View source for Rodolphe Forget

{{Short description|French-Canadian businessman and politician (1861-1919)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = Colonel
| name                = Sir Rodolphe Forget
| honorific-suffix    = 
| image               = RodolpheForget.jpg
| constituency_MP     = [[Charlevoix (federal electoral district)|Charlevoix]]
| parliament          = Canadian
| predecessor         = [[Louis Charles Alphonse Angers]]
| successor           = District was abolished in 1914
| term_start          = 1904
| term_end            = 1917
| constituency_MP2    = [[Montmorency (federal electoral district)|Montmorency]]<ref group="infobox">Elected for Charlevoix and for Montmorency. Sat for both ridings.</ref>
| parliament2         = Canadian
| predecessor2        = [[Georges Parent]]
| successor2          = District was abolished in 1914
| term_start2         = 1911
| term_end2           = 1917
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1861|12|10}}
| birth_place         = Terrebonne, Canada East
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1919|2|19|1861|12|10}}
| death_place         = Montreal, Quebec
| nationality         = 
| spouse              = 
| party               = [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]]
| relations           = [[Pierre-François Casgrain]] (son-in-law)
| children            = [[Thérèse Casgrain]] (daughter)
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
| profession          = 
| religion            = 
| footnotes           = {{Reflist|group=infobox}}
}}
Colonel '''Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget''' (December 10, 1861 &ndash; February 19, 1919) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] business investor, [[stockbroker]], and [[politician]]. He held national directorships and had major investments in [[energy]] companies, as well as industrial concerns and [[railway]] companies in the [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Provinces]] of [[Quebec]] and [[Ontario]]. He was one of the few [[French Canadian]] [[business magnate]]s of his time.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-607/The_Domaine_Forget_in_Charlevoix.html|title= The Domaine Forget in Charlevoix|first= Christian|last=Harvey|date= |website=|publisher=Encyclopédie du patrimoine culturel de l'Amérique française}}</ref>

==Life and career==
Born in [[Terrebonne, Quebec|Terrebonne]] in what was then known as [[Canada East]], he was the only son of David Rodolphe Forget, a [[lawyer]] at Terrebonne who was the brother of the Hon. [[Louis-Joseph Forget]]. His mother, Angele Limoges, was the half-sister of [[Louis-Olivier Taillon|Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon]], 8th [[Premier of Quebec|Prime Minister of Quebec]]. The Forgets were long settled in Quebec, having moved there from [[Normandy]] in 1650.

Forget became one of the most influential and controversial businessmen of his era in Quebec. With wide-ranging business interests, one of his companies built the [[Manoir Richelieu]] hotel in 1899 at [[La Malbaie, Quebec]].

During the early 1900s, Rodolphe Forget with his uncle Louis-Joseph Forget and Forget family investments controlled the very important [[Montreal Light, Heat & Power|Montreal Light, Heat & Power Company]]. Rodolphe Forget also served as chairman of the [[Board of Directors]] of the [[Montreal Stock Exchange]] from 1907 to 1909.

In 1904, Forget was elected as a [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] to the [[10th Canadian Parliament]] for the [[Charlevoix (federal electoral district)|Charlevoix riding]], and he served for more than thirteen years. He was the father of [[Thérèse Casgrain]] and father-in-law of [[Pierre-François Casgrain]], who was elected as a Liberal MP in Charlevoix in 1917.

Forget died in 1919 at the age of fifty-seven and was buried in the [[Roman Catholic]] [[Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges]] in Montreal. His home in Montreal's [[Golden Square Mile]] still stands today and is one of the buildings that are used by the Russian Consulate. His estate in Charlevoix is now part of [[Domaine Forget]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=16429}}
* {{cite DCB |first=Jack |last=Jedwab |title=Forget, Sir Rodolphe (baptized Joseph-David-Rodolphe) |volume=14 |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/forget_rodolphe_14E.html}}

==External links ==
{{commons category-inline|Rodolphe Forget}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forget, Rodolphe}}
[[Category:1861 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Quebec]]
[[Category:Canadian Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Canadian philanthropists]]
[[Category:Canadian stockbrokers]]
[[Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec]]
[[Category:People from Lanaudière]]
[[Category:People from Terrebonne, Quebec]]
[[Category:Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery]]
[[Category:Beaubien–Casgrain family]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]


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