Camillien Houde

Camillien Houde (August 13rd, 1889 with Montreal - September 11th, 1958 in Montreal) was a politician of the Quebec (Canada). It was Maire of Montreal, Député with the legislative Assemblée of Quebec, chief of the Conservative party of Quebec and appointed with the House of Commons of Canada. From 1923 to 1947, it was one of the main adversaries of the governments of Taschereau and Duplessis. Its opposition to the policy of recording for military service issued by the Canadian federal government of King in 1940 was worth to him its deportation without lawsuit in a Concentration camp during four years. The repression of which it was the object acquired him the popular regard and made an alive legend of it.

Youth and beginning of career

Camillien Houde was born in 1889 in a street without name from the working district from Saint-Henri, in Montreal. He was the only son surviving of Azade Houde, Ouvrier in a Minoterie, and of Joséphine Frenette, which had 10 children - the others being all died before the two years age. His/her father dies in 1899, whereas Camillien is only 10 years old. His/her mother becomes worker in a Usine of Textile S.

He studied at the schools Saint-Joseph, Sarsfield, the Plate and Saint-Louis. He works as boy-butcher after the classes. He attends the college of Longueuil to follow his commercial course. One of its professors was the brother Marie-Victorin there (Conrad Kirouac).

After obtaining its commercial diploma, in 1906, it enters to the service of the Banque of Hochelaga, as cash clerk, at the 16 years age. In 1913, he marries Bertha-Andréa (known as Mignonne) Bourgie, girl of Uriel Bourgie, a rich person contractor of Undertaking. In 1916, it is promoted director of one of the branches of the Banque. His wife, with whom it had had two girls, Madeleine (1915) and Marthe (1916), dies in 1918, carried by the epidemic of Spanish Grippe. In 1919, he marries in second weddings Georgette Falardeau, with which he will have a third girl, Claire (1921). A little later it chooses to leave its post office at the bank to exploit various trade, which are a mitigated success. His new wife, who had been employed of Joseph Dufresne, an influential manufacturer of cookies and tradesman of Joliette and a close relation of the Conservative party of Quebec, presents Camillien Houde to Dufresne. Houde becomes a time representing in Montreal for the cookie factory of Dufresne, leaves this employment and launches out in a company of importation of coal, which will appear a failure, then becomes salesman of insurances, employment which it also leaves.

Deputy

Politically, during these a few years, in particular by the influence of his Georgette wife, Camillien Houde is interested in the conservative party. Its former employer, Joseph Dufresne, one of the five only deputies of the conservative party at the legislative assembly of Quebec, takes Camillien Houde under his wing. For the Québécois general election of February 5th, 1923, Houde is presented in the form of a candidate of the conservative party, directed by Arthur Sauvé, in the electoral constituency of Sainte-Marie, a working district of Montreal. To finance its electoral campaign, it obtains the financial support of Urgel Bourgie, the father of his first wife. The candidate of the liberal party is the outgoing deputy Joseph Gauthier, which seems assured an easy re-election. Gauthier can count on the support of the powerful electoral machine of the mayor of Montreal, Médéric Martin. Against any waiting, Houde is elected appointed of Sainte-Marie, demolishing Gauthier. Its oratorical style blazing and its ascending on crowd make a frightening politician of it. As from this time, one calls it “the p' tit guy of sainte-Marie”, nickname which will remain to him. At 33 years, Houde is the youngest deputy of the assembly. During this first term, of 1923 to 1927, it often intervenes in Room, particularly on the labor questions.

With the Québécois general election of May 16th, 1927, the conservative party, always directed by Saved, sees its delegation falling from twenty to ten seats (on a total of 85 at the assembly). In its district of Sainte-Marie, Houde east demolishes by the Gauthier liberal candidate, who always profits from the organization of the Martin mayor. Houde, convinced that this organization adulterated the poll, presents a request in cancellation of the election of Sainte-Marie. In front of the proof of the electoral fraud, the court, to the month of December 1927, grants cancellation. A by-election should be started within thirty day, but the liberal Prime Minister Louis-Alexandre Taschereau decides to delay release with an unspecified date of it. It will start it finally only almost a year later, with the autumn 1928.

Mayor of Montreal

Meanwhile, the municipal elections of the town of Montreal must be held on April 2nd, 1928. The mayor Médéric Martin occupied his station since about fifteen years. Houde, which holds the Martin mayor responsible for the fraud of 1927 in Sainte-Marie, is presented against him to the town hall. Houde then sets up an electoral organization which will exceed that of Martin. During the electoral campaign, Houde denounces in particular the way in which the municipality negotiated the purchase of the company Montreal Water and Power (network of Aqueduc), a purchase that Houde promises to cancel. This promise attracts not only supports to him in the part of the population which considers too high the paid price by the city with the shareholders of the company, but also the hostile financial rich person support to municipalizations, in particular the support of the press baron Lord Atholstan, owner of the newspaper The Star , which will provide to Houde funds for its electoral campaign. At the time of the election, Houde collects approximately 60% of the votes and becomes the new mayor of Montreal. The post of mayor of Montreal confers on Houde prestige but, in fact, little real capacity on the municipal businesses. Indeed, according to the Charter of the Town of Montreal, the mayor almost does not have capacities, those being rather reserved for the executive committee of the city, composed of five members who are named by the municipal council. However, during its first term in the town hall, Houde does not control these municipal structures, which are still in majority with the hands of its adversaries, of which the Desroches adviser, president of the executive committee, which belongs to the team of the Martin ex-mayor. Invited by the station of radio CKAC, Camillien Houde is one of the first Québécois politicians to speaking with the radio.

At the provincial level, the by-election in the Sainte-Marie district is finally started and is held on October 24th, 1928. The liberal candidate is Ernest Langlois there. The election is gained by Camillien Houde, which returns its seat of deputy to him that it had had to yield the previous year This time, it is the liberal party which will try to make cancel this election of Sainte-Marie, but without success.

Its popularity growing, Camillien Houde becomes one of the principal opponents to the Taschereau government. The opposition between the liberal party and the conservative party on the question of the overseas investments is an omnipresent topic in the political discourses of the time. Vis-a-vis the Taschereau government which recommends a policy to concede with the investors of the United States the control and the exploitation of the natural wealths of Quebec, Houde endorses rather the topic “Masters on our premises”. He proposes to establish a better balance of the State compared to the large American companies, by the creation of a hydraulic commission, so that the Québécois State repurchases and réapproprie the hydraulic resources of Quebec and can thus influence economic development. Significant detail of the perceptions conveyed by the political actors, in their speeches at the legislative assembly, the preserving deputies refer to themselves by the expression “the left” and refer to the liberal deputies by the expression “the line”.

Chief of the opposition

In spring of 1929, Arthur Sauvé resigns as chief of the conservative party of Quebec. A congress of the party is convened with Quebec July 9th and 10th 1929, to refresh the political program and to appoint a new chief. July 10th, 1929, Camillien Houde is indicated by acclamation chief of the Conservative party of Quebec.

The first electoral test of Camillien Houde as head of party is, with the autumn 1929, a series of three bys-election, which are held in three castle-forts of the liberal party and which this one preserves without surprise. Houde benefits from it all the same to make a round of the districts concerned.

The municipal elections of Montreal must be held on April 7th, 1930. For the post of mayor, the adversary of Houde is J.A. Mathewson, lawyer anglo-montréalais, supported by the liberal party. This time, Houde is well decided to present itself accompanied by a team of advisers with an aim of obtaining the majority at the municipal council and thus of really being able to reach the administration of the businesses of the city. It does not attack its adversary with the town hall, but it rather directs its countryside against the old administration which still controls the executive committee of the city. A major topic of Houde is environmental protection urban in Montreal. He is opposed in particular to the project of the railroad company '' Canadian National Railways '' to build elevated railways. It is as at the time of this countryside as Camillien Houde launches the idea of a botanical garden to Montreal. At the conclusion of the election, Houde is re-elected by a strong majority at the post of mayor and its team obtains the majority of the seats at the municipal council. The team of Houde can thus form the new executive committee of the city, whose president will be Allan Bray.

At the provincial level, with the autumn 1930, a second series bys-election takes place in four districts. Houde sets out again in round. At the conclusion of the elections, two districts are preserved by the liberal party and is preserved by the conservative party (where Paul Sauvé succeeds like preserving deputy his father Arthur Sauvé). Fourth is gained by the conservatives, who remove it with the liberal party.

The Québécois general election is held on August 24th, 1931. In the electoral campaign, Houde recommends in particular a system revised of loans to the farmers and, on the social plan, of the assistance measures to the families and the pensions to the old men. The majority of the newspapers are politically aligned. The party of Houde profits from the support of the newspapers the Illustration and the Small Newspaper , with Montreal, and the Newspaper , in Quebec. It has against him the official body of the liberal party, Canada , and The Gazette , the Press , the Sun and Goglu , newspaper of the fascistic bunch of Adrien Arcand, which is violently hostile in Houde. The Montreal Star , favorable to the federal conservative party, remains neutral in this provincial countryside, just as the newspaper directed by Henri Bourassa, the Duty , not aligned politically. With the election, the conservative party directed by Houde obtains 44% of the votes (same percentage as with the general election of 1923), but obtains only 11 seats (on a total 90 at the assembly). In its district of Sainte-Marie, Houde east demolishes by the liberal candidate Gaspard Fauteux. the Duty denounces many irregularities having sullied the poll. In Montreal, thousands of voters had been striped electoral rolls. The conservative party is convinced that there was a generalized electoral fraud and disputes in front of the courts the elections of 63 of the 79 liberal deputies. The Taschereau government retorts by adopting a retroactive law (called “law Dillon”, name of its proposer) which prevents the dispute of elections from continuing. The opposition shouts with the coup d'etat. But the preserving deputy Maurice Duplessis benefits from it to torpedo the leadership of his Houde chief while deciding against the disputes. Duplessis, which had been elected of accuracy in its district, did itself vis-a-vis dispute of its election by the liberals.

With the municipal elections of Montreal of April 4th, 1932, Houde east demolishes with the town hall by Fernand Rinfret, candidate of the liberal party.

Camillien Houde resigns as chief of the conservative party of Quebec on September 19th, 1932. Houde considered to be undermined by the operations of Duplessis and the two men will be political enemies during the fifteen following years. A congress of the party is held October 4th and 5th 1933 with Sherbrooke, at the time which Duplessis is candidate with the cheffery. Houde refuses to support Duplessis, which, writes it, “provided weapons to the enemy, by his attitude and its declarations which caused the law Dillon, the worst violation of liberty of the citizen”. Duplessis is indicated chief by the congress. Houde concludes: “I state myself free to adhere to any serious movement which could be tried to disencumber us, in Quebec, of the two political parties which perpetuate the idea that the force precedes the right”. Duplessis, which will become Prime Minister with the National union as from 1936, will take again of to good part the policies and the practices of Taschereau. Camillien Houde will be in opposition to the government of Duplessis as it had been with that of Taschereau. The arrival of Duplessis as chief of the conservative party involves a scission within the party. Three of the eleven deputies, Aime Guertin, Charles Ernest Gault and Barred Laurent, enter in dissidence compared to the leadership of Duplessis. December 12th, 1933, they are excluded from the caucus. Challenging at the same time the party of Taschereau and that of Duplessis, in the following months they gather in the Frank party. They request Houde to join them and to give an impulse to a third provincial political clout, but Houde declines the invitation, because it is devoted from now on to Montreal.

Return to the municipal one

At the municipal level, during the Thirties, Houde and its adversaries will exchange the town hall of Montreal from one election to another. Houde regains the town hall with the municipal election of April 9th, 1934, at the time which he is elected by one crushing majority against two other candidates, Anatole Plante, of the liberal party, and Salluste Lavery, which was supported by the fascists of Adrien Arcand. The world economic crisis continuing, the city comes to assistance of the unemployed and must face the banks, which are reticent to lend to him. The situation of Houde is again difficult to the municipal council because it is countered there by the partisans of Duplessis. September 1st, 1936, Houde resigns as mayor. The statement which it makes at the time of its resignation exposes its reserves compared to the wind of Nationalisme Canadian-French and his divergences compared to Duplessis: “Since April 1934, it developed in the province a feeling of intense nationalism (...) I did not give in this movement which I find dangerous, particularly in Montreal, cosmopolitan city. Those which intend to fight to me are all of this school and the verdict of the people indicates to me that it is there the tendence (...) Ajoutez to this reason the judgment by the Prime Minister (Duplessis) for the system of taxation which I recommended, the situation tended between the new Prime Minister and myself (...) I acknowledge well ingenuously that, at present, any man who would oppose this nationalist attitude Canadian-Frenchwoman, even with reason serious, would consider a defeat about some (...)”. It is presented all the same to the election of December 16th, 1936 to the town hall, while hoping to harden its position, but it loses this election with the hands of the candidate duplessist Adhémar Raynault.

If it is reticent compared to nationalism Canadian-French, Camillien Houde is a Canadian nationalist, with the manner of Henri Bourassa, wanting that Canada has an independent foreign policy compared to the British Empire and defending of the convictions antimilitarists. To be opposed to the policy of armament of the federal government of King, Camillien Houde is presented for the first time in federal policy in a by-election which is held in the district montréalaise of Saint-Henri on January 17th, 1938, like independent candidate. The conservative party of Canada initially promises to finance its electoral campaign against their common adversary, the King government, but withdraws its funds in the course of road to him, finding its countryside too antimilitarist.

In May 1943, Houde is made intimate to sign a document, only compiled in English, who, explains him one, would not only urge it to conceal his political opinions but still to support by his attitude the objectives of the government. He refuses to sign. It request either to be released, or that one allows him to undergo a lawsuit, or at the very least to appear before an administrative commission. But, at the end of 1943, increasingly anxious for its family left without resources, Houde agrees to sign what one imposes to him. The government still delays nevertheless its release until after the Québécois general elections of August 1944. Houde is released on August 14th, 1944. Its resistance peaceful and worthy opposite repression during these years of test acquired the public regard to him. When, on August 16th, 1944, it arrives at the Windsor station of Montreal, a crowd of several tens of thousands of people, full with emotion, came to await it and accommodate it. Camillien Houde had entered the legend.

Houde expresses the wish to take again its load of mayor of Montreal to the municipal elections of December 1944. He is elected with 57% of the votes against Adhémar Raynault. As from this moment, Houde will preserve the town hall without interruption until its political retirement in 1954. But, this time still, it does not have the control of the municipal administration. The president of the executive committee is J. - Omer Asselin, posts some since 1940. Houde is conservative candidate demolishes in the federal district of Montreal-Holy-Marie at the time of the general election of June 11th, 1945. In 1947, when the Canadian Parliament creates the Canadian Citoyenneté, Camillien Houde becomes one of the first Canadians in the name of which a certificate of Canadian citizenship is emitted, on January 3rd, 1947.

The decade of post-war period

This period is marked by the beginning of a campaign known as morality in Montreal, in particular under the influence of the catholic mediums. The municipal police force and her director Albert Langlois are the target of criticisms which plead a too great tolerance of criminality. In July 1947, the municipal council names Pacifique (known as Pax) Plant assistant of the director of the police force. Plant undertakes a cleansing campaign and takes the control of the concerning license police force: taxis, restaurants, bars. In 1947, Houde agrees to be reconciled with Maurice Duplessis. Duplessis will henceforth provide him funds to finance its electoral campaigns. Houde is re-elected by acclamation mayor of Montreal to the election of December 9th, 1947. In March 1948, the director of the Langlois police force revokes Pax Plante, decision ratified by the executive committee of the city, always chaired by J. - Omer Asselin. The leader of the municipal council is however Pierre Desmarais, who supports the morality campaign and is opposed to Asselin. It is formed a League of Vigilance, which claims a moral cleaning and whose secretary is J. - Z. Leon Patenaude.

At the time of the Québécois general election of 1948, Houde supports Duplessis publicly.

With the federal general election of June 29th, 1949, Camillien Houde is elected appointed independent with the House of Commons of Canada in the district of Papineau.

In 1949 and 1950, Pax Plants and Gerard Pelletier publishes in the newspaper the Duty long series of articles exposing the lower parts of the Prostitution to Montreal, denouncing “the reign of the Pègre” and being caught some with the police force and to the president of the exécurtif committee, J. - Omer Asselin. In March 1950, J. - Z. Leon Patenaude and Jean Drapeau start again a Committee of public morality, with the objective to obtain a judicial enquiry into morality in Montreal. Camillien Houde is not aimed by the organizers of the morality campaign. In March 1950, the town of Montreal makes approve by the legislature the expropriation of the company of trams and the creation of a metropolitan commission of transport. May 30th, 1950, the Committee of public morality obtains Juge as a chief of the Superior court the behavior of an investigation on the morality, chaired by judge François Charon. The investigation begins on September 12th, 1950, but the audiences will begin only on June 5th, 1952. Camillien Houde is re-elected mayor of Montreal to the election of 1950.

In 1953, the judicial enquiry into morality in Montreal finished, after having understood several hundreds of witnesses. The civic League of action introduces a team for the municipal elections which must be held on October 25th, 1954, with Pierre Desmarais aiming at the presidency of the executive committee and Jean Drapeau arising to the town hall. Flag does not believe to be likely to gain if it is presented against the monument which is Camillien Houde

Random links: