1937-40 - Counsel to the Rowell-Sirois Commission on
Dominion - Provincial Relations
Marital status:
Married, 1908, Jeanne Renault (1886-1966)
Two sons, three daughters
Buried:
St.Thomas Aquinas Cemetery, Compton, Quebec
Louis St. Laurent arrived in Ottawa in December 1941. He had been asked to join the Liberal cabinet and to be Minister of Justice by Prime Minister King. He had no political experience, but his legal background was impressive. He was a corporate lawyer, a law professor at Laval, and had headed both the Quebec Bar Society and the Canadian Bar Association. He had also just finished serving as counsel to the Rowell-Sirois Commission on federal-provincial relations.
St. Laurent was also a Francophone from Quebec, and Ernest LaPointe, King's Quebec lieutenant had just died. King needed someone with St. Laurent's experience in Quebec. By accepting King's offer, St. Laurent sacrificed a lucrative legal career and an easy lifestyle as he headed towards retirement. St. Laurent, however, accepted, and made his arrival official through a February 9, 1942 by-election in Quebec-East.
St. Laurent proved to be a valuable addition to King's cabinet. He was not only bilingual with excellent connections in Quebec, but he was also the only Quebec member of cabinet who believed in conscription. It was as Minister of Justice (1941-46) in 1946 that St. Laurent had to defend the Government's decision to secretly detain and question 12 suspected Russian spies during the Gouzenko Affair.
In 1946, King made St. Laurent Minister of External Affairs (1946-48). In this position he represented Canada at the United Nations and advocated Canada's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949). It was St. Laurent's concern that without such international alliances, Communism would spread. This fear lead him to involve Canada in the United Nations commission in Korea (1947), and later, as Prime Minister, to send Canadian troops to Korea (1950-53).
Before King died in 1948, he made it known that St. Laurent should succeed him as Liberal Party Leader. The 1948 Liberal convention confirmed King's choice. St.Laurent took over King's Government and won two mandates of his own in the federal elections of 1949 and 1953.
St. Laurent became Prime Minister during the prosperous years following World War II, and during his administration the country grew. Newfoundland was brought into Confederation in 1949, and the Trans-Canada Highway (1949) and St. Lawrence Seaway (1954) were started. St. Laurent also oversaw the implementation of equalization payments to the provinces (1956), the creation of the Canada Council (1957), and the institution of old-age pensions to every citizen over the age of 70 years in 1951.
Although it was a period of economic growth for the country, St. Laurent's Government had its problems. The Province of Quebec under Maurice Duplessis did not want to participate in expensive federal cost-sharing agreements such as the Canada Pension Plan. Duplessis and St.Laurent eventually arrived at an accord, but it did not improve relations between Quebec City and Ottawa.
St. Laurent's Government also came under fire for it's anti-British position during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Although St.Laurent's representative, Lester Pearson, won a Nobel Prize for his efforts, Canadians were torn over the fact that their Government had abandoned Britain during the Crisis.
The controversy which eventually brought down the St. Laurent Government was the Trans-Canada Pipeline debate (1956). The Government put forward legislation which would see the construction of a national pipeline running from Alberta to Montreal. The Government would pay a large cost of the pipeline, although initially there would be a number of American investors in the syndicate. This was seen as being a sellout to the Americans. The Opposition debated the issue until the Government initiated closure, and with their large majority, rammed the pipeline legislation through Parliament.
The pipeline was completed in October 1958 and was eventually a totally Canadian-owned project, but the damage was done. St. Laurent's Government had lost the June 10, 1957 election to John Diefenbaker's Conservatives. St. Laurent retired in January, 1958, just before his 76th birthday. He lived a quiet retirement and died in Quebec City in 1973.
