with Saint-Éloi, in the county of Témiscouata. His/her father was Eugene Godbout, farmer and appointed liberal of 1921 with 1923; his/her mother was Marie-Louise Duret. It made its studies with the Séminaire of Rimouski, the school of agriculture of Holy-Anne-with-the-Pocatière and the Amherst Agricultural College, in the American State of the Massachusetts. He taught then at the school of agriculture of Holy-Anne-to-the-Pocatière 1918 with 1930. He was agronomist for the ministry for the Agriculture of 1922 with 1925.

He was elected without opposition under the banner of the Liberal party of Quebec in the district of Islet to the bys-election of the May 13rd 1929, and was then re-elected in 1931 and 1935. He occupied the post of minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of the Prime Minister Louis-Alexandre Taschereau of November 27th 1930 with the June 27th 1936.

Godbout became Prime Minister for the Quebec according to the resignation of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau the June 27th 1936. Dirtied by the scandals of the Taschereau administration, it lost the election of August 1936 vis-a-vis the National union of Maurice Duplessis, which put an end to 39 years (between 1897 and 1936) of liberal government without interruption. Although it lost also its seat with the National Assembly, Godbout remained chief of the Liberal party and returned to the capacity to the election of 1939.

During its mandate, the Godbout government legislated laws without precedent in the history which granted the right to vote with the women in 1940, made compulsory the school studies until the fourteen years age and founded the exemption from payment of education to the primary education. Its government adopted also a new labor regulation which affirmed the right to the workers clearly to syndicate, and nationalized the electric companies with Montreal to create Hydro-Quebec, the public institution which would be largely extended by Rene Lévesque and the government of Jean Lesage during the Quiet revolution.

With the election of 1944, it was beaten once more by Maurice Duplessis, in spite of the fact that its party had obtained a more important popular vote. It was shown to have supported the introduction of the conscription by Canadian the Prime Minister Mackenzie King

He remained chief of the Opposition until the election of 1948, in which he lost his own district by a mean margin. In 1949, Godbout was named with the Sénat of Canada on the recommendation of the Canadian Prime Minister Louis SAINT LAURENT. He remained senator until his death in 1956. He was buried with the cemetery of Frelighsburg,

With Charles-Eugene Butcher of Boucherville, John Jones Ross, Rene Lévesque and Jacques Parizeau, Adélard Godbout is one of the only Prime Ministers for the history of Quebec not to be a lawyer of profession.

Legacy

The historians recognize today in the actions of Adélard Godbout of important precedents progressists, as well as the bases of the Quiet revolution. He however was criticized for his weak position autonomy Québécois Nationalisme.

For example, he agreed to the constitutional transfer of insurance-employment towards the federal government in 1940, as with an agreement of hiring of taxes of time of war which removed with the provinces their tax autonomy. The usual explanation calls upon impossibility for the Godbout team of defying the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King, being given the massive assistance given to the PLQ by the party of Mackenzie King for the election of 1939. Other historians, more ambivalent on these judgments, explain its attitude by the needs for the war.

Godbout is one of Québécois the Prime Ministers the least known in spite of the achievements that one allots to him. In 2000, documentary bearing on him entitled Treacherous or patriotic and confronting this phenomenon was made by the famous scenario writer Jacques Godbout, which is the son of its first cousin Fernand Godbout.

Elections as head of party

He lost the election of 1936, gained the election of 1939, lost the election of 1944 like that of 1948.

See too

External bond

  • Adélard Godbout - National Assembly of Quebec

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