Édouard Lacroix Explained

Édouard Lacroix
Constituency Mp:Beauce
Parliament:Canadian
Predecessor:Henri Sévérin Béland
Successor:Ludger Dionne
Term Start:1925
Term End:1943
Office2:Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for Beauce
Predecessor2:Henri-René Renault
Successor2:Georges-Octave Poulin
Term Start2:1944
Term End2:1945
Birth Date:6 January 1889
Birth Place:Sainte-Marie, Quebec
Death Place:Saint-Georges, Quebec
Party:Liberal
Children:Robert Dutil, grandson

Édouard Lacroix (January 6, 1889  - January 19, 1963) was a politician and business person in Quebec, Canada.

Background

He was born on January 6, 1889, in Sainte-Marie, Quebec. At the age of twelve he began working in United States lumber camps along the Maine border, where he learned the logging trade. He returned to Saint-Georges, Quebec, at the age of sixteen and formed his own company in 1911.[1] He made career in forestry and opened a lumber plant in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine.[2]

Member of Parliament

Lacroix ran as a Liberal candidate in the district of Beauce in the 1925 federal election and won. He was re-elected in the 1926, 1930, 1935 and 1940 elections.

In September 1939, Lacroix and fellow Quebec Liberal MP Liguori Lacombe introduced an amendment calling for Canadian "non-participation" in the Second World War, reflecting some reluctance in French Canada to join Britain in war. The two MPs, who proved to be the amendment's only supporters, were condemned in a Globe and Mail editorial the following day as "two French-Canadians who gained eternal distinction by an attitude unworthy of their people and country."[3] [4]

He left the Liberals and joined the Bloc Populaire Canadien on February 18, 1943. He resigned his seat on July 11, 1944, to switch to provincial politics.

Provincial politics

Lacroix, who had been a supporter of the Action libérale nationale in the 1930s, successfully ran as a Bloc Populaire candidate in the provincial district of Beauce in the 1944 provincial election. He never took his seat at the Legislative Assembly. He resigned and left politics on May 14, 1945.

Death

He died on January 19, 1963.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Edouard Lacroix . The Canadian Business Hall of Fame . JA Canada . 31 December 2018 .
  2. Web site: Édouard Lacroix, Un Beauceron Gaspésien . 14 January 2008 . 26 April 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140426232854/http://www.encyclobec.ca/main.php?docid=113 . dead .
  3. Web site: 1939: 'Canada at the side of Britain'. 3 September 1939. The CBC Digital Archives Website. CBC Radio. 2009-06-20. Last updated: 5 December 2008.
  4. News: Canada Has Decided. 11 September 1939. 2009-06-20. The Globe and Mail. Via Canadian Museum of Civilization digital collections.