Gaspard Fauteux

Gaspard Fauteux, PC (August 27, 1898 – March 29, 1963) was a Canadian parliamentarian, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (1945–1949), and the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1950–1958).

He was born in S^t-Hyacinthe, Quebec, to a political family. His grandfather, Honoré Mercier and his uncle, Lomer Gouin, were both former Premiers of Quebec. His grandmother's second husband was Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and later Senator Joseph Godbout.

Fauteux married Marguerite Barré daughter of the Canadian artist Raoul Barré (Sept 18th 1923). The couple had 4 children; Roger, Paul, Marie (Mimi) and Gaspard Jr.

A dentist by training and then a businessman, he first entered politics at the provincial election defeating Quebec Conservative Party leader and Mayor of Montreal Camillien Houde to win a seat in the Quebec legislature for the Quebec Liberal Party. He lost his seat in 1935 and returned to business. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons from the Quebec riding of St. Mary in a 1942 by-election, and was re-elected in the 1945 federal election by again defeating Camillien Houde. He was re-elected in the 1949 election.

In Parliament, Fauteux opposed conscription and was a delegate to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Conference that followed World War II.

Despite his lack of legal training or long tenure in the House, he was tapped by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to become Speaker following the 1945 election.

His inexperience in parliamentary procedure caused him difficulties in the Chair. He had a habit of making decisions before MPs had presented their arguments. He preferred the social aspects of the position and entertained and travelled frequently.

He returned to the backbenches after the 1949 election and, in 1950 was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec by Governor General Harold Alexander, Earl Alexander of Tunis, on the advice of his prime minister, Louis St. Laurent.

External links

• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec. 
• The Quebec History Encyclopedia entry (French)
• Gaspard Fauteux – Parliament of Canada biography

Speakers of the Canadian House of Commons
Cockburn Anglin Blanchet Kirkpatrick Ouimet White Edgar Bain Brodeur Belcourt Sutherland Marcil Sproule Sévigny Rhodes Lemieux Black Bowman Casgrain Glen Fauteux Macdonald Beaudoin Michener Lambert Macnaughton Lamoureux Jerome Sauvé Francis Bosley Fraser Parent Milliken Scheer Regan

Lieutenant-Governors of Quebec
Post-Confederation (1867–present)	Belleau Caron Saint-Just Robitaille Masson Angers Chapleau Jetté Pelletier Langelier Leblanc Fitzpatrick Brodeur Pérodeau Gouin Carroll Patenaude Fiset Fauteux Gagnon Comtois Lapointe Côté Lamontagne Asselin Roux Thibault Duchesne Doyon
Province of Canada (1841–66)*	Clitherow Jackson Bagot Fernhill Cathcart Elgin Head Monck
Lower Canada (1791–1841)	Carleton (con't from 1791) Prescott Milnes Dunn Craig Prévost Drummond Wilson Sherbrooke Richmond Dalhousie Aylmer Gosford Colborne Durham Sydenham
British Province of Quebec (1759–91)*	Amherst Murray Carleton Haldimand Carleton (2nd Time)
The Crown's representative from 1759 to 1791, and from 1841 to 1866 held the office and rank of Governor-General