CANADA’S NEW POLITICAL LEADER

Grey River Argus, 30 August 1948, Page 2

CANADA’S NEW POLITICAL LEADER

Rt. Hon. Louis Stephen St. Laurent, K.C. LL.D., who has recently become leader of the Liberal Party in Canada. In the ballotting for the leadership, Mr St. Laurent received 848 votes, and his nearest rival, Mr J. G. Gardiner, who is the Minister of Agriculture, received 323 votes. Mr St. Laurent was born in Compton, Quebec, on February 1, 1882, of French-Canadian and Irish-Canadian stock. He was educated at St. Charles’ College,- Sherbrooke, Quebec, and at Laval University, Quebec 1915 he was appointed professor of City, where he graduated in law. In law at Laval. He has been awarded honorary LL.Dd’s by four universities: Queens University, 1930; University of Manitoba, 1935: University of Montreal, 1943; and Bishop’s College 1943. In the King’s honours list of January 1, 1946, he was made a member of the Imperial Privy Council and thereby merits “Right Honourable” before his name. Mr St. Laurent has served at batonnier of the loyal Quebec. bar, ba-tonnier-general of Quebec Province and president of the Canadian Bar Association. He has pleaded many important cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and before the Judical Committee of the British Privy Council. He served as counsel on the Rowell-Sireis Commission on Domin-ion-Provincial relations immediately prior to the war. .Before becoming a member of the Cabinet he was a.director of the Bank of Montreal, the Metropolitan Life Aussurance Company of New York and of several mining and utility companies. On December 10, 1941, Mr. St. Laurent succeeded' his distinguished French-Canadian compatriot, the late Rt. Hon Ernest Lapointe, as Minister of Justice and AttorneyGeneral for Canada. He rehnguished this Ministerial position when his appointment was announced on September 4, 1946, as Secretary of State for External Affairs. . Mr St. Laurent was deputy chairman of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference at San Francisco in 1945, and chairman of the Canadian delegation to the first session of the United Nations General Assembly in London. ' During Prime Minister Kings absence in the United Kingdom, in 194i>, Mr St. Laurent was Acting-Secretary of State for External Affairs, and in the summer of 1946 when Mr King was away at conferences abroad he served as Acting-Prime Minister. Mr St. Laurent was chairman oi the Canadian delegation at the sessions of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York m 1946 and 1947.