Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine

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Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (1807-1864) was a Canadian politician of French-speaking background who collaborated with Robert Baldwin in the achievement of "responsible government" and who laid the basis for the effective participation of French-Canadians in the government of the country.

Born on Oct. 4, 1807, at Boucherville in Quebec, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine was called to the bar in 1828 and, like so many other ambitious young French-Canadian lawyers, embarked on a political career. He served in the House of Assembly of Lower Canada from 1830 to 1837 as a member of the Popular, or Patriote, party, which expressed the grievances of the French-speaking majority against the English domination of the executive branch of government. He did not, however, approve of the revolutionary action taken by Louis-Joseph Papineau in 1837, and he prudently left Canada to live abroad for 5 months. On his return Lafontaine was briefly arrested as a person connected with the rebels, but he was released on bail.

Lafontaine now began negotiations with Robert Baldwin and Francis Hincks, leaders of the reform group in Upper Canada, to work together for the achievement of "responsible government," by which the executive would be made dependent upon the support of a majority in the elected legislature. In the new legislature of the united Province of Canada, after 1841, Lafontaine emerged as the leader of the French-Canadian reformers, eloquently expressing the political claims of his countrymen. He insisted on speaking French in the chamber, ultimately winning legal sanction for this practice.

Lafontaine's first collaboration with Baldwin came in 1842, but the administration then formed collapsed when the governor general refused to take its advice on the matter of appointments. Nine of the ten members of the Cabinet, Lafontaine and Baldwin among them, resigned office in November 1843.

In March 1848 Lafontaine was once more asked to assume executive office, again in association with Baldwin, and again in the portfolio of attorney general for Canada East. This time the ministers found a new governor general, Lord Elgin, ready and willing to act upon their recommendations and implement the concept of responsible government.

As leader of the French-Canadian group in the administration, it fell to Lafontaine to introduce the most controversial bill of the 1849 session, the Rebellion Losses Bill. This measure compensated property owners for damages resulting from the 1837 rebellion, a purpose which made it anathema to the "loyal" English-speaking population of Canada East. When Elgin assented to the bill, riots broke out in Montreal; Lafontaine was vilified, his house attacked, and his law library burned. Yet the ministry held firm, and the measure became law. The episode marked the ultimate test of the principle of responsible government.

Like his close associate Baldwin, Lafontaine was essentially a moderate man, and after the achievement of cabinet government his attitudes became more and more conservative. He failed to solve two of the burning questions of the day - the secularization of lands set aside for the support of the clergy and the abolition of the ancient seigneurial system of landholding in Quebec. Along with Baldwin, he resigned from the administration in 1851 and left public life. In 1853 he was appointed chief justice of Canada East, and a year later he was made a baronet. He died in Montreal on Feb. 26, 1864.

Lafontaine was the first successful exponent of what became an axiom of Canadian political life: that the full participation of French-speaking Canadians was vital to the administration of national affairs.

Further Reading

There are few formal biographies of Lafontaine. The best is probably a composite study of Canadian reformers of the period: Stephen Leacock, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks, in the "Makers of Canada" series (1907; published in 1926 under the new title Mackenzie, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks). Mason Wade, The French Canadians, 1760-1967 (1955; 2 vols., rev. ed. 1968), discusses Lafontaine and is recommended for general background.

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
2nd Premier of Canada East
In office September 26, 1842 – November 27, 1843
Preceded by	Samuel Harrison
Succeeded by	Sir Dominick Daly
6th Premier of Canada East
In office March 11, 1848 – October 28, 1851
Preceded by	Denis-Benjamin Papineau (deputy) Dominick Daly (as premier)
Succeeded by	Augustin-Norbert Morin
Born	October 10, 1807(1807-10-10) Boucherville, Lower Canada
Died	February 26, 1864 (aged 56) Montreal
Signature

House where Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine lived in his childhood, Boucherville

Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (or La Fontaine), 1st Baronet (October 4, 1807 – February 26, 1864 Montreal) was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada. He was born in Boucherville, Lower Canada in 1807. A jurist and statesman, Lafontaine was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1830. He was a supporter of Papineau and member of the Parti canadien (later the Parti patriote). After the severe consequences of the Rebellions of 1837 against the British authorities, he advocated political reforms within the new Union regime of 1841.

Under this Union of the two Canadas he worked with Robert Baldwin in the formation of a party of Upper and Lower Canadian liberal reformers. He and Baldwin formed a government in 1842 but resigned in 1843. In 1848 he was asked by Queen Victoria to form the first administration under the new policy of responsible government. The Lafontaine-Baldwin government, formed on March 11, battled for the restoration of the official status of the French language, which was abolished with the Union Act, and the principles of responsible government and the double-majority in the voting of bills.

While Baldwin was reforming Canada West (Upper Canada), Lafontaine passed bills to abolish the tenure seigneuriale (seigneurial system) and grant amnesty to the leaders of the rebellions in Lower Canada who had been exiled. The ring passed, but it was not accepted by the loyalists of Canada East who protested violently and burned down the Parliament in Montreal.

Lafontaine retired to private life in 1851 but was appointed chief justice of Canada East in 1853. In 1854 he was created a baronet by Queen Victoria and a knight commander in the pontifical Order of St. Sylvester by Pope Pius IX in 1855. He had first married on July 9, 1831 to Adèle Berthelot (1813-1859) and then secondly to the widowed Julie-Élisabeth-Geneviève Morrison (1822-1905) on January 30, 1861. While his first marriage had been childless his second produced two sons; Louis-Hippolyte (born July 11, 1862) and a second son, born July 15, 1864 who died the following year. The elder son succeeded to the baronetcy but died in 1867.

Contents 1 Writings 1.1 Works 1.2 Other 2 Posthumous honours 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 5.1 In English 5.2 In French

Writings

Works

• Les deux girouettes, ou l’hypocrisie démasquée, Montréal, 1834 (online)
• Notes sur l'inamovibilité des curés dans le Bas-Canada, Montréal, 1837
• Analyse de l'ordonnance du Conseil spécial sur les bureaux d’hypothèques [...], Montréal, 1842
• De l'esclavage en Canada, Montréal, 1859^[1] (online)
• De la famille des Lauson. Vice-rois et lieutenants généraux des rois de France en Amérique, 1859 (online)

Other

• The Address to the Electors of Terrebonne, 1840 (online)

Posthumous honours

Statue of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

In the Montreal region, both the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel and the Parc Lafontaine urban park are named in his honour. A statue of Lafontaine and Baldwin was erected on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

See also

• Lower Canada Rebellion
• Timeline of Quebec history
• LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium
• Louis-Joseph Papineau

Notes

1. ^ With Jacques Viger

References

In English

• Monet, Jacques. "La Fontaine, Louis-Hippolyte", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000
• Abbott Nish, M. E. Double majority: Concept, Practice and Negotiations, 1840–1848, Master Thesis, McGill University, Montréal, 1966
• Leacock, S. B. (1907). Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks. Responsible Government, Toronto, 371 p.

In French

• Aubin, Georges (2002-05). Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine. Correspondence générale
  • Tome 1: Les ficelles du pouvoir: correspondance entre Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine et Robert Baldwin, 1840-1854
  • Tome 2: Au nom de la loi: lettres de Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine à divers correspondants, 1829-1847
  • Tome 3: Mon cher Amable: lettres de Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine à divers correspondants, 1848-1864
• Aubin, Georges (1999). Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine. Journal de voyage en Europe, 1837-1838, Sillery: Septentrion, 153 p. ISBN 2-89448-142-X
• Bertrand, Réal (1993). Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, Montréal: Lidec, 60 p. ISBN 2-7608-7046-4
• Auclair, Elie-Joseph (1933). Figures canadiennes, Montréal, vol. 2, pp. 9-19 (online)
• DeCelles, Alfred Duclos (1907). LaFontaine et son temps, Montréal: Librairie Beauchemin, 208 p.(online)
• Laurent-Olivier David (1872). Sir Ls.-H. Lafontaine, Montréal: Typographie Geo. E. Desbarats, 45 p.

Political offices
Preceded by Charles Richard Ogden	Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada - Canada East 1842-1843	Succeeded by with Sir Dominick Daly
Preceded by Denis-Benjamin Papineau	Premiers of Canada East 1848-1851	Succeeded by Augustin-Norbert Morin
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New creation	Baronet 1854–1864	Succeeded by ?

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