Saint Laurent, << `san` law RAHN, >> Louis Stephen (1882-1973), served as prime minister of Canada from 1948 to 1957. He was the second French Canadian to hold the office. Like Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the first French-Canadian prime minister, St. Laurent was a Liberal.
Under St. Laurent’s leadership, Canada took an increasingly important part in world affairs. St. Laurent was one of the chief architects of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance of Western nations. He also had a leading role in transforming the British Empire into the modern, multiracial Commonwealth of Nations. In Canada, he helped bring Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) into the nation as the 10th province in 1949. But as a Canadian who was half Irish and half French, St. Laurent considered his outstanding contribution to be the promotion of greater understanding and cooperation between English- and French-speaking Canadians.
Louis St. Laurent entered politics unusually late in life. He was 59 years old when he was first elected to Parliament. St. Laurent then became minister of justice and later, at the age of 66, took office as prime minister. He had already earned a reputation as an outstanding lawyer. Many Canadians thought St. Laurent was too modest and reserved to be an effective politician. But he led the Liberals to victory with overwhelming majorities in 1949 and 1953.
A lean, quick-moving man, St. Laurent had a shy manner and a friendly smile. He had piercing black eyes, white hair, and a neat white mustache. St. Laurent spoke French and English equally well. When he used English, listeners could hear a trace of Irish brogue. St. Laurent’s gestures, particularly an expressive hunch of the shoulders, were French.
Early life
Boyhood and education.
Louis S. St. Laurent was born on Feb. 1, 1882, in the town of Compton, Quebec, a little north of the Canadian border with Vermont. He was one of the six children of Moise St. Laurent, a storekeeper, and Ann Mary Broderick St. Laurent, a former schoolteacher. His father was descended from early French settlers. His mother’s parents were Irish immigrants. Louis grew up learning to speak French with his father and English with his mother.
As a boy, Louis became keenly interested in politics. His political hero was Wilfrid Laurier. During the 1896 election, the wall telephone in his father’s store was the town’s only source of election news. Louis enthusiastically relayed bulletins as they brought the news that Laurier and the Liberals had won.
During the 1900 election, Louis was in college. He could not leave his dormitory after a certain hour, so he lowered a pail from his window and hauled up election bulletins. In 1903, while studying law, St. Laurent reported Quebec politics for the Sherbrooke Record. He took the job so he could watch the Quebec parliament in action from the press gallery.
St. Laurent attended St. Charles Seminary in Sherbrooke, Que., and received a bachelor’s degree in 1902. He then studied law at Laval University in Quebec and earned his law degree in 1905. St. Laurent refused the offer of a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University because he wanted to begin practicing law immediately. He went to work in a Quebec law office for a salary of $50 a month.
Marriage.
In May 1908, St. Laurent married Jeanne Renault (1886-1966), the daughter of a Beauceville East, Quebec, businessman. She later recalled: “As soon as I saw Louis, I said to myself, “‘That’s the man I’m going to marry. ‘” The St. Laurents had two sons and three daughters. Both sons became lawyers. One of them, Jean Paul, served in Parliament from 1955 to 1958.
Lawyer.
St. Laurent quickly earned a reputation as a brilliant lawyer. In 1914, he became a professor of law at Université Laval (Laval University) in Quebec. He served as president of the Canadian Bar Association from 1930 to 1932 and ranked as one of the top Canadian authorities on constitutional law. From 1937 to 1939, he served as senior counsel for the Royal Commission on federalism.
Entry into public life
In November 1941, Minister of Justice Ernest Lapointe died. He had been the principal voice of French-Canadians in the government. Prime Minister Mackenzie King asked the 59-year-old St. Laurent to succeed Lapointe. St. Laurent took office as minister of justice on Dec. 10, 1941.
St. Laurent served as minister of justice during World War II and encouraged unity between English- and French-Canadians by supporting conscription (drafting men for military service). During World War I, English-Canadians had favored conscription but French-Canadians had hotly opposed it. See Borden, Sir Robert Laird (Conscription crisis) . In February 1942, St. Laurent won election to Lapointe’s old Parliament seat from Quebec East. He was reelected in 1945. After World War II ended in 1945, St. Laurent wanted to return to private life. But King persuaded him to stay in office.
On Sept. 4, 1946, King named St. Laurent minister of external affairs. In 1946 and 1947, St. Laurent led the Canadian delegations to the initial sessions of the UN General Assembly in London and New York City.
In 1948, King announced his plans to retire. He urged the Liberal Party to elect St. Laurent as his successor. On Aug. 7, 1948, St. Laurent was elected leader of the Liberal Party.
Prime minister (1948-1957)
Louis St. Laurent took office as prime minister on Nov. 15, 1948. During his term, Canada’s international reputation soared. St. Laurent realized that Canada would have to adopt a more international outlook than ever before. He and his minister of external affairs, Lester B. Pearson, led the efforts in forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In 1949, the United Kingdom granted the Canadian Parliament the power to amend Canada’s constitution in matters pertaining to the federal government. Previously, only the British Parliament had been authorized to amend the Canadian constitution. Newfoundland became Canada’s 10th province in 1949. Also in 1949, the Supreme Court of Canada became the final court of appeals for Canadians. Until this time, Canadian legal appeals had gone to the Privy Council in England.
In 1952, upon St. Laurent’s recommendation, Vincent Massey became the first Canadian-born governor general of Canada (see Massey, Vincent ). St. Laurent explained his choice: “I would not like to think that a Canadian, alone of the Queen’s subjects, would not be considered to represent the Queen in Canada.”
After being in power for 22 years, the Liberals lost the election of June 1957. They won only 105 seats in Parliament, compared to 112 for the Progressive Conservatives and 44 for other parties. The Progressive Conservatives took over the government and John G. Diefenbaker became prime minister. The defeat of the Liberals resulted partly from a desire for change and partly from a rising new national spirit in Canada, which the energetic Diefenbaker seemed to represent.
St. Laurent was reelected to Parliament. But he did not seek reelection after Parliament was dissolved on Feb. 1, 1958. St. Laurent retired as party leader in January 1958, and Pearson succeeded him.
Retirement and death
In 1958, St. Laurent returned to the practice of law in Quebec. He also lectured on law at Université Laval (Laval University) and served on the boards of several large Canadian corporations. St. Laurent did not withdraw completely from political life. He continued to speak publicly on behalf of the Liberal Party. St. Laurent was largely confined to his home in Quebec City after breaking a hip in 1968. He died on July 25, 1973. St. Laurent was buried in Compton.
