Louis Robichaud

Memorial monument to Louis Robichaud in his hometown of Saint-Antoine

Louis Joseph Robichaud , PC , CC , ONB , QC (born October 21, 1925 in Saint-Antoine , New Brunswick , Canada , † January 6, 2005 ibid) was a Canadian politician .

biography

Robichaud began his political career when he was first elected MP in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly elections on September 22, 1952 , as a candidate for the New Brunswick Liberal Association . In October 1958 he was elected chairman of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, the organization of the Liberal Party of Canada in the province, and was the top candidate in the elections for the legislative assembly on June 27, 1960.

After the Liberals regained a majority of mandates for the first time since 1948, Robichaud became Prime Minister of New Brunswick on July 12, 1960 . He held this office after the electoral success of his party until November 11, 1970. He was the first Prime Minister after Peter Veniot since the 1920s to belong to the Acadians with Breton - Norman ancestors.

As Prime Minister, he led the controversial Equal Opportunity Program . At the beginning of his term in office, the parishes and districts in the Acadian north of the province were characterized by below-average services from school education to health care because of the state of bankruptcy of the public finances. The equal opportunities program changed the overall tax and social structures of the province, with the result that education, hospitality, welfare and justice became the responsibility of the provincial government to ensure that all residents of the province had equal access to these services.

Robichaud, known as “Little Louis” because of his small body size, also achieved national fame through the passage of the Official Languages ​​Act of 1969, which adopted the federal government's regulation on bilingualism in Canada for the province.

In 1965 there was an uproar between the parties represented in parliament over the introduction of a new flag for New Brunswick .

After ten years in office, his party suffered a defeat in the elections to the legislative assembly on October 26, 1970 and won only 26 of the 58 seats in parliament. On November 11, 1970, Richard Bennett Hatfield of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick succeeded him as prime minister of the province. A short time later, he resigned from the legislative assembly.

On December 21, 1973 he was appointed representative of New Brunswick in the Senate of Canada on the proposal of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and was a member of this until October 21, 2000. As a representative of the Liberal Party, he devoted himself to the interests of the Acadian region of L'Acadie .

For his services he was named Companion of the Order of Canada .

Web links

• Louis Robichaud - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• Entry on rulers.org