Raoul Dandurand

The Right Hon. Raoul Dandurand
Senator for De Lorimier, Quebec
In office January 22, 1898 – March 11, 1942
Appointed by	Wilfrid Laurier
Preceded by	François Béchard
Succeeded by	Thomas Vien
Personal details
Born	November 4, 1861 Montreal, Canada East
Died	March 11, 1942 (aged 80)
Political party	Liberal

Raoul Dandurand, PC (November 4, 1861 – March 11, 1942) was a Canadian politician and longtime organizer in Quebec for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Biography

Dandurand graduated from the Faculty of Law at Université Laval, and worked as a corporate lawyer in Quebec.

Dandurand, a Montreal lawyer, was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1898 by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He served as Speaker of the Canadian Senate from 1905 to 1909 and was either Leader of the Government in the Canadian Senate or Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian Senate from 1921 until 1942. As Government Leader in the Senate he served in every Cabinet formed by William Lyon Mackenzie King from 1921 until Dandurand's death in 1942.

He also served as President of the League of Nations Assembly in 1925 and was Canada's delegate to the League from 1927 to 1930. He is perhaps best remembered for having said, in 1924, that in international affairs Canada was “a fireproof house, far from inflammable materials.”

King relied heavily on Dandurand and Ernest Lapointe for advice on Quebec as well as on international affairs and it was Dandurand who suggested Louis St. Laurent for King's Cabinet after Lapointe's death.

Family

In January 1886, Dandurand married Joséphine Marchand, daughter of Quebec Premier and dramatist Hon Félix-Gabriel Marchand and his wife, Marie Herselie Turgeon. Josephine was born in Saint-Jean, Quebec, and was educated at the Convent of Les Dames de la Congregation de Notre Dame a branch of Villa-Maria. Her literary works included dramatic pieces, papers and essays on subjects of public interest and in relation to women's duties, rights and place. She founded and edited `Le Coin du Feu`, a woman's paper. She was a member and office-bearer of the National Council of Women of Canada, in which she advanced practical schemes for the promotion of the industrial and fine arts in Canada, and establishment of a Department of Art. She was a member and office-bearer of the Women's Historical Society, the Victorian Order of Nurses. She was President of the Crèche of the Sisters of Mercy, Montreal, Quebec. In 1898 she was created an Officier Academic by the French Government. In 1900, she was appointed as a Commissioner from the Government of Canada to the Paris Exposition. at Ottawa. In March, 1903, she delivered an address before the Alliance Francaise on "La Sociabilite." ^[1]

References

1. Morgan, Henry James Types of Canadian women and of women who are or have been connected with Canada : (Toronto, 1903)

External links

• Works by or about Raoul Dandurand at Internet Archive
• Raoul Dandurand – Parliament of Canada biography