Lomer Gouin

Source: Link "Original title: Photo de Lafayette, avec l’aimable autorisation de François Demers et de Jean Hétu.") From at least 1884, Gouin was also acquainted with Honoré Mercier, who was to be provincial premier from 1887 to 1891, and he visited his home in Montreal with such prominent moderate Liberals as Félix-Gabriel Marchand and Laurent-Olivier David . He also associated with radical Liberals, in particular the lawyer and journalist Godfroy Langlois , who was a fellow member of the Club National. When Gouin became president of this Liberal political organization in Montreal in 1889, he supported Mercier, who had become his father-in-law the previous year and was now under attack from radical Liberals. In 1892 a disgraced and ruined Mercier would go back to the practice of law with two young lawyers, Gouin and Rodolphe Lemieux , who were to remain lifelong friends. In articles Gouin wrote for Le Clairon , a Montreal weekly that had been launched by a group including Langlois and that appeared from December 1889 until May 1890, he showed his concern to reconcile all elements of the party, both moderates and those less so. For political and personal reasons, this reconciliation would become his overriding concern. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was probably suspicious of Gouin’s political radicalism and for several years their relationship was rather cool. In 1899, however, it became clear that Gouin supported Laurier’s moderate policy on so-called “national” questions, which were now being pushed to the foreground by international events. When, in his presence, Henri Bourassa informed Laurier that he could not accept the decision to send Canadian troops to South Africa, Gouin did not challenge the federal leader’s decision. Later on, the struggle against the Nationalistes would bring the two leaders, who were already linked by their common party interests, closer together, and would strengthen their mutual confidence. After the sudden death of Marchand in September 1900, Simon-Napoléon Parent became leader of the Liberal party and premier, very likely at Laurier’s insistence. The choice did not meet with unanimous approval. He was mayor of Quebec, had close ties to the business community, and was a skilful politician in organizing elections and handling patronage matters, but the party’s radical wing, which would have preferred to have the province led by a true Liberal such as Joseph-Emery Robidoux, disapproved of him. The desire to allay this discontent may have been a factor in Gouin’s appointment as commissioner of public works in October 1900 and as minister of colonization and public works in July 1901. The radicals – in particular Langlois, who became the editor of Le Canada, a Liberal daily published in Montreal from April 1903 – were well disposed toward the new recruit. Gouin had appeared to support their arguments by opposing – albeit unsuccessfully – in 1901 certain clauses in bills aimed at favouring the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company see Louis-Joseph [Forget ], which held a monopoly on the distribution of gas and electricity in Quebec; he would do so again in 1904. In 1901, as commissioner of public works, he had led the debate in the assembly on the Act respecting councils of conciliation and of arbitration for settling industrial disputes. The positions he took enabled him to deal sensitively with both the religious authorities and the business community. However, the Nationalistes were already suspicious of Gouin. Olivar Asselin , his secretary, left him in 1903, criticizing him for his lack of zeal in proceeding with reforms in the field of colonization. In the pages of the Montreal weekly Le Nationaliste , which Asselin helped found in 1904, this fiery journalist would write many articles critical of the government. At the end of 1904 and the beginning of 1905, a veritable palace revolution would oust Parent from the government and push Gouin into the premier’s office. Parent, whose style of manageme