Ernest Lapointe - Definition and Overview

The Right Honourable Ernest Lapointe (October 6 1876 - November 26 1941) was a Canadian politician. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in a 1898 by-election as a Liberal MP.

In 1921, William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed Lapointe to the Canadian Cabinet as Minister of Marine and Fisheries. In 1924 he became Minister of Justice and served in that position in successive Liberal cabinets until his death in 1941. Lapointe served as King's Quebec lieutenant and was one of the most important ministers in Cabinet. He chaired the Canadian delegation to the Imperial Conference of 1926 that led to the drafting of the subsequent Balfour Declaration that raised the status of dominions to one of equality with Britain and eventually led to the Statute of Westminster 1931. In the late 1930s, Lapointe disallowed several Acts passed by the Alberta Social Credit government of William Aberhart. However, he failed to disallow the Padlock Act passed by Maurice Duplessis fearing that doing so would only aid the Union Nationale government.

Lapointe helped draft Mackenzie King's policy against conscription for overseas service in 1939 and his campaigning helped defeat the Duplessis government in 1939.

See also Conscription Crisis of 1944