Daniel Johnson, Sr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Johnson, Sr.
The Hon. Francis Daniel Johnson
20th Premier of Quebec
In office June 16, 1966 – September 26, 1968
Preceded by	Jean Lesage
Succeeded by	Jean-Jacques Bertrand

Born	April 9, 1915 Danville, Quebec
Died	September 26 1968 (aged 53) Manic 5
Political party	Union Nationale
Spouse	Reine Gagné
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Francis Daniel Johnson, Sr. , PC (April 9, 1915 – September 26, 1968) was a Québécois politician and Premier of Quebec from 1966 until his death in 1968.

1 Profile
2 Elections as party leader
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Profile

Johnson was born in Danville, Quebec, Canada. He was the son of Francis Johnson, an anglophone journalist of Irish heritage, and Marie-Adéline Daniel, a Québécoise. He was raised bilingually but educated entirely in French.

He was the minister who started the Manic-5 hydroelectric project in 1958. He was first elected leader of the conservative Union Nationale party in 1961.

In 1965, his book entitled, Égalité ou indépendance (Equality or independence), made him the first leader of a Quebec political party to recognise the possibility of independence for Canada from the British Crown -- and if the English-speaking Canadian didn't want to be independent, then Quebec could do it alone. His position on the issue was seen to be ambiguous: as he wrote in his book, his position was for "independence if necessary, but not necessarily independence" (a reference to Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King's famous utterance in the WWII conscription debate).

Under the same slogan, Égalité ou indépendance, he was elected as premier of Quebec in 1966. He retained this position until his death in 1968. His term was, among other things, qualified by tensions with the Government of Canada over constitutional matters, because as Premier of Quebec he put forward proposals to reform the Canadian constitution based on the notion of two equal nations as opposed to ten equal provinces.

His sons, Pierre-Marc Johnson and Daniel Johnson, Jr also became premiers of Quebec: Pierre-Marc as leader of the sovereigntist Parti Québécois for a brief period in 1985, and Daniel Jr as leader of the federalist Quebec Liberal Party for nine months in 1994.

[edit] Elections as party leader

He lost the 1962 election. He won the 1966 election and died in office in 1968.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by Jean Lesage	Premier of Quebec 1966-1968	Succeeded by Jean-Jacques Bertrand
Preceded by Antonio Talbot	Leader of the Union Nationale 1961-1968	Succeeded by Jean-Jacques Bertrand
Preceded by Antonio Talbot	Leader of the Opposition in Quebec 1961-1966	Succeeded by Jean Lesage