PM St. Laurent showed integrity, competence — but image remains grey. (graphic credit: Macleans)
The last two months have seen a whirlwind of political activity in Canada, with the rapid-fire resignations of a finance minister then the prime minister, followed by the suspension of Parliament and the launch of a Liberal leadership race. All this occurs as Canada braces for the incoming hurricane of a disruptive new President in the U.S.
Even apolitical folk wonder, where are we headed? What responsible and competent political leaders will emerge?
As a politico, someone who follows politics intently, I do not recall many recent eras with such rapid-fire changes in the Canadian scene. One possible example: back in 1979-80 Joe Clark’s Conservatives defeated the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau. He then returned to power just eight months later and propelled himself into the midst of Quebec’s first sovereignty referendum, the year Ronald Reagan came to power in the U.S. But such a collision of big events is very unusual.
High-ranking low-profile PM
Today, as we look for solid and competent governance, the name of one Townshipper, Louis St. Laurent, comes to mind. Largely unknown to Gen X and younger Canadians, St. Laurent does not even benefit from having his face on the currency, as his francophone predecessor Wilfrid Laurier does on the five-dollar bill (visible at least for those not swiping all their purchases). A somewhat grey, grandfatherly image also clouds the picture people might have about LSL’s achievements.
And yet, St. Laurent was ranked fourth-best among all prime ministers in a survey of Canadian historians assessing the first 20 PMs (through to 1999 and Jean Chrétien), as reported in the book Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada’s Leaders. In that poll, St. Laurent fell behind only the Big Three of Macdonald, Laurier and Mackenzie King.
The Compton-born St. Laurent was also ranked No. 6 in recent Macleans magazine surveys on prime ministers (trailing PMs Mackenzie King, Laurier, Macdonald, P. Trudeau and Pearson). Yet when I scanned the stacks at the excellent North Hatley library recently, its extensive shelf of political biographies included the Big Three above as well as multiple bios of Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien. But nothing on Louis St. Laurent.
St. Laurent did not seek attention or glory. He was exceptional for his personal integrity and sense of responsibility. In his lifetime, he declined both a Rhodes scholarship and a Supreme Court appointment. After he started his federal career as an adviser, prime minister Mackenzie King saw his discreet ability and recruited him in 1941 as wartime Minister of Justice.
By all accounts, St. Laurent showed remarkable ability early in his life. After a small-town upbringing, St. Laurent was successively an outstanding student, a top lawyer, a Cabinet appointee, then Prime Minister from 1948 to 1957.
St. Laurent was born in 1882 to Jean-Baptiste-Moïse St. Laurent and Mary Anne Broderick, an Irish Canadian. Like Pierre Trudeau, St. Laurent grew up fluently bilingual, as his father spoke French while his mother spoke only English. (His English reportedly had a noticeable Irish brogue, reports Wikipedia.) A museum in Compton, conveniently located on route Louis-S.-St-Laurent (the 147), commemorates his family life and roots in their onetime storefront.
He received his B.A. in 1902 from the Séminaire Saint-Charles-Borromée (also known as Séminaire de Sherbrooke) and then his law degree in 1905 from the Université Laval (where he declined the Rhodes). He continued with a prosperous and very successful law career in Quebec City, where he retained his father’s Liberal partisanship.
In 1941, with World War II exploding, Mackenzie King asked the sure-footed St. Laurent to accept the post of Minister of Justice. He retained this office until being named External Affairs minister after the war, during which time he attended the birth of the United Nations at San Francisco. On the strength of his accomplishments, St. Laurent succeeded Mackenzie King in 1948. His Liberals won a majority government that year and again in 1953.
Popular 1950s government
Productive and popular as PM – and widely admired as “Uncle Louis”— St. Laurent’s Liberal government expanded the social safety net, while also launching major public works such as the St. Lawrence Seaway. As Policy Options magazine noted in an enthusiastic assessment (“Uncle Louis and a golden age for Canada: A time of prosperity at home and influence abroad”, June 2003): the St. Laurent Liberals “could boast of hospital insurance, the Canada Council, a six-dollar raise in old age pensions, and Canada’s prominent peace-making in the Suez crisis”.
However, his Liberal government – stop me when you’ve heard this before –started to wear out its welcome by the nine-year mark of governing in Ottawa. Calling an election in June 1957 proved hazardous, despite Liberal achievements and St. Laurent’s pleasing personality. A controversial pipeline debate in 1956 was forcibly ended using parliamentary closure. A recession also appeared on the horizon. Suddenly, a Conservative populist was nipping at the government’s heels.
The Liberals were defeated by the Conservatives of John Diefenbaker. In September 1957, St. Laurent announced his retirement as Liberal leader, returned to Quebec City and lived in “honourable obscurity” there until he died on July 25, 1973. He is buried with family at the Saint-Thomas d’Aquin cemetery in Compton.
Policy Options concludes that St. Laurent“left behind an enlarged and prosperous Canada, respected in the world. He was an architect of the multilateralism which, with American power, kept the Cold War cool. His era was such a golden age that many Canadians believed that peace, order and good government was their natural destiny.”
We can only hope that 2025 will again offer us political leaders of his calibre. Canada is perhaps ready to trade in glamour and clever talk for a dependable pair of hands.
Originally published in the Sherbrooke Record, February 7, 2025.
