One of the most important Fathers of Confederation was born in Quebec on this date in 1826. Sir Hector-Louis Langevin, a lawyer, served as Mayor of Quebec City before entering politics in the United Province of Canada. A key cabinet minister in those pre-Confederation governments in the decade before 1867, Langevin would attend all three Confederation Conferences. He also personally helped draft sections of the Dominion of Canada’s Constitution, the BNA Act.
Sir John A. Macdonald named him to Canada’s first-ever national cabinet and upon the death of the great Sir George-Étienne Cartier in 1873, Langevin would become Quebec Lieutenant through the 1880s.
As Minister of Public Works in the Macdonald government, this Father of Confederation was caught up in a scandal and his influence waned. Langevin left politics in 1896 and passed into history in 1906.
For decades, Langevin’s name was on the building that housed the Prime Minister’s Office and Privy Council Office. The current government stripped his name from it in 2017 due to perceptions he was a key architect of Canada’s system of residential schools. Behind-the-scenes, however, federal civil servants warned their political masters that Langevin’s relationships with Indigenous Canada were not that simple.
"While he has been referred to in the media as an architect of the Indian residential school system, a historian at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada indicates that his relationship with Indigenous peoples is more complex," a Crown historian wrote at the time in a memo to the Minister of Public Works. "Various histories and academic articles written on residential schools make no mention of his role or impact in the development or execution of the residential schools policy. Moreover, during the 1885 Northwest Rebellion and the subsequent trial of Louis Riel, he attempted to intercede with the prime minister for Riel's clemency and the commutation of his sentence."
Whatever the truth is, it cannot be denied that he played key roles in founding the Canadian nation in 1867 and cementing a distinct nation on the norther half of the continent. You can learn more about this controversial Quebecer and Canadian at his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
For decades, Langevin’s name was on the building that housed the Prime Minister’s Office and Privy Council Office. The current government stripped his name from it in 2017 due to perceptions he was a key architect of Canada’s system of residential schools. Behind-the-scenes, however, federal civil servants warned their political masters that Langevin’s relationships with Indigenous Canada were not that simple.
"While he has been referred to in the media as an architect of the Indian residential school system, a historian at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada indicates that his relationship with Indigenous peoples is more complex," a Crown historian wrote at the time in a memo to the Minister of Public Works. "Various histories and academic articles written on residential schools make no mention of his role or impact in the development or execution of the residential schools policy. Moreover, during the 1885 Northwest Rebellion and the subsequent trial of Louis Riel, he attempted to intercede with the prime minister for Riel's clemency and the commutation of his sentence."
Whatever the truth is, it cannot be denied that he played key roles in founding the Canadian nation in 1867 and cementing a distinct nation on the norther half of the continent. You can learn more about this controversial Quebecer and Canadian at his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.