A portion of the former home of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Lesage (1912-1980), one of the fathers of the Quiet Revolution, is on sale in Quebec. Located on avenue De Bougainville, a wealthy street in the Montcalm district, the house was split into two housing units several years ago. It is the upper floor that is for sale. Where the Prime Minister had set up his private office.
“The office is not bad as it was when Jean Lesage was there,” assures the real estate agent responsible for the sale. Supporting photos bear witness to this. Rather cramped, the prime minister’s private office was flanked by built-in bookcases and cabinets of hard, dark wood. This office was that of a politician whose reign marked significant changes in Quebec. The sales agency is offering this portion of his former home for $800,000.
The residence in question was the house of his wife, Corinne Lagarde, specified in the 1960s Jean Lesage. In 1937, the second husband of Corinne Lagarde’s mother had recruited Jean Lesage to the Liberal Party of Canada.
The brick building, built in 1925, has since been converted into condominiums. It is therefore only part of the property that is put up for sale. It includes space formerly occupied by the Prime Minister’s private office. The woodwork and the layout of the premises remain faithful to those experienced by the Liberal leader when he piloted the “thunder team”, to use the electoral expression of the time.
Former Minister Claude Morin reminded journalists in 2016 of the To have to frequented this office a lot. “I had many meetings there, with him [M. Lesage], alone or with two or three advisers, recalls Mr. Morin. I made the budget speeches. He spoke to me a lot to give me the orientations of the government, ”says the one who met, in their private residence, the five prime ministers he served. “At the time, it was much less formal than today. It was a bit more casual. »
First federal deputy for the riding of Montmagny-L’Islet. Under the leadership of Premier Louis-Stephen Saint-Laurent, he became Minister of Resources and Economic Development, then Minister of National Resources. Despite the defeat of the Liberals, he was re-elected in his riding. But he will resign from office to take over from Georges-Émile Lapalme as head of the Quebec Liberal Party. Everyone knows that the end of Duplessis’ Union Nationale reign is approaching. Lapalme set the table for major reforms that were to unfold under the aegis of Lesage, who came to power on June 22, 1960 under the banner of an electoral slogan that looks like a program: “It’s time for that to change.”
In his cabinet, Lesage kept the posts of Minister of Finance and Minister of Federal-Provincial Affairs at a time when tensions were growing with Ottawa, due to the rise of the independence movement, which made him one of his Turk’s heads. Defeated in the 1966 election, he remained leader of the official opposition until he gave way in 1970 to the young Robert Bourassa. He will subsequently join several boards of directors, including that of the Nordiques, the professional hockey team of Quebec. Jean Lesage will then be discreet, leaving his reserve in 1980, as the referendum approaches, to invite his compatriots to oppose the sovereignty-association project of his former star minister, René Lévesque.