Onésime Gagnon

Onésime Gagnon, PC, QC ( born October 23, 1888 in Saint- Léon -de- Standon, Quebec, † 30th September 1961 in Québec) was a Canadian politician. From 1930 to 1935 he was Conservative Member of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons, 1936-1958 Member of the National Union in the National Assembly of Quebec. He was one of a total of 17 years at the provincial cabinet of Maurice Duplessis. Finally, he served from 1958 until his death as vice governor of the province of Quebec.

Biography

Gagnon studied law at the Université Laval. There he met Maurice Duplessis, with whom he was friends for the rest of his life. As a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at Oxford University. In 1912 he was admitted as a lawyer and practiced then in the city of Québec. From 1942 to 1944 he was a lecturer at the Université Laval, afterwards titular professor.

As a candidate of the Conservative Party of Canada Gagnon went to the general election in 1930 and sat for the constituency Dorchester against the Liberal incumbent by. As a backbencher he supported the federal government of Richard Bedford Bennett. In 1935, he was almost two months as a Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet. At the general election in 1935 he could not defend his seat.

In October 1933 Gagnon wanted to be elected chairman of the Parti conservateur du Québec, but lost Duplessis. Two years later, the party was formed as a new national union. In 1936 he went to for this on the elections to the National Assembly of Quebec and won the electoral district of Matane. Five times he was re-elected (1939, 1944, 1948, 1952 and 1956).

From 1936 to 1939 Gagnon worked as mining and fisheries ministers in Duplessis ' government, then the National Union five years was in the opposition. After the party from 1944 again could form the government, he served under Duplessis to 1951 as treasurer, then as Minister of Finance. Nearly three weeks after his resignation, Governor General Vincent Massey sworn him on 14 February 1958 as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. This representative office he held until his death.