Charles-Eugène Boucher de Boucherville

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Charles-Eugène Boucher de Boucherville

Sir Charles-Eugène Boucher de Boucherville , KCMG (born May 4, 1822 in Montreal , † September 10, 1915 ibid) was a Canadian politician and doctor . He was the third Prime Minister of the Province of Québec and had two terms, from September 22, 1874 to March 8, 1878 and from December 21, 1891 to December 13, 1892. During this time, he also chaired the Parti conservateur du Québec inside. He represented his party in the Legislative Council of Québec without interruption from 1867 until his death . For the Conservative Party of Canada he also sat in the Senate from 1879 .

biography

Boucherville grew up as one of three children of a landlord and attended the Petit Séminaire de Montréal, where he graduated in 1840. He then enrolled in medicine at McGill University in Montreal and completed part of his studies in Paris . Boucherville completed his studies there and returned in 1843. After receiving his license to practice medicine, he opened a practice in Varennes , where he stayed until 1861. He then moved to Boucherville , where he devoted himself entirely to politics, initially in the municipal sector.

In July 1861 Boucherville was elected for the first time for the constituency of Chambly in the lower house of the province of Canada . He was re-elected in 1863 and remained a member of the House of Commons until the formation of the new Canadian state in 1867. The first Prime Minister of Québec, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau , appointed him Speaker of the Legislative Council (of which he was to belong until his death in 1915), which automatically made him a member of the Cabinet. Chauveau's successor, Gédéon Ouimet, replaced Boucherville as speaker in February 1873 by John Jones Ross . After Ouimet's resignation due to the Tanneries scandal , he, who was a widely recognized political figure, was seen as the right man to start over.

On September 22, 1874, Boucherville was finally sworn in as Prime Minister. At the same time he took over the offices of provincial secretary, registrar and education minister. His first term of office initially included the processing of the Tanneries scandal, in which the question of guilt of the government at the time was excluded, but the cancellation of the process that founded the scandal was achieved. He also initiated electoral law reforms that benefit electoral justice and contain corrupt mischief. In return, the state withdrew from the school system and left this field largely to the Catholic and Protestant churches, which cemented the two-part school system for a long time (until 1998).

The government's decision to have the neighboring communities co-finance the expensive rail network expansion provoked opposition from Vice Governor Luc Letellier de Saint-Just , who finally deposed Boucherville after his legislative proposal in March 1878. The relationship between the two had been tense before. Boucherville's successor and Québec's first liberal prime minister was Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière , who, however, due to a lack of a parliamentary majority, first had to dissolve the government and hold new elections, which was granted by Letellier. Despite the narrowest possible electoral defeat of the Liberals (1 seat less than the Conservatives, 2 independent Conservatives in Parliament) Lotbinière was able to set up the first liberal minority government. Due to the defeat of the Conservative House of Commons, Boucherville's authority was further undermined, which made his resignation from party leadership inevitable. Canadian Prime Minister John Macdonald named him a senator in February 1879 .

Boucherville continued to work on the Legislative Council, focusing on local issues where the railroad remained a point of contention. Ironically, because of an incident that revolved around a railroad-related dispute, he unexpectedly got a second term. Vice-Governor Auguste-Réal Angers dismissed the then Liberal Prime Minister Honoré Mercier in December 1891 as a result of the Chaleur Bay scandal and replaced him with Boucherville. Again there was a majority problem, this time the other way around, since the Liberals now made up the majority of the MPs in the lower house. The new elections went in favor of the conservatives. An amendment to the law launched in Boucherville's second term enabled women to participate in local and school elections, although they were still not allowed to run as candidates themselves. His main focus, however, was on economic issues: there were a number of tax impositions on professions that were previously unaffected, such as lawyers, business owners and others.

At the end of 1892, Lieutenant Governor Auguste-Réal Angers and the former Prime Minister Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau (until then Secretary of State in Ottawa) exchanged their offices. Boucherville, whose relationship with Chapleau was strained, did not want to work with him as the new lieutenant governor and announced his resignation. However, he advised Chapleau to appoint Louis-Olivier Taillon as his successor, which then happened. Boucherville then continued to work in the Legislative Council, where he opposed an attempt to abolish it in 1900 (this only happened in 1968). This time he devoted himself more to federal affairs, spoke out against an increase in poll tax for Chinese immigrants and supported efforts to create a capital district for Ottawa on the model of the US District of Columbia . In his last major political action, he turned against the establishment of a Canadian Navy, on the one hand because of the costs, on the other hand because of the risk of being drawn into conflicts in Great Britain , but ultimately could not prevent this.

In 1914, Boucherville was defeated for his loyal service to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George . He died after a short illness in September 1915 at the age of 93.

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personal data
SURNAME Boucher de Boucherville, Charles-Eugène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1915
Place of death Montreal