Louis St. Laurent
Louis Stephen St. Laurent PC CC QC (Saint-Laurent or St-Laurent in French, baptized Louis-Étienne St-Laurent; 1 February 1882 – 25 July 1973) was a Canadian politician who served as the 12th prime minister of Canada, from 15 November 1948 to 21 June 1957. He was a Liberal with a strong base in the Catholic francophone community, from which base he had long mobilised support to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
St. Laurent was an enthusiastic proponent of Canada’s joining NATO in 1949 to fight the spread of Communism, overcoming opposition from some intellectuals, the Labor-Progressive Party, and many French Canadians.[1] The contrast with Mackenzie King was not dramatic – they agreed on most policies. St. Laurent had more hatred of communism, and less fear of the United States. According to historian Donald Creighton, he was neither an idealist nor a bookish intellectual, but an “eminently moderate, cautious … man … and a strong Canadian nationalist”.
Louis St. Laurent (French pronunciation: [lwi sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃]) was born on 1 February 1882 in Compton, Quebec, a village in the Eastern Townships, to Jean-Baptiste-Moïse Saint-Laurent, a French Canadian, and Mary Anne Broderick, an Irish Canadian. He grew up fluently bilingual. His English had a noticeable Irish brogue, while his gestures (such as a hunch of the shoulders) were French.
He received degrees from Séminaire Saint-Charles-Borromée (B.A. 1902) and Université Laval (LL.L. 1905). He was offered, but declined, a Rhodes Scholarship upon this graduation from Laval in 1905. In 1908, he married Jeanne Renault (1886–1966), with whom he had two sons and three daughters, including Jean-Paul St. Laurent.
Louis Stephen St-Laurent died from heart failure on 25 July 1973, in Quebec City, Quebec, aged 91 and was buried at Saint Thomas d’Aquin Cemetery in his hometown of Compton, Quebec. He was survived by granddaughters Helen, Marie, Francine and grandsons Louis St-Laurent II and Michael S. O’Donnell.
St. Laurent was ranked #4 on a survey of the first 20 prime ministers (through Jean Chrétien) of Canada done by Canadian historians, and used by J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer in their book Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada’s Leaders.
The house and grounds in Compton where St. Laurent was born were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1973. St. Laurent’s residence at 201 Grande-Allée Est in Quebec City is protected as a Recognized Federal Heritage Building.
Louis St-Laurent School in Edmonton, Alberta. is named in his honour,[31] as well as the Louis St-Laurent high school in East Angus, Quebec.
