One of Canada’s greatest (and underrated) 20th century Prime Ministers’ funeral was held on this date in 1973 in Quebec City. Louis St.-Laurent, who held Canada’s highest political office from 1948 until 1957, had passed into history three days before. A story by the Canadian Press described the funeral.
“Mid Gregorian chants and the gilt-tinged opulence of the Quebec Basilica, dignitaries and the casually attired public joined the funeral service for Louis Stephen St. Laurent Saturday. The coffin, draped with a Canadian flag, was placed before the gold-canopied chancel where Maurice Cardinal Roy, archbishop of Quebec, opened the service with a prayer in French and English. On top of the coffin was a red cushion bearing Mr. St.-Laurent's Centennial Medal and his medal as Companion of the Order of Canada...
Canada's 12th prime minister sometimes attended I services at the English language church as well as at his own French-language parish church. Prime Minister Trudeau read a passage from the Book of Wisdom and the prayer of the faithful was led by Gerald Fauteux, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and Muriel McQueen Ferguson, Speaker of the Senate.
In his eulogy Cardinal Roy spoke of the difficulties of public leadership and the need for the public to take an active and conscientious part in the projects of the state. He paid tribute to Mr. St.- Laurent as a man who was motivated to work for the common good and in whom two cultures had prospered in harmony.”
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.