Louis St. Laurent: Difference between revisions

| image = Louis St. Laurent 1954 37112 (cropped)portrait.jpg

| caption = St. Laurent, in 1954{{circa|1948}}

'''Louis Stephen St. Laurent''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|CC|QC}} (''Saint-Laurent''{{IPA|fr|lwi orsɛ̃ ''St-Laurent'' in French, baptized '''Louis-Étienne St-Laurent'''lɔʁɑ̃|lang}}; February 1, 1882 – July 25, 1973) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 12th [[prime minister of Canada]] from 1948 to 1957.

Louis St. Laurent ({{IPA-|fr|lwi sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃}}) was born on February 1, 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 Canadians|Irish Canadian]]. Louis was the oldest of seven children. At the time of his birth, Compton was mainly English-speaking, though it would slowly become majority French between 1901 and 1911. St. Laurent grew up fluently [[bilingual]], as his father spoke French while his mother only spoke English. His English had a noticeable Irish [[brogue (accent)|brogue]], while his gestures (such as a hunch of the shoulders) were French.{{sfn|Hutchison|1964|p=288}} St. Laurent was also interested in English literature as a child. The St. Laurent home would serve as a social centre for the village.<ref name="LouisBio">{{cite web |title=Louis St. Laurent biography |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/st_laurent_louis_stephen_20F.html |website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography |access-date=5 November 2021}}</ref>

St. Laurent received degrees from [[Séminaire de Sherbrooke|Séminaire Saint-Charles-Borromée]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://townshipsheritage.com/article/bishop-antoine-racine-1822-1893-first-catholic-bishop-sherbrooke| title = Bishop Antoine Racine (1822–1893), First Catholic Bishop of Sherbrooke| access-date = December 2, 2015| archive-date = January 19, 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220119102512/http://townshipsheritage.com/article/bishop-antoine-racine-1822-1893-first-catholic-bishop-sherbrooke| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="LouisBio" /> (B.A. 1902) and {{Lang|fr|[[Université Laval]]|italic=no}} (LL.L. 1905). He was offered, but declined, a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] upon this graduation from Laval in 1905. In 1908, he married [[Jeanne St. Laurent|Jeanne Renault]] (1886–1966), with whom he had two sons and three daughters, including [[Jean-Paul St. Laurent]].{{sfn|Cook|Bélanger|2007}}

[[File:Cropped Louis St. Laurent portrait 1936.jpg|thumb|left|150px|St. Laurent as a lawyer, 1936]]

St. Laurent (far left), British Primeprime Ministerminister [[Winston Churchill]] (left), British foreign minister [[Anthony Eden]] (right), and Canadian foreign minister [[Lester Pearson]] (far right) in Ottawa in 1954]]

In early 1954, St. Laurent took a 42-day long tour around the world, citing his desire to get a better picture of what he said, "the problems which all of us have to face together." He visited 12 countries in total, including France, Germany, Japan, India, and Pakistan. When he returned back to Canada, St. Laurent's personality and character appeared to slightly change; cabinet ministers noticed he showed signs of fatigue and indifference. Some even claimed he started to feel depressed. Author [[Dale C. Thomson]] wrote, "[the tour was] his greatest hour but it marked as well the beginning of his decline; as such, it was a turning point both for him and for Canadian politics."<ref name="LouisBio" /><ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Louis St-Laurent goes around the world in 42 days |url=https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/st-laurent-goes-around-the-world-in-42-days |website=CBC |access-date=16 January 2022}}</ref>

It took taxation surpluses no longer needed by the wartime military and paying back in full Canada's debts accrued during the World Wars and the Great Depression. With remaining revenues, St. Laurent oversaw the expansion of Canada's social programs, including the gradual expansion of social welfare programs such as family allowances, old age pensions, government funding of university and post-secondary education and an early form of [[Medicare (Canada)|Medicare]] termed ''Hospital Insurance'' at the time. This scheme laylaid the groundwork for [[Tommy Douglas]]' healthcare system in Saskatchewan, and Pearson's nationwide universal healthcare in the late 1960s. Under this legislation, the federal government paid around 50% of the cost of provincial health plans to cover "a basic range of inpatient services in acute, convalescent, and chronic hospital care." The condition for the cost-sharing agreements was that all citizens were to be entitled to these benefits, and by March 1963, 98.8% of Canadians were covered by ''Hospital Insurance''.<ref name="Guest">The emergence of social security in Canada by Dennis Guest</ref> According to historian Katherine Boothe, however, St. Laurent did not regard government health insurance to be a "good policy idea", instead favouring the expansion of voluntary insurance through existing plans. In 1951, for instance, St. Laurent spoke in support of the medical profession assuming "the administration and responsibility for, a scheme that would provide prepaid medical attendance to any Canadian who needed it".<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9BtBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |title = Ideas and the Pace of Change: National Pharmaceutical Insurance in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom|isbn = 9781442648630|last1 = Boothe|first1 = Katherine|date = January 2015| publisher=University of Toronto Press }}</ref>

In addition, St. Laurent modernized and established new social and industrial policies for the country during his time in the prime minister's office. Amongst these measures included the universalization of old-age pensions for all Canadians aged seventy and above (1951),<ref>Gray agendas: interest groups and public pensions in Canada, Britain, and the United States by Henry J. Pratt</ref> the introduction of old age assistance for needy Canadians aged sixty-five and above (1951),<ref>Facts of life: the social construction of vital statistics, Ontario, 1869–1952 by George Neil Emery</ref> the introduction of allowances for the blind (1951) and the disabled (1954),<ref name="Guest"/> amendments to the National Housing Act (1954) which provided federal government financing to non-profit organisations as well as the provinces for the renovation or construction of hostels or housing for students, the disabled, the elderly, and families on low incomes,<ref name="Guest"/> and unemployment assistance (1956) for unemployed employables on welfare who had exhausted (or did not qualify for) unemployment insurance benefits.<ref>In pursuit of the public good: essays in honour of Allan J. MacEachen by Tom Kent and Allan J. MacEachen</ref> During his last term as Primeprime Ministerminister, St. Laurent's government used $100&nbsp;million in death taxes to establish the [[Canada Council]] to support research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In 1956, using the taxation authority of the federal level of government, St. Laurent's government introduced the policy of "[[Equalization payments in Canada|equalization payments]]" which redistributes taxation revenues between provinces to assist the poorer provinces in delivering government programs and services, a move that has been considered a strong one in solidifying the Canadian federation, particularly with his home province of [[Québec]].

Some ministers wanted St. Laurent to stay on and offer to form a minority government, arguing that the popular vote had supported them and the party's long years of experience would make them a more effective minority. Another option circulated within the party saw the balance of power to be held by either the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF) and their 25 seats or [[Social Credit Party of Canada]] with their 15 seats. St. Laurent was encouraged by others to reach out to the CCF and at least four of six independent/small party MPs to form a coalition majority government, which would have held 134 of the 265 seats in Parliament—50.6% of the total. St. Laurent, however, had no desire to stay in office; he believed that the nation had passed a verdict against his government and his party. In any case, the CCF and Socreds had pledged to cooperate with a Tory government. It was very likely that St. Laurent would have been defeated on the floor of the House had he tried to stay in power with a minority government, and would not have stayed in office for long even if he survived that confidence vote. With this in mind, St. Laurent resigned on 21 June 1957—ending the longest uninterrupted run in government for a party at the federal level in Canadian history.<ref>{{cite book|author=McMahon|title=Essence of Indecision: Diefenbaker's Nuclear Policy, 1957–1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aSZmApwF2IC&pg=PA8|year=2009|page=8|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=9780773583351}}</ref>

[[Category:Prime Ministersministers of Canada]]