Adélard Godbout: Difference between revisions

| honorific-prefix = [[The Hon.Honourable]]

| name = Adélard Godbout

| image = Adelard Godbout portrait.jpg

| ordercaption = 15thGodbout, c. 1932

| officeorder = Premier of Quebec = 15th

| term_startoffice = JunePremier 11,of 1936Quebec

| term_endmonarch = August 28, 1936 = [[George VI]]

| successorterm_start = [[MauriceNovember 8, Duplessis]]1939

| monarchterm_end = [[EdwardAugust 30, VIII]]1944

| successor3term_start1 = MauriceJune 11, Duplessis1936

| monarch3term_end1 = [[GeorgeAugust 28, VI]]1936

| office4successor1 = Maurice Duplessis
| office2 = [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] for [[List of Quebec senators#Montarville|Montarville, Quebec]]

| appointed4appointed2 = [[Louis St. Laurent]]

| predecessor4predecessor2 = [[Charles-Philippe Beaubien]]

| successor4successor2 = [[Henri Charles Bois]]

| term_start4term_start2 = June 25, 1949

| term_end4term_end2 = September 18, 1956

| office5office3 = [[L'Islet (provincial electoral district)|MNA for L'Islet]]

| term_start5term_start3 = MayOctober 1325, 19291939

| term_end5term_end3 = AugustJuly 1728, 19361948

| successor5successor3 = [[JosephFernand BilodeauLizotte]]

| term_start6term_start4 = OctoberMay 2513, 19391929

| term_end6term_end4 = JulyAugust 2817, 19481936

| successor6successor4 = [[FernandJoseph LizotteBilodeau]]

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|9|24|mf=y}}

| birth_place = [[Saint-Éloi, Quebec]], Canada

| birth_name = Joseph-Adélard Godbout

| death_date = {{death date and age | 1956|09|18|1892|09|24}}

| death_place = [[Montreal]], Quebec, Canada

| party = [[Liberal Party of Quebec|Liberal]]

| spouseprofession = Dorilda Fortin (1889–1969)= [[Agronomist]]

Adélard Godbout was born in [[Saint-Éloi, Quebec|Saint-Éloi]]. He was the son of Eugène Godbout, [[agriculturalist]] and Liberal [[Member of the Legislative Assembly]] (MLA) from 1921 to 1923, and Marie-Louise Duret. He studied at the Séminaire de [[Rimouski]], the agricultural school of [[La Pocatière, Quebec|Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière]] and the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst|Massachusetts Agricultural College]], in the AmericanU.S. state of [[Massachusetts]]. He then became teacher at the Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière agricultural school from 1918 to 1930. He was an agronomist for the Ministry of Agriculture from 1922 to 1925.

===Member of the legislature===

Godbout became a [[Member of the Legislative Assembly|Member of the legislature]] for the district of [[L'Islet (provincial electoral district)|L'Islet]] in the [[Chaudière-Appalaches]] area, after he won a [[by-election]] without opposition on May 13, 1929. He was re-elected in the [[1931 Quebec general election, 1931|1931]] and [[1935 Quebec general election, 1935|1935 elections]].

Godbout was appointed to the Cabinet by [[Premier of Quebec|Premier]] [[Louis-Alexandre Taschereau|Alexandre Taschereau]] and served as Minister of [[Agriculture]] from November 27, 1930, to June 27, 1936.

==Party=First leaderPremiership===

Shortly after the [[1935 Quebec general election, 1935|1935 election]], [[Conservative Party of Quebec (historical)|Conservative]] Leader [[Maurice Duplessis]], a rising star in Québec politics, forced Taschereau to call the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which brought to light the existence of widespread corruption in the provincial government. The revelations made by the committee were embarrassing for several Liberal insiders. On June 11, 1936, less than a year after being put back in office, Taschereau resigned. He recommended to Lieutenant Governor [[Ésioff-Léon Patenaude]] the names of [[Édouard Lacroix]] and Adélard Godbout for his successor as Premier. Following constitutional conventions, the lieutenant governor offered the opportunity to form a government to Lacroix, who declined. He then made the offer to Godbout, who accepted. With the blessing of federal Cabinet Members, he took over Taschereau's job as Liberal Leader and Premier of Québec. Godbout formed his first government and an election was called for August, 1936.

Godbout had remained untouched by the scandals. But despite Godbout's talks of "a new order" in an effort to distance himself from the Taschereau era, his first government lasted only two months, as his party suffered a humiliating defeat in the [[1936 Quebec general election, 1936|1936 election]]. Led by Duplessis, the recently created [[Union Nationale (Quebec)|Union nationale]] was put in office. The Liberals were reduced to 14 seats. Godbout lost re-election in his own district of [[L'Islet (provincial electoral district)|L'Islet]]. He remained Liberal Leader after being reconfirmed at the [[Quebec Liberal Party leadership elections#1938 leadership convention|1938 party leadership convention]], but [[Télesphore-Damien Bouchard|T.-D. Bouchard]] led the parliamentary wing of the party until the [[1939 Quebec general election, 1939|1939 election]].

[[World War II]] created the opportunity that Godbout needed to make a political comeback. An early [[1939 Quebec general election, 1939|provincial general election was called in 1939]] and federal Cabinet member [[Ernest Lapointe]], the [[Quebec lieutenant]] of [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|Mackenzie King]], took the stump for Godbout. He guaranteed that no one would face conscription if voters supported the Liberals. Lapointe would die of cancer in 1941.

Through the campaign, Godbout relentlessly repeated the formal promise : "The government will never declare military conscription. I undertake, on my honour, weighing each of my words, to leave my party and even to fight against it, if even one French Canadian, before the end of the hostilities in Europe, is mobilized against his will under a Liberal government."<ref>''Le Soleil'', October 6, 1939.</ref> Their promise would soon haunt Liberal politicians.

Under Godbout's premiership, the provincial government implemented a number of significant [[Progressivism|progressive]] legislations, laying the groundwork for the [[Quiet Revolution]] that would be implemented by the government of Premier [[Jean Lesage]] a couple of decades later. In fact, the Liberal administration delivered many of the proposals made by [[Paul Gouin]]'s [[Action libérale nationale]] in [[1935 Quebec general election, 1935|1935]].

Adélard Godbout, whileWhile Premier of Québec, Godbout published an article entitled "Canada: Unity in Diversity" (1943) in the Council on Foreign Relations journal. He asked, "How does the dual relationship of the French Canadians make them an element of strength and order, and therefore of unity, in our joint civilization, which necessarily includes not only Canada and the British Commonwealth of Nations, but also the United States, the Latin republics of America and liberated France?"<ref name="unityindiversity">{{cite journal

|authorlinkauthor-link= Adelard Godbout

====Accomplishments====

[[File:Adelard Godbout Quebec.JPG|thumb|right|[[Michel Binette]]'s [[Adelard Godbout]] sculpture in front of [[Parliament Building (Quebec)]]]]

#the nationalization of the [[Montreal Light, Heat & Power|Montreal Light, Heat & Power]] Company]], a private corporation who had a monopoly on gas and electric light in the [[Montréal|Montreal]] area, which led to the creation of [[Hydro-Québec]] in 1944.<ref>[http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/bios/godbout.htm Biographies of Prominent Quebec Historical Figures -– Adélard Godbout, Marianopolis College, 2005]</ref>

#encouragement of French culture and language <ref name="unityindiversity"/>

====Relations with the Dominion government====

==Electoral=Opposition defeatsLeader===

In the [[1944 Quebec general election, 1944|1944 provincial election]], Godbout's Liberals and Duplessis' Union Nationale received similar shares of the popular vote, the Liberals getting slightly more votes but the UN enjoying a level of support in the province's rural areas that was strong enough to win a majority of seats to the legislature and thus form the government. During the 1944 election, Duplessis claimed in a very anti-Semitic speech that Godbout had together with the Dominion government agreed to take in 100, 000 Jewish refugees and settle them in Quebec after the war in exchange for which the "International Zionist Brotherhood" was funding his reelection campaign.<ref name="Knowles, Valerie page 149">Knowles, Valerie ''Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1540-20061540–2006'', Toronto: Dundun Press, 2007 page 149</ref> Duplessis claimed that he would never take money from the Jews, and if were elected Premier again, he would stop this alleged plan to settle 100, 000 Jewish refugees in Quebec. Through this story was entirely false, it was widely believed, sparking such a surge of antisemitism to allow the ''Union Nationale'' to win.<ref name="Knowles, Valerie page 149"/>

Godbout served as [[Leader of the Official Opposition (Quebec)|Leader of the Opposition]] until the [[1948 Quebec general election, 1948|1948 election]]. Benefiting from post-war prosperity, the Union Nationale won an overwhelming majority. The Liberals won only eight seats, six of whom were located on the Montreal Island. Once again, Godbout narrowly lost re-election in his home district of L'Islet. In 1950, he relinquished the leadership of the Liberal Party to [[Georges-Émile Lapalme]].

===Senator===

===Legacy===

Observers are divided about the significance of Godbout's legacy. Lacking the oratory skills<ref>[http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDC-0-17-271-1381-11/politique_economie/maurice_duplessis_ministre/ Maurice Duplessis reprend le pouvoir, Les Archives de Radio-Canada, August 8, 1944]</ref> of Duplessis,<ref>[http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDC-0-18-1267-7208/personnalites/maurice_duplessis/clip5 Duplessis triomphe devant ses partisans, Les Archives de Radio-Canada, June 20, 1956]</ref> his main political competitor, Godbout is sometimes judged very severely.

[[Canadian federalism|Federalists]] stress the importance [[Progressivism|progressive]] precedents that were set under Godbout's premiership.<ref name="unityindiversity"/><ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.vigile.net/archives/00-2/godbout.html |title=Réhabilitons Adélard Godbout, Jean-Guy Genest, Cité libre, Winter 2000] |access-date=June 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155610/http://www.vigile.net/archives/00-2/godbout.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On September 27, 2007, in a ceremony attended by Premier [[Jean Charest]], a former electrical power station in Montréal, at the corner of Wellington and Queen streets, known as Poste Central-1 was named in honour of Godbout. A bust of Godbout by sculptor [[Joseph-Émile Brunet]] (1893–1977) has been installed at the site.

For his contribution to the field of agriculture and the advancement or rural Quebec in general, Mr. Godbout was posthumously inducted to [[Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame]] in 1962 and to the [[Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec]] in 1992.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.cahfa.com/Home/Inductees/InducteeDetails/tabid/93/ID/a72480cc-cef7-423e-8274-2c64d7f6b1bf/Default.aspx |title= Hon. Adélard Godbout |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= |website=cahfa.com/ |publisher= [[Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame Association]] |accessdateaccess-date=December 15 December, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.templeagriculture.org/hommage/77-godbout |title= Adélard Godbout |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= |website=templeagriculture.org/ |publisher= [[Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec]] |accessdateaccess-date=15 December 15, 2014|language=Frenchfr}}</ref>

===Elections as party leader===

He lost the [[1936 Quebec general election, 1936|1936 election]], won the [[1939 Quebec general election, 1939|1939 election]], lost the [[1944 Quebec general election, 1944|1944 election]] and lost the [[1948 Quebec general election, 1948|1948 election]].

==BibliographyReferences==

{{succession box|title=Minister of [[Agriculture]]|before=[[Joseph-Léonide Perron|Joseph-Léonide Perron]] (Liberal)]]| after=[[Bona Dussault|Bona Dussault]] (Union Nationale)]] | years=1930&ndash;19361930–1936}}

before=[[Maurice Duplessis|Maurice Duplessis]] (Union Nationale)]]|

after=[[George Carlyle Marler|George Carlyle Marler]] (Liberal)]]|

years=[[1944 Quebec general election, 1944|1944]]–[[1948 Quebec general election, 1948|1948]]}}