(Redirected from Alexandre Taschereau)
'Louis-Alexandre Taschereau' (
March 5 1867 -
July 6 1952) was a
Premier of the
Canadian province of
Quebec from
1920 to
1936. He was elected four times, the first in
1900, in the
riding of Montmorency. He was also a member of the
Parti libéral du Québec.
Born in
Quebec City, the son of
Jean-Thomas Taschereau, lawyer and judge at the Supreme Court, and Marie-Louise-Joséphine Caron.
He received a law degree from
Université Laval and was admitted to the
Barreau du Quebec on July 9, 1889. After entering political life, he served as chief lieutenant in the Liberal government of
Sir Lomer Gouin. He practiced his profession in the law firm of Charles Fitzpatrick and Simon-Napoléon Parent. He was also journalist at the ''Action Libérale'' and president and vice-president of the ''Banque d'Economie de Québec''.
Politics
A member of the Legislative Assembly from 1900 onwards, he served as Lomer Gouin's minister of public works from 1907 to 1919. Elected Premier in 1920, at a time when the
North American economy began experiencing difficulties that ultimately led to the
Great Depression. He opposed
FDR's New Deal social democratic policies, saying he couldn't tell if it was fascism or communism. Instead, he vigorously encouraged the development by
private enterprise of the massive forests and the mineral resources of what had been the
Ungava Region and
Nunavik that the
Parliament of Canada had added to the Province of Quebec.
A pioneer in advocating the exploitation of the huge hydraulic potential the waterways of the new Quebec, Taschereau understood the limited capital available in a sparsely populated Canada, and actively tried to bring in
American investment to develop Quebec's industrial potential and try to stop mass emigration south of the border.
His policies challenged the traditional
agrarian society that the dominance and influence of the
Roman Catholic Church had been able to maintain in Quebec longer than elsewhere in North America. The Liberals of Taschereau were primarily opposed by ultramontane nationalists such as
Henri Bourassa, editor of ''
Le Devoir'', and Roman Catholic priest
Lionel Groulx, editor of ''
L'action canadienne-française''.
Taschereau introduced a measure in 1930 to create a
Jewish board that would have provided for Jewish participation on the highest decision-making educational body in Quebec, the Quebec Council of Public Instruction. Some newspapers saw the move by Taschereau to revamp the
confessional school system as an example of an undermining of
Christianity. As a result of the opposition, the Jewish leadership did not push the issue when Taschereau was forced to repeal the Act and submit a compromise which he had the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church examine and approve beforehand. In the resulting bill, Jews were sent back into the
Protestant system, and the Jewish board had no power beyond the right to negotiate a deal with the Protestant School board.
Another policy of Taschereau involved the alcohol trade. It consisted of providing the government of Quebec with a
monopoly on the sale of
liquor and
wine during the era of
Prohibition in the
United States.
Taschereau created the Beaux-Arts schools in
Quebec City and
Montreal and subsidized scientific and literary works. He was awarded France's
Legion of Honor, Belgium's
Order of Leopold, and made a Commander of the
Order of the Crown of Belgium.
In the later years of his premiership, discontent inside the Liberal party became evident. The more "radical" left wing of the party left the Liberals and formed a new party, the
Action Libérale Nationale.
Paul Gouin, the son of
Lomer Gouin and grandson of
Honoré Mercier, joined this new party. Later, the Action Libérale Nationale merged with the
Conservative Party of Quebec to form the ''
Union Nationale'' party under the leadership of
Maurice Duplessis, who had become famous by exposing the Taschereau cabinet's misdeeds before the Accounts Committee of the Legislative Assembly.
Premier Taschereau resigned after his brother Antoine admitted to the Accounts Committee that he had deposited the interest on funds belonging to the Legislative Assembly into his personal bank account. With the election of the ''Union Nationale'' in 1936, the Liberal rule which had lasted for 40 years came to a halt.
The premier served on the boards of a number of major companies, including:
Barclays Bank (Canada) Ltd.,
Caisse d'économie,
Molson Bank,
Canadian Investments Funds,
Bank of Montreal,
Royal Trust Co.,
Sun Life Assurance,
Metropolitan Life Assurance Co.,
Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co.,
Pioneer Insurance Co.,
Globe Indemnity Co. and the
Manitoba Liverpool Insurance Co..
On his passing in
Quebec City in 1952, Taschereau was interred in the
Cimetière Notre-Dame-de-Belmont in
Sainte-Foy, Quebec.
Taschereau's story was documented by author Bernard L. Vigod in his 1986 book, ''
Quebec Before Duplessis - The Political Career of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau''.
Elections as party leader
He won the
1923 election,
1927 election,
1931 election and
1935 election and resigned in
1936.
See also
★
Politics of Quebec
★
List of Quebec general elections
★
Timeline of Quebec history
External link
★
National Assembly biography
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