Mercier, Honore

Honore Mercier was born on October 15, 1840 in Saint-Atanaz ^[4] in Lower Canada . He studied at the Jesuit College of St. Mary in Montreal . In April 1865, admitted to the bar of Lower Canada (Quebec).

At the age of 22, Mercier became the editor of the newspaper Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe . He criticized the project of the Canadian Confederation since 1864 , believing that it would infringe the interests of the French Canadians .

In 1871, he founded the National Party . In the same year he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada from the district of Ruville . In 1878, he was defeated in the federal elections in the district of Saint-Hyactentes . In 1883 - headed the Liberal Party of Quebec. In 1885, he sharply spoke out against the execution of Louis Riel : this event made him popular, while the conservative party of Quebec lost its popularity after the leadership of the Canadian Conservative Party supported the hanging of Riel.

Taking the opportunity to create a coalition with conservative dissidents, Mercier achieved that in 1886 the National Party won most of the seats in the Quebec elections. Since the coalition consisted mainly of "liberals with experience", the party regained the name "liberals". The conservatives who had a minority, however, remained in power for several months, but in 1887 Mercier finally formed the liberal government of Quebec.

In the same year he advanced the idea of ​​inter-provincial conferences. He was the first of Quebec’s prime ministers to openly advocate for the autonomy of the province within the framework of a confederation by organizing a campaign to abolish the veto power that the federal government could impose on provincial laws. The British Privy Council abolished this practice 2 months after the death of Mercier.

With his strong nationalist ideas, like Oliver Mowat , Ontario's Prime Minister, Mercier largely laid the foundations for the policies of the next decades’s prime ministers, who fought with the federal government for the redistribution of power towards the provinces. He encouraged contacts with French Canadians outside Quebec, particularly in western Canada and in New England . Mercier supported large-scale reforms, economic development, Catholicism and French , which created him a lot of popularity, and at the same time many enemies.

Also achieved a series of measures favorable to the Catholic Church. In the field of education, he created evening schools for peasants and workers. In agriculture, he created the Quebec Ministry of Colonization and appointed Priest Antoine Label as Deputy Minister.

Also achieved the construction of railways leading to the regions Lawrence , Lac-Saint-Jean and Gaspesi . He sought to improve the efficiency of the Quebec economy in two ways: the development of relations with remote regions, and the adoption of measures that hindered the flow of population in the United States.

In the economic sphere, considering Quebec too dependent on English-speaking provinces and on the United States, Mercier sought to diversify sources of income for the province of Quebec. For this purpose, he, in particular, went to New York, to France and Belgium, to achieve the conclusion of new contracts. For his part, Canadian Prime Minister John MacDonald of the Conservative Party also sent his laymen to New York to thwart lending to Mercier. Mercier managed to outplay MacDonald, receiving a loan from Crédit Lyonnais .

In the 1890 elections in Quebec, Mercier won with an even bigger majority. On the other hand, the machinations of the influential politician of the Liberal Party Ernest Paco associated with railway construction, led to the fall of the Mercier government as a result of the scandal of Baie de Chaler , which was a smaller version of a national scandal that led to the resignation of the Macdonald-Cartier government in Ottawa.

December 16, 1891, Lieutenant Governor Auguste Real Angers removed him from the post of prime minister on the basis of a government report, which indicated that his government was squandering public funds. Mercier lost the election in 1892 and lost the leadership in the party to Felix-Gabriel Marchand . Somewhat later in the same year, Mercier was put on trial, but was found not guilty, since the second report came to different conclusions than the first. His health, however, deteriorated, and his political career ceased.

The last time Mercier brought fame speech in Somer Park in which he criticized the Canadian Confederation, expressed his republican convictions and considerations, according to which he considered it necessary for Canada to become independent, and its provinces to have a status similar to the status of states in the United States.

He died in 1894 at the age of 54 and was buried in the cemetery of Notre-Dame de Nej in Montreal . The coffin was accompanied by a crowd of 25 thousand people.

He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Vatican Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1888.

• Pierre Couture. Honoré Mercier, l'un des plus grands premiers ministres du Québec , Montréal: Michel Brûlé, 2008, 170 p. ISBN 978-2-89485-411-2
• Daniel Latouche. " Mercier, Honoré ", dans L'Encyclopédie canadienne , 2008
• L'Encyclopédie de L'Agora. " Dossier Honoré Mercier ", dans L'Encyclopédie de l'Agora , 25 avril, 2006
• Pierre Dufour et Jean Hamelin. " Mercier, Honoré ", dans Dnairenaire biographique du Canada , University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000
• Augustin Gosselin. " Honoré Mercier à l'abbaye de Bellefontaine ", dans Québec Histoire , vol. 6, no 3, mars 2001.
• Gérard Bergeron. Revolutions tranquilles à la fin du XIXe siècle: Honoré Mercier, Félix-Gabriel Marchand , Saint-Laurent: Fides, 1997, 230 p. ISBN 2-7621-1891-3
• Gilles Gallichan. Honoré Mercier: la politique et la culture , Sillery: Les éditions du Septentrion, 1994, 212 p. ISBN 2894480180 ( en ligne )
• Luc Bertrand. Honoré Mercier , Montréal: Lidec, 1994, 59 p. ISBN 2-7608-7050-2
• Pierre Charbonneau. Le projet québécois d'Honoré Mercier , Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu: Éditions Mille roches, 1980, 254 p. ISBN 2890870030
• Robert Rumilly. Honoré Mercier et son temps , Montréal: Fides, 1975
  • Tome I: 1840–1888 ISBN 0775505625
  • Tome II: 1888–1894 ISBN 0775505633
• Robert Rumilly. Mercier , Montréal: Éditions du Zodiaque, 1936, 545 p.
• JO Pelland. Biographie, discours, conférences, etc. de l'Hon. Honoré Mercier, Grand 'croix de l'ordre de St. Grégoire le Grand, officier de la Légion d'honneur et premier ministre de la province de Quebec , 1890 (en ligne: BAnQ , Nos racines , archive.org )
• Joseph Israël Tarte. Procès Mercier: les causes qui l'ont provoqué: quelques fait pour l'histoire , 1892 (en ligne: BAnQ )
• Ernest Mercier. Mercier depuis des siècles , 1987, p. 345