Fonds F583 - Henri Bourassa fonds

Henri Bourassa, journalist and politican, was born at Montreal, Quebec in 1868. He was educated by tutors, and became a journalist. He was a contributor to "Le Nationaliste," a journal published in Montreal; and in 1896 he was elected to represent Labelle as an independant Liberal in the House of Commons. He became a pronounced "Nationalist; and in 1910 he founded "Le Devoir," a Nationalist newspaper in Montreal, of which he became the editor-in-chief, continuing as editor until he broke with many of the Nationalists, and resigned from the paper in 1932. In 1907 he resigned from the House of Commons so he could sit in the Quebec Legislative Assembly. He remained in the Assembly from 1908 to 1912. He sat once again in the House of Commons from 1925 to 1935, when he was defeated in his old constituency, Labelle. Bourassa was an outstanding political figure, and a first-rate orator. He also published many pamphlets on political questions, in both French and English. Henri Bourassa died at Outremont, Quebec, on August 30, 1952.