Lionel Chevrier

Lionel Chevrier PC CC QC (born April 2, 1903 in Cornwall , Ontario , † July 8, 1987 in Montréal ) was a Canadian lawyer , diplomat and politician of the Liberal Party of Canada , who for more than 25 years was a member of the lower house , several times minister and high commissioner was in the UK .

Life

Lawyer, MP and Minister

The 16th Cabinet of Canada with Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (1st row, 4th from left) and Minister of Transport Lionel Chevrier (2nd row, 3rd from right) on June 19, 1945

After attending school, Chevrier completed a degree from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.) from the University of Montreal . After studying law at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University , he took up a position as a lawyer , barrister and solicitor in 1928 and was appointed crown attorney in 1939 .

In the general election of October 14, 1935 , Chevrier was elected as a candidate of the Liberal Party for the first time as a member of the House of Commons and represented the constituency of Stormont in this until his resignation on July 1, 1954 .

In 1940 he took over his first duties within the Liberal Group and was until 1943 both Deputy Parliamentary Secretary ( Deputy Whip ) and Assistant to the Parliamentary Chief Executive ( Chief Government Whip's Assistant ). He then took over his first government office and between April 1, 1943 and April 16, 1945 was Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister for Ammunition and Supply.

On April 8, 1945, Chevrier was finally appointed by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King as Minister of Transport in the 16th Canadian Cabinet , which he served until the end of King's tenure on November 15, 1948. He also held the office of Minister of Transport in the 17th government of Canada, which was subsequently formed by King's successor Louis Saint-Laurent, from November 15, 1948 until his resignation on June 30, 1954.

Opposition Leader and High Commissioner in Great Britain

After leaving the government and the House of Commons, he became President of the St-Lawrence Seaway Authority on July 1, 1954 , the supervisory authority responsible for the Saint Lawrence Seaway . After completing this activity, he was reappointed to the government by Prime Minister Saint-Laurent on April 25, 1957 and took over the office of President of the Privy Council for almost two months until the end of his term of office on June 20, 1957 .

In the election of June 10, 1957 , Chevrier was again elected as a member of the House of Commons and this time represented the constituency of Laurier until his renewed resignation on February 6, 1964 . During the following years of the Liberal Party in the opposition, he worked from October 14, 1957 to February 5, 1963 as chairman of the Liberal Party faction and in this capacity was also the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons (Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons).

After the Liberal Party's victory in the general election of April 8, 1963 , he was appointed by Prime Minister Lester Pearson to Canada's 19th Cabinet , where he was Attorney General and Attorney General until his resignation on February 2, 1964.

On February 6, 1964, he succeeded George A. Drew as High Commissioner in Great Britain. He held the function until March 30, 1967 and was then replaced by Charles Stewart Almon Ritchie .

For his decades of political and diplomatic services, Chevrier was named Companion des Order of Canada on December 22, 1967 .

Publications

• The St. Lawrence Seaway , Toronto 1959

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage
• Order of Canada
• Entry in the list of ambassadors of Canada
• Literature by and about Lionel Chevrier in the WorldCat bibliographic database