Louis the St. Lawrence

Youth and career

Louis the St. Lawrence was born with Compton, Quebec (in the Cantons of the east), of a father Canadian-French and an Irish mother . He grew while being completely bilingual. He made his studies and obtained diplomas with the Séminaire Saint-Charles (in 1902) and with the Université Laval (in 1905). One will offra a Bourse Rhodos to him according to his graduation of the Université Laval in 1905, but he refused it. In 1908 it married Jeanne Renault (1886 - 1966) with whom it had two wire and three girls.

The St. Lawrence began its career like lawyer from 1905 with 1914, becoming then law professor with the Université Laval. It practiced the corporative and constitutional right to Quebec and became one of the advisers most respected with the country. He was president of the Association of the Canadian bar of 1930 with 1932.

His/her father, a small shopkeeper of Compton, was a devoted partisan of the Liberal party of Canada and was particularly enthusiast of Wilfrid Laurier. Louis the St. Lawrence inherited the political affiliations of his father but, although a liberal partisan, remained with the variation of the active policy for most of his life, concentrating initially on his lawyer career and his family. He became one of lawyers more for Quebec and was estimated so much that one offered a station with the cabinet to him of very eloquent preserving the Prime Minister Arthur Meighen in 1926.

It was only towards age the 60 years that he finally agree to launch out in policy when the first liberal minister William Lyon Mackenzie King called some with his direction of the duty in 1941.

Minister in the cabinet of Mackenzie King

Having largely need for solid ministers coming from Quebec, the Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King recruited the St. Lawrence in his cabinet of time of war to name it at the post of minister of justice according to the death of his Québécois lieutenant, Ernest Lapointe. The St. Lawrence agree to go to Ottawa with the agreement which its incursion in policy was temporary and which it would return to Quebec when the war would be finished.

The St. Lawrence supported the decision of King to impose the conscription in 1944, in spite of the opposition of the majority of the French Canadians (see Crise of the conscription (1944)). Its support prevented that more than one handle of Québécois liberal deputies leave the party, and was thus crucial with the unit of the party and the government.

King had suddenly seen the St. Lawrence as the minister in whom he had more confidence, like his natural successor. It convainca that he was of his duty to remain in the government after the war is finished, in order to help with the construction of a new international order of post-war period; King thus appointed it Secretary of State to the Businesses outsides in 1945, a file that King had up to that point always kept for itself. In this new role, the St. Lawrence represented Canada with the conference of Dumbarton Oaks and the conference of San Francisco which led to the foundation of the United Nations (UNO).

At the time of these conferences, the St. Lawrence preached the adoption of an U.N. military force, pushed by its conviction that UNO would be ineffective in time of war and of armed conflict without some average soldier to impose his will. This force which he proposed would be used in situations which required at the same time tact and power to preserve peace or to prevent the combat. In 1956, this idea was brought up to date by the St. Lawrence and its Secretary of State to the external Businesses Lester B. Pearson during the development of the troops of " maintenance of the paix" UNO which helped to put an end to the Crise of Suez Canal.

Direction of the party

Seeing the end of its time to the head of the Liberal party to approach, King persuaded the St. Lawrence which it was of its duty to succeed to him as a chief of the party and Prime Minister in order to ensure the unit of the party and the country. That would also continue the tradition of the Liberal party which wants that it alternates between anglophone and French-speaking chiefs.

Prime Minister of Canada

In 1948, King took its retirement, and persuaded its ministers to support the nomination of the St. Lawrence to the head of the Liberal party in August 1948. The St. Lawrence was elected, and became chief of the party and Prime Minister of Canada.

The federal election of 1949 which followed its rise to the head of the party and the country, several (including many liberals) wondered whether this timid man, reserved, of a worthy pace of grandfather, would attract the population of post-war period of Canada. In electoral campaign, the image of the St. Lawrence was developed to make a " of it; personnage" , which one considers being the first " image médiatique" used in Canadian policy. The St. Lawrence jasait with children, made speeches out of short sleeves, and had an ordinary pace of man who allured the voters. At the time of an event of the countryside of 1949, it unloaded train and revolved towards a group of children on the platforme, and started to make them the conversation. One to defer published an article entitled " “Uncle Louis” can' T roofing stone! " ( the uncle Louis' cannot lose! ); it acquired the nickname of " thus; Uncle Louis" in the anglophone media. Thanks to all this imagines popular, it led its party to the electoral victory vis-a-vis the Parti progressist-conservative, directed by George Drew.

Its reputation as a Prime Minister impressed. It required of all its ministers and deputies who they are working, and worked hard itself. It was famous to be as qualified in certain ministerial files as the ministers holding its files.

Foreign politics

The St. Lawrence and its cabinet governed the expansion of the international role of Canada in the world of the post-war period. Its desire clarifies was that Canada occupies a role of " power moyenne" social, military and economic on the world scene.

On the military question, the St. Lawrence was a large partisan and a driving force of the establishment of NATO (Organization of the treaty of the North Atlantic) in 1949, playing the part of architect and signatory of the document of the treaty. Its implication in such an organization marked a departure of the style of Mackenzie King, which had always been reticent to join a military alliance. Under its direction, Canada supported the the United Nations in the Guerre of Korea and engaged the third greater contribution to the troops, vessels and planes of the forces of UNO in the conflict. Taking as a starting point the liberal chief admired so much by his father, Wilfrid Bay-tree, and its manner of dealing with the South-African War of Boers in 1899, and wishing to avoid over very another crisis of the conscription like those lived in Canada in 1917 and 1944, the troops sent in Korea were selected on a strictly voluntary basis. It thus avoided the English-French conflict which had divided the country at the time of the Canadian participation in the two world wars; it also avoided attracting oneself the grogne of a growing portion of the Canadian population which was opposed to the war, which had devastated two successive generations. In 1956, under its direction, the secretary of was with the external Businesses, Lester B. Pearson, helped to solve the Crise of Suez Canal between the the United Kingdom, the France, Israel and the Egypt, putting before the position of 1946 of the St. Lawrence for a military force under the control of UNO. Some affirm that the actions of the St. Lawrence and Pearson would have avoided a nuclear war. These actions were recognized in 1957, when Pearson accepted the Nobel Prize of peace.

The St. Lawrence very quickly supported the proposal of British the Prime Minister Clement Attlee to transform the the British Commonwealth of a club of Dominions to white majority into a multi-racial parternariat. Leaders of the others " dominions blancs" were less enthusiastic. It was the St. Lawrence which proposed the formula recognizing King George VI as Chef of the Commonwealth like means of making it possible the India to remain member of the international association once transformed into République.

Interior policy

The government directed by the St. Lawrence was moderately progressist and financially conservative, refunding the totality of the debt accumulated by Canada during the two world wars and the Great depression using the surpluses generated by the taxes which the army did not need more. With the remaining incomes, the St. Lawrence governed the expansion of the social programs of Canada, including the creation of the Council of Arts of Canada, and the gradual expansion of the programmes of social wellbeing such as the family benefits, the retirement pensions, the governmental financing of education post-secondary and a primitive form of health insurance (called " insurance-hôpital" at the time), which provided the foundations of the system of health insurance of Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan, and of the national system of health insurance of Pearson in the years 1960. Moreover, it modernized and establishes new industrial relations policies and industrial for the country during its time at the post of Prime Minister.

In 1949, the St. Lawrence put an end to the practice to carry Canadian causes in call to the legal committee of the private Council of Great Britain, making Supreme court of Canada the last recourse of call available to Canadian. This same year, it negotiated the Acte of British North America of 1949 which repatriated the Canadian constitution partially; the most significant effect was to give to the Parliament of Canada the authority to modify portions of the constitution. Moreover, this same year, according to two referendums in the province, the St. Lawrence and the Prime Minister Joseph R. Smallwood negotiated the entry of Newfoundland in the Canadian Confédération. In 1952 it named Vincent Massey at the station of General governor, the first nobody born in Canadian ground to occupy this station. Each above-mentioned action were, and, are regarded still today as significant for the cause of Canadian autonomy opposite the the United Kingdom, as well as the development of an national identity on the international scene.

In 1956, calling upon the authority of imposition granted to the federal government by the constitution, the government of the St. Lawrence introduced the policy of " payments of Equalization " who redistributes the incomes of taxes and taxes between the provinces with an aim of coming to assistance of the poorest provinces in the delivery of services and governmental programs; this decision is regarded by several as a good contribution to the solidification of the national unit, particularly in its native province of the Quebec. The government also launched out in public works and massive projects of infrastructure the such constructin of the Route transcanadienne (1949), the Sea route of the St. Lawrence (1954) and the pipeline transcanadien. It was the latter which was to sow the first seeds which led to the fall of its government.

The St. Lawrence was very initially well accommodated of the Canadian public, but in 1957, l'" Uncle Louis" and its government started to have appearance tired, aged and disconnected. The government was perceived like too close to the medium of the businesses. The debate on the pipeline in 1956 created the widespread impression that the liberal had become arrogant with the capacity when the government imposed the muzzle on many occasions in order to put a term at the debate and to make sure that the bill on the pipeline would be adopted for the date envisaged. Canadian of the Western felt particularly been unaware of by the government; they had the impression which the liberals made of the courbettes to the Ontario, with the Quebec and the the United States (the opposition showed the government to accept unnecessarily expensive contracts which would never be supplemented in time; finally, the pipeline was supplemented before the expiry envisaged and was less expensive than envisaged). The outcry which followed at the Parliament impressed the durable electorate of way, and was a deciding factor in the defeat of the government to the hands of John George Diefenbaker at the time of the election of 1957. Ironically, Diefenbaker, the conservative, promised to be more extravagant than the outgoing liberals, who made countryside on a platforme which promised to hold the road of tax conservatism that they had followed throughout the mandate of the St. Lawrence in the years 1940 and 1950.

Louis the St. Lawrence was the first chief of the Canadian government to live in the current official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada, with the 24, walk Sussex, of 1951 until the end of his mandate.

Defeat at the polls in 1957

The government of Louis the St. Lawrence undergoes a cuisante defeat at the polls with the hands of the chief progressist-conservative John George Diefenbaker in 1957. The defeat was marked by the controversy within the Liberal party and of the Parliament. The liberals collected a greater portion of the popular votes than the progressist-conservatives (40.75% with the liberals against the 38.81% granted to the PC), but the latter gained all the same a greater number of seats to the House of Commons of Canada; they made elect 112 deputies out of the 265 with the communes (42%) against the 104 seats of the liberals (39.2%). Certain ministers wanted that the St. Lawrence remains in station while offering to form a minority government, according to the logic which they had the support of the popular vote, and which them experiment of more recent governorship would make of them a minority government more effective than the conservatives, even if their parliamentary minority were smaller.

Another option in circulation in the party saw the balance of power between the hands of the 25 deputies of the Co-operative the Commonwealth Federation (CCF) or of the 15 deputies of the Party of the social Crédit. Some encouragaient the St. Lawrence with tightening the hand with the CCF and at least 4 of the 6 independent deputies or of minor parties in order to form a coalition government which would hold a narrow majority with the communes with 134 seats (50.1% of the seats). However, the St. Lawrence judged that the nation had returned a verdict to the place of its government and its party, and he resigned of the post of Prime Minister, rather than to be perceived as somebody who clung to the capacity costs that costs.

Reprocess

After one short period as a chief of the opposition and old of more than 75 years, the St. Lawrence did not have any more a motivation to be active in policy; in 1958, it announced its intention to be withdrawn from the policy and the liberal post of head. The St. Lawrence was succeeded the head of the Liberal party by its former Secretary of State to the Businesses external and representing with UNO, Lester B. Pearson.

After its retirement of the policy, it amounted practicing the right and living quietly and into private with its family. During its retirement, it had last once to be under the glance of the public when, during the creation of the distinction in 1967, it was made Compagnon of the Ordre of Canada, more the great honor which can be granted to a civilian in Canada.

Louis Stephen the St. Lawrence died the July 25th 1973 with Quebec (Quebec), and was buried with the cemetery Saint-Thomas-with Aquin in his birthplace of Compton (Quebec).

External bonds

Biography of the '' biographical Dictionnaire of Canada in line ''
Biography of the Canadian Encyclopedia
federal political Experiment
Quotation about Canada

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