bout de papier, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1998-1999) — Winter 1998/99 // Hiver 1998/99, p. 26
The little church in Aylmer, Quebec, in which Lucien Lamoureux was baptized in 1920, recently held a memorial service for its most distinguished member.
Lucien graduated from the University of Ottawa and was admitted to the bar of Ontario after attending Osgoode Hall law school. For some time he served as executive assistant to the Honorable Lionel Chevrier where he became familiar with the procedures of parliament. In 1954 he left to join Chevrier’s law practice in Cornwall and was elected as a Liberal member of the House of Commons in the general election of 1962 for Stormont-Dundas.
To those who knew him, it came as no surprise that Lucien was made Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons in 1963 and Speaker in 1966. He served as Speaker for 3010 days, the longest period for any Speaker since Confederation.
Presiding over the House calls for a rare combination of knowledge, patience, dignity, and tact, together with a sense of when to be firm. By general acknowledgment, he was the best in many decades. Never once did he name a Member for unparliamentary conduct, but an offender could feel his wrath. Lucien would simply not see him or her, for purposes of asking questions of Ministers, making a speech or statement, or for that matter, any other House activity, until an apology was offered
A Speaker is obliged to be politically neutral, but in our Canadian tradition must seek re-election on a party label. In the British House of Commons, a Speaker is traditionally not opposed by Opposition Parties. In 1968, the Conservative Party under Robert Stanfield did not run a candidate in Stormont-Dundas and Lucien, running as an Independent, easily defeated his NDP opponent. In 1972, however, the Conservatives did name a candidate, but Lucien was able to get re-elected running as an Independent with Liberal support in a close race. Lucien did his best to establish the political independence of the Speaker, but none of his successors has followed his precedent of running as an Independent.
In 1969 Lucien Lamoureux hosted the first Conference of Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers in Ottawa. Subsequent conferences have been held usually every two years. I have attended two of them and was pleasantly surprised to learn how much in common the Parliaments have, each modeled after the Mother of Parliaments in Westminster.
In 1974 Lucien Lamoureux was named Canadian Ambassador to Belgium, a position he occupied until 1980. That busy post, involving as it did a number of European conferences held in Brussels, was well suited to his talents. Without any doubt, he was one of the most polished and eloquent spokesmen in Canada’s two official languages that I have ever known and his genial composure never left him.
In 1981, he was named as Canada’s Ambassador to Portugal, where he remained until his retirement in the fall of 1984. I was fortunate to succeed him in Lisbon and to learn of the respect that many of his friends had for him.
Canada has lost an outstanding Parliamentarian, an accomplished diplomat and a proud citizen of our country.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1998-1999) — Winter 1998/99 // Hiver 1998/99, p. 26. Read the rest of this issue →
