Renaud Chapdelaine (March 27, 1911 – September 1, 1971)Renaud Chapdelaine's obituary
was a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

lawyer and was briefly a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

. Chapdelaine won an upset victory in a February 1949

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in Nicolet—Yamaska - the first

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

riding to be won in Quebec since the Conservative Party relaunched itself as the Progressive Conservatives in 1942. While in the previous election, the Progressive Conservative candidate received only 944 votes, Chapdelaine received 8,382 votes, just over 49% of the total vote and almost 300 votes more than his rival, Liberal Paul Trahan. The victory, in a riding that had not voted Tory since

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

, was seen as a major breakthrough for the Progressive Conservatives and for its new leader

George A. Drew George Alexander Drew (May 7, 1894 – January 4, 1973) was a Canadian politician. He served as the 14th premier of Ontario from 1943 to 1948 and founded a Progressive Conservative dynasty that would last 42 years. He later served as leade ...

, one which made much more likely a Tory victory in the next federal election. He was a supporter of the Union Nationale provincially and credited his victory to the voter support for the principle of an

autonomous province Autonomous province is a term for a type of province that has administrative autonomy.Collins Dictionar ...

opposed to the centralization of federal powers - a policy supported by both the UN and the Tories. Prime Minister

Louis St. Laurent Louis Stephen St. Laurent (''Saint-Laurent'' or ''St-Laurent'' in French, baptized Louis-Étienne St-Laurent; February 1, 1882 – July 25, 1973) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 12th prime minister of Canada from 19 ...

blamed Chapdelaine's victory on the presence of a third candidate, an Independent Liberal, who they argued split the Liberal vote. The Liberals subsequently claimed that Chapdelaine had run on

isolationist Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entangl ...

and Quebec nationalist policies critical of the government's involvement in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and that his true allegiance was not to Drew but to Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis. In March 1949, Chapdelaine and Georges Heon, an Independent Conservative MP who had recently joined the Progressive Conservative caucus, signed a joint statement calling for improving the rights of

Franco-Ontarians Franco-Ontarians (french: Franco-Ontariens or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2016, the Government of O ...

in regards to French language

Separate School In Canada, a separate school is a type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and statutory status in the three territories ( Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut). In these Canadi ...

s in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario had traditionally opposed the extension of both funding for Catholic Separate Schools and French language education and Drew had been, until recently, the Premier of Ontario and leader of the provincial Tory party."Help Ontario French Solve Separate School Quebec Tory MPs Vow", ''Toronto Daily Star'', March 11, 1949 Chapdelaine was defeated four months after his initial victory, in the June 1949 federal election, as were the Progressive Conservatives nationally. While he increased his vote total to over 9,000 that was not enough to overcome Liberal contender Maurice Boisvert who defeated him by almost 400 votes in a straight two candidate race. Chapdelaine returned to private life and did not run in another federal election.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chapdelaine, Renaud 1911 births 1971 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Lawyers in Quebec