View source for Ernest Lapointe

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1876–1941)}}
{{For|the ship|CCGS Ernest Lapointe}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name             = Ernest Lapointe
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|size=100%}}
| image            = Ernest Lapointe.jpg
| office           = [[Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada|Minister of Justice<br />Attorney General of Canada]]
| primeminister    = [[W. L. Mackenzie King]]
| term_start       = October 23, 1935
| term_end         = November 26, 1941
| predecessor      = [[George Reginald Geary]]
| successor        = [[Joseph-Enoil Michaud]] (acting)
| primeminister1   = W. L. Mackenzie King
| term_start1      = September 25, 1926
| term_end1        = August 6, 1930
| predecessor1     = [[Esioff-Léon Patenaude]]
| successor1       = [[Hugh Guthrie]]
| primeminister2   = W. L. Mackenzie King
| term_start2      = January 30, 1924
| term_end2        = June 28, 1926<br />{{small|Acting: January 4, 1924 – January 29, 1924}}
| predecessor2     = [[Lomer Gouin]]
| successor2       = Hugh Guthrie (acting)
| office3          = [[Secretary of State of Canada]]
| term_start3      = March 24, 1926
| term_end3        = June 28, 1926 (acting)
| primeminister3   = W. L. Mackenzie King
| predecessor3     = [[Charles Murphy (Canadian politician)|Charles Murphy]] {{small|(Acting)}}
| successor3       = [[George Halsey Perley]]
| term_start4      = July 26, 1939
| term_end4        = May 8, 1940 (acting)
| primeminister4   = W. L. Mackenzie King
| predecessor4     = [[Fernand Rinfret]]
| successor4       = [[Pierre-François Casgrain]]
| riding5          = [[Quebec East]]
| parliament5      = Canadian
| predecessor5     = [[Wilfrid Laurier]]
| successor5       = [[Louis St. Laurent]]
| term_start5      = October 27, 1919
| term_end5        = November 26, 1941
| riding6          = [[Kamouraska (federal electoral district)|Kamouraska]]
| parliament6      = 
| predecessor6     = [[Henry George Carroll]]
| successor6       = [[Charles-Adolphe Stein]]
| term_start6      = February 12, 1904
| term_end6        = October 14, 1919
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1876|10|6}}
| birth_place      = [[Saint-Éloi, Quebec]], Canada
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1941|11|26|1876|10|6}}
| death_place      = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|Emma Pratte|1904}}
| party            = [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]
| children         = [[Hugues Lapointe]]
| relations        = [[Arthur-Joseph Lapointe]] (nephew)
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = [[Laval University]]
| occupation       = [[Lawyer]]
| profession       = 
}}

'''Ernest Lapointe''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC}} (October 6, 1876 &ndash; November 26, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer and politician.  A member of Parliament from Quebec City, he was a senior minister in the government of Prime Minister [[W. L. Mackenzie King]], playing an important role on issues relating to legal affairs, Quebec and French-speaking Canada.

==Education, early career==
Lapointe earned his law degree from [[Laval University]]. He was [[called to the bar]] in 1898 and practiced law in [[Rivière-du-Loup]] and [[Quebec City]].<ref name="LapointeBio">{{cite web |last1=Neatby |first1=H. Blair |title=Ernest Lapointe |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ernest-lapointe |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=23 January 2022 |date=13 February 2008}}</ref>

==Enters politics==
Lapointe was elected by acclamation to the [[House of Commons of Canada]] for the riding of [[Kamouraska (federal electoral district)|Kamouraska]] as a [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] through a [[by-election]] on February 12, 1904. Lapointe was later re-elected in the [[1904 Canadian federal election|1904]], [[1908 Canadian federal election|1908]], [[1911 Canadian federal election|1911]], and [[1904 Canadian federal election|1917]] federal elections.<ref name="LapointeBio" />

Lapointe resigned his seat in 1919 and successfully ran in the [[Quebec East]] seat vacated by former [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Wilfrid Laurier]], who died.<ref name="LapointeBio" />

==King's cabinet minister and Quebec lieutenant==
[[File:Distinguished Canadians received by President Coolidge at White House. Interesting callers at the White House today were the Minister of Justice of Canada Hon. Ernest Lapointe (left) and the LCCN2016889115 (restored).png|thumb|left|alt=Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe with Canadian Ambassador to the United States [[Vincent Massey]], and Quebec Premier [[Louis-Alexandre Taschereau]] at the White House in 1927.|Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe with Canadian Ambassador to the United States [[Vincent Massey]], and Quebec Premier [[Louis-Alexandre Taschereau]] at the White House in 1927.]]
In 1921, Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] appointed Lapointe to his cabinet as [[Ministers of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard|minister of marine and fisheries]]. During his tenure as minister, Lapointe reduced tariffs. In 1924, Lapointe became [[Minister of Justice (Canada)|minister of justice]], and served in that position until the Liberals' [[1930 Canadian federal election|defeat at the polls in 1930]]. However, the Liberals under King returned back to power in the [[1935 Canadian federal election|1935 federal election]], and Lapointe once again regained his old post. From 1924 to 1930 as justice minister, Lapointe expressed his support for King's commitment to Canadian autonomy and accompanied him at the [[Imperial Conference of 1926]]. Lapointe also chaired the Canadian delegation in the discussions that led to the [[Statute of Westminster, 1931|Statute of Westminster]] in 1931.<ref name="LapointeBio" />

[[File:ErnestLapointe.jpg|175px|thumb|left|Lapointe, 1936]]

Lapointe served as King's [[Quebec lieutenant]] and was one of the most important ministers in Cabinet. King did not speak French; he relied on Lapointe to handle important matters in the province.  Lapointe gave a strong Quebecker voice to the cabinet decision, something that had not existed since the defeat of Laurier in 1911.<ref name="LapointeBio" /><ref>Conrad Black, ''Rise to Greatness: The history of Canada from the Vikings to the present '' (2014) p 520</ref>

In the late 1930s, Lapointe recommended that the federal Cabinet [[Disallowance and reservation in Canada|disallow]] several Acts passed by the Alberta [[Social Credit Party of Alberta|Social Credit]] government of [[William Aberhart]], arguing that Aberhart was attempting to grab too much power and encroach upon federal jurisdiction.

Lapointe did not recommend [[Disallowance and reservation in Canada|disallowance]] of the [[Padlock Act]] passed by the Quebec government of [[Maurice Duplessis]], fearing that doing so would only aid the [[Union Nationale (Quebec)|Union Nationale]] government.<ref name="LapointeBio" /><ref name=dc>{{harvnb|Creighton|1970|p=225}}</ref>

===Conscription issue===

Lapointe helped draft Mackenzie King's policy against [[conscription]] for overseas service in 1939, and his campaigning helped defeat the Duplessis provincial government in 1939. During the [[1939 Quebec general election|1939 provincial election]], Lapointe made many speeches in the province of Quebec, in which he argued that if Duplessis was to be re-elected, every French Canadian minister would resign from the federal cabinet, leaving it without a francophone voice. Having been a Liberal MP during the 1917 conscription crisis, Lapointe knew how much a new crisis like the last one would destroy the national unity that Mackenzie King had tried to build since 1921. Duplessis lost in a landslide to [[Liberal Party of Quebec]] leader [[Adélard Godbout]], who sought to co-operate with the federal government.<ref name="LapointeBio" />

==Death==
Lapointe died in office in 1941, in the midst of the war. King decided to appoint the reluctant Quebec leading lawyer [[Louis St. Laurent]] to the cabinet as the new minister of justice.<ref name="LapointeBio" />

Lapointe's son, [[Hugues Lapointe]], served as a [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|member of parliament]] from 1940 to 1957 and [[lieutenant governor of Quebec]] from 1966 to 1978.

==Further reading==
* Betcherman, Lita-Rose. ''Ernest Lapointe: Mackenzie King's Great Quebec Lieutenant'' (2002). 435 pp.
* MacFarlane, John. ''Ernest Lapointe and Quebec's influence on Canadian foreign policy'' (U of Toronto Press, 1999)
* [[Neatby, H. Blair]]. "Mackenzie King and French Canada." ''Journal of Canadian Studies'' 11.1 (1976): 3+

== Archives ==
There is an Ernest Lapointe [[fonds]] at [[Library and Archives Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Ernest Lapointe fonds, Library and Archives Canada|url=http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=99056&lang=eng|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref>

== Electoral record ==
{{CanElec1-by|27 October 1919|On Laurier's death, 17 February 1919}}
{{CANelec|CA|Laurier Liberals|Ernest Lapointe|6,222}}
{{CANelec|CA|Parti nationaliste|François-Xavier Galibois|2,283}}
{{end}}
{{1921 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}
{{CanElec1-by|19 January 1922|On Lapointe's acceptance of an office of emolument<br />under the Crown, 3 January 1922}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|Ernest Lapointe|acclaimed}}
{{end}}
{{1925 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}
{{1926 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}
{{CanElec1-by|2 November 1926|On Lapointe's acceptance of an office of emolument<br />under the Crown, 5 October 1926}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|Ernest Lapointe|acclaimed}}
{{end}}
{{1930 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}
{{1935 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}
{{1940 Canadian federal election/Quebec East}}

==See also==
* [[Conscription Crisis of 1944]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite book
|title=Canada's First Century
|url=https://archive.org/details/canadasfirstcent0000crei
|url-access=registration
|first=Donald |last=Creighton
|publisher=Macmillan of Canada
|year=1970
}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=16539}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070220231626/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/king/05320113/053201130429_e.html Biography from Library and Archives Canada]

{{CA-Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General}}
{{CA-Ministers of Fisheries}}
{{CA-Secretaries of State of Canada}}
{{CA-Dean of the House}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapointe, Ernest}}
[[Category:1876 births]]
[[Category:1941 deaths]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Laurier Liberals]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec]]
[[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]]
[[Category:Lawyers in Quebec]]
[[Category:Quebec lieutenants]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Université Laval alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]