Joseph-Goderic Blanchet Explained

Joseph-Goderic Blanchet
Office2:Member of the Canadian Parliament for Lévis
Predecessor2:none
Successor2:Louis-Honoré Fréchette
Term Start2:1867
Term End2:1874
Predecessor3:Louis-Honoré Fréchette
Successor3:Isidore-Noël Belleau
Term Start3:1878
Term End3:1883
Office4:Member of the Canadian Parliament for Bellechasse
Predecessor4:Télesphore Fournier
Successor4:Achille Larue
Term Start4:1875
Term End4:1878
Office1:1st Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec
Predecessor1:none
Successor1:Pierre Fortin
Term Start1:1867
Term End1:1875
Office5:Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for Lévis
Term Start5:1867
Term End5:1875
Predecessor5:none
Successor5:Étienne-Théodore Pâquet
Office6:Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Lévis
Predecessor6:François-Xavier Lemieux
Successor6:legislature abolished
Term Start6:1861
Term End6:1866
Office:3rd Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada
Governor General:The Marquess of Lorne
Primeminister:Sir John A. Macdonald
Predecessor:Timothy Warren Anglin
Successor:George Airey Kirkpatrick
Term Start:February 13, 1879
Term End:February 7, 1883
Birth Date:7 June 1829
Birth Place:Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud, Lower Canada
Party:Liberal-Conservative
Conservative
Conservative Party of Quebec
Occupation:Physician

Joseph-Goderic (Joseph-Godric) Blanchet, (June 7, 1829 – January 1, 1890) was a Canadian physician and politician. He was the only person to serve as both Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada and Speaker of a provincial legislature. He represented Lévis in the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal-Conservative member from 1867 to 1873 and from 1879 to 1883; he represented Bellechasse from 1875 to 1878. He also represented Lévis in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1867 to 1875.

Biography

He was born in Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud, Lower Canada in 1825. He studied at the Petit Séminaire de Québec and Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. He then studied medicine with his uncle Jean Blanchet and qualified as a doctor in 1850. A popular physician, Blanchet entered politics with his election as Mayor of Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire, now part of Lévis Quebec (then Canada East) in 1845 at the age of 25. With the Province of Canada on military alert due to the American Civil War, Blanchet joined the militia and raised a battalion to defend the frontier against raids from the United States. During the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870, he was in command of the militia on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.

Blanchet was a Conservative and first ran for election to the Legislative Assembly in 1857 but was defeated. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Lévis in 1861 and 1863. He supported Canadian Confederation as a means of defending British North America against possible attack by the United States.

He was concurrently elected in the 1867 federal election to the new House of Commons of Canada and to the Quebec Legislative Assembly. Under the law of the day, he was allowed to be a member of both legislatures at the same time.

He became Speaker of the provincial legislature and served in that position for two terms.

In the federal House of Commons, Blanchet was appointed by John A. Macdonald to the parliamentary committee to investigate allegations related to the Pacific Scandal in 1873.[1]

The federal election law was changed in 1874 to prohibit Members of Parliament (MPs) from concurrently sitting in a provincial legislature. Blanchet chose to resign his seat in the federal House of Commons. After losing his seat in the Quebec legislature to the much younger Étienne-Théodore Pâquet in the 1875 Quebec provincial election, he won a federal by-election in 1875 and returned to Ottawa as MP for Bellechasse. In the 1878 federal election, he ran in his old riding of Lévis. The election returned the Conservatives to power, and Macdonald nominated Blanchet to be Speaker of the House of Commons.

Due to the tradition of alternating between English and French Speakers after each election, he returned to the backbenches following the 1882 election despite a successful term as Speaker. In 1883, he resigned from Parliament in order to accept a position as Collector of Customs for the Port of Quebec and served in that position until his death at Lévis in 1890 at the age of 60. He was buried in the crypt of Notre-Dame Church of Lévis.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Creighton, Donald . Donald Creighton . 1955 . John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain, Vol 2: 1867–1891 . The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited . Toronto . registration . 978-0-8020-7164-4 . 154.