Camillien HoudeCBEOStJ (August 13,1889 –September 11,1958) was a Quebec politician,a Member of Parliament,and a four-time mayor of Montreal. He is of the few Canadian politicians to have served at all three levels of government. During World War II,Houde was interned under the War Measures Act for campaigning against conscription.
Houde was born in Montreal on August 13,1889 and died there on September 11,1958. He was nicknamed "l'imprévisible"—the unpredictable. He was the only surviving child of Azade Houde and Josephine Frenette. He is descended from the first Houde ancestor,Louis Houde,who came from Manou,Eure-et-Loir,France to New France in 1647. Louis Houde's son was Louis H. who married Marie Lemay in 1685.
As Montreal Mayor in 1945 at a Chamber of Commerce event.
In 1930,Jews in Montreal expressed anger over antisemitic statements made by Houde. During a speech,an audience member had yelled,"To hell with the Jews!" Houde replied,"Well said. They have a new country and if they won't meet your demands they can go to Palestine,their country."[1]
Houde became a figure of ridicule in parts of English Canada because of his conduct in opposition to conscription. During the 1949 federal election,the Toronto Star,which openly supported the Liberal Party,attempted to link the unpopular Houde with George Drew,then leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada even though Houde was running as an independent candidate against an official Progressive Conservative candidate. The Star accused Drew of making a secret pact with Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis to appoint Houde to the Cabinet as Drew's Quebec lieutenant should the Tories win the election. The newspaper's campaign reached its culmination the Saturday before the election with a banner front-page headline reading:
KEEP CANADA BRITISH
DESTROY DREW'S HOUDE
GOD SAVE THE KING
(in later editions, the last line was changed to "VOTE ST. LAURENT").[3]
Concurrent to his career in provincial and federal politics, Houde was mayor of Montreal from 1928 to 1932, from 1934 to 1936, from 1938 to 1940, and from 1944 to 1954.
World War II controversy
In 1939, Houde said that "French-Canadians are Fascists by blood", and stating that if there was a war between Britain and Fascist Italy, he would prefer to side with Italy.[4]
During World War II, Houde campaigned against conscription. On August 2, 1940, Houde publicly urged the men of Quebec to ignore the national registration measure introduced by the federal government.[5] Three days later, he was placed under arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on charges of sedition, and then confined without trial[6] in internment camps in Petawawa, Ontario and Ripples, New Brunswick for four years. Upon his release on August 18, 1944, he was greeted by a cheering crowd of 50,000 Montrealers,[7] and won back his job as Montreal mayor in 1944's civic election.
After the war, Houde signed a petition protesting Nazi collaborator Jacques de Bernonville's extradition to France.[8]
Mayor Houde was a reform-minded mayor in the areas of patronage, unemployment, and organized crime. He was also responsible for some of the major public park improvements in Montreal including the park on Mont Royal with its man-made lake and park facilities. "Camilliennes" were public washrooms built by Houde during the Great Depression.[12]
After his death, Mayor Jean Drapeau named a new road over Mount Royal after Houde, an act many considered ironic, as Houde and many others had long opposed building roads over the city's famous mountain.
Other information
Mayor Houde threw a party for the then-new fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, which was described by Bill W in the book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age as "probably the first official reception that any A.A. group ever had."[13]
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