Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Ernest Lapointe was born in 1876 and after a stellar academic career was
called to the bar in 1898. In 1904, he began a second career as a Member
of Parliament whose early reputation rested on his magnificent
oratorical skills, first in French and later in English as he became
comfortable with that language. Coming into his own, literally as
“King-Maker” in 1919, Lapointe loyally served the Liberal leader
both in and out of office until his untimely death from pancreatic
cancer in 1941.

Because King was unilingual, and because his party was so dependent on
Quebec seats, he had to be unusually attentive to the opinions of the
man who emerged as leader of the Quebec contingent. When he served as
Minister of the Crown (usually Justice), Lapointe was in a unique
position to affect the outcome of a host of issues, many involving the
country’s ongoing struggle to assert its independence from Britain.
Betcherman has no difficulty making the case that Lapointe was
instrumental in Canada’s evolution from colony to nation. In fact, if
Lapointe had been able to have his way, the country would have had its
own flag, would have been able to amend its own Constitution, and would
have had the Supreme Court as the final legal authority, rather than the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC).

Fortunately for Canada, Lapointe’s vision extended beyond his home
province. In 1939, respect for him and his guarantee that the federal
Liberal government would not conscript Canadians for overseas war
service helped ensure that French Canadians stood behind the PM when the
country declared war.

Lapointe also emerges as a champion of women, directing the Persons
Case to the JCPC (somewhat less successfully, he also promoted
francophone participation in the civil service). Less admirably, he was
constantly trying to find patronage appointments for his supporters; he
was also an anti-Semite, reflecting the bias of his home province. What
emerges from Betcherman’s scrupulously researched, wonderfully
written, and remarkably accessible book is a balanced, warts-and-all
portrait of a complex human being and the people he was closest to.