Ernest Lapointe

For the ship, see CCGS Ernest Lapointe.

Ernest Lapointe PC MP (October 6, 1876 – November 26, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer and politician. A member of Parliament from Quebec City, he was a senior minister in the government of Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, playing an important role on issues relating to legal affairs, Quebec and French-speaking Canada.

The Right Honourable Ernest Lapointe PC MP
Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
In office October 23, 1935 – November 26, 1941
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	George Reginald Geary
Succeeded by	Joseph-Enoil Michaud (acting)
In office September 25, 1926 – August 6, 1930
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Esioff-Léon Patenaude
Succeeded by	Hugh Guthrie
In office January 30, 1924 – June 28, 1926 Acting: January 4, 1924 – January 29, 1924
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Lomer Gouin
Succeeded by	Hugh Guthrie (acting)
Secretary of State of Canada
In office March 24, 1926 – June 28, 1926 (acting)
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Charles Murphy (Acting)
Succeeded by	George Halsey Perley
In office July 26, 1939 – May 8, 1940 (acting)
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Fernand Rinfret
Succeeded by	Pierre-François Casgrain
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Quebec East
In office October 27, 1919 – November 26, 1941
Preceded by	Wilfrid Laurier
Succeeded by	Louis St. Laurent
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Kamouraska
In office February 12, 1904 – October 14, 1919
Preceded by	Henry George Carroll
Succeeded by	Charles-Adolphe Stein
Personal details
Born	(1876-10-06)October 6, 1876 Saint-Éloi, Quebec, Canada
Died	November 26, 1941(1941-11-26) (aged 65)
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Emma Pratte ​ (m. 1904)​
Relations	Arthur-Joseph Lapointe (nephew)
Children	Hugues Lapointe
Alma mater	Laval University
Occupation	Lawyer

Education, early career

Lapointe earned his law degree from Laval University. He was called to the bar in 1898 and practiced law in Rivière-du-Loup and Quebec City.^[1]

Enters politics

Lapointe was elected by acclamation to the House of Commons of Canada for the riding of Kamouraska as a Liberal through a by-election on February 12, 1904. Lapointe was later re-elected in the 1904, 1908, 1911, and 1917 federal elections.^[1]

Lapointe resigned his seat in 1919 and successfully ran in the Quebec East seat vacated by former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who died.^[1]

King's cabinet minister and Quebec lieutenant

 

Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe with Canadian Ambassador to the United States Vincent Massey, and Quebec Premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau at the White House in 1927.

In 1921, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed Lapointe to his cabinet as minister of marine and fisheries. During his tenure as minister, Lapointe reduced tariffs. In 1924, Lapointe became minister of justice, and served in that position until the Liberals' defeat at the polls in 1930. However, the Liberals under King returned back to power in the 1935 federal election, and Lapointe once again regained his old post. From 1924 to 1930 as justice minister, Lapointe expressed his support for King's commitment to Canadian autonomy and accompanied him at the Imperial Conference of 1926. Lapointe also chaired the Canadian delegation in the discussions that led to the Statute of Westminster in 1931.^[1]

 

Lapointe, 1936

Lapointe served as King's Quebec lieutenant and was one of the most important ministers in Cabinet. King did not speak French; he relied on Lapointe to handle important matters in the province. Lapointe gave a strong Quebecker voice to the cabinet decision, something that had not existed since the defeat of Laurier in 1911.^[1][2]

In the late 1930s, Lapointe recommended that the federal Cabinet disallow several Acts passed by the Alberta Social Credit government of William Aberhart, arguing that Aberhart was attempting to grab too much power and encroach upon federal jurisdiction.

Lapointe did not recommend disallowance of the Padlock Act passed by the Quebec government of Maurice Duplessis, fearing that doing so would only aid the Union Nationale government.^[1][3]

Conscription issue

Lapointe helped draft Mackenzie King's policy against conscription for overseas service in 1939, and his campaigning helped defeat the Duplessis provincial government in 1939. During the 1939 provincial election, Lapointe made many speeches in the province of Quebec, in which he argued that if Duplessis was to be re-elected, every French Canadian minister would resign from the federal cabinet, leaving it without a francophone voice. Having been a Liberal MP during the 1917 conscription crisis, Lapointe knew how much a new crisis like the last one would destroy the national unity that Mackenzie King had tried to build since 1921. Duplessis lost in a landslide to Liberal Party of Quebec leader Adélard Godbout, who sought to co-operate with the federal government.^[1]

Death

Lapointe died in office in 1941, in the midst of the war. King decided to appoint the reluctant Quebec leading lawyer Louis St. Laurent to the cabinet as the new minister of justice.^[1]

Lapointe's son, Hugues Lapointe, served as a member of parliament from 1940 to 1957 and lieutenant governor of Quebec from 1966 to 1978.

Further reading

• Betcherman, Lita-Rose. Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant (2002). 435 pp.
• MacFarlane, John. Ernest Lapointe and Quebec's influence on Canadian foreign policy (U of Toronto Press, 1999)
• Neatby, H. Blair. "Mackenzie King and French Canada." Journal of Canadian Studies 11.1 (1976): 3+

Archives

There is an Ernest Lapointe fonds at Library and Archives Canada.^[4]

Electoral record

By-election on 27 October 1919 On Laurier's death, 17 February 1919
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Opposition (Laurier Liberals)	Ernest Lapointe	6,222
	Parti nationaliste	François-Xavier Galibois	2,283

v t e 1921 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	9,005
	Conservative	Rodolphe-Alfred Drapeau	1,424

By-election on 19 January 1922 On Lapointe's acceptance of an office of emolument under the Crown, 3 January 1922
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	acclaimed

v t e 1925 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	9,193
	Conservative	Pierre Audet	6,366

v t e 1926 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	9,370
	Conservative	Pierre Audet	6,438

By-election on 2 November 1926 On Lapointe's acceptance of an office of emolument under the Crown, 5 October 1926
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	acclaimed

v t e 1930 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	11,822
	Conservative	Alleyn Taschereau	9,642

v t e 1935 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	15,557
	Conservative	Edgar Champoux	9,611

v t e 1940 Canadian federal election: Quebec East
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ernest Lapointe	17,914
	Independent Nationalist	Paul Bouchard	12,302

See also

• Conscription Crisis of 1944

References

1. Neatby, H. Blair (February 13, 2008). "Ernest Lapointe". Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
2. Conrad Black, Rise to Greatness: The history of Canada from the Vikings to the present (2014) p 520
3. Creighton 1970, p. 225
4. "Ernest Lapointe fonds, Library and Archives Canada".

Bibliography

• Creighton, Donald (1970). Canada's First Century. Macmillan of Canada.
• Ernest Lapointe – Parliament of Canada biography