Did you know the first Franco-Ontarian cabinet minister in the Province of Ontario was from Hawkesbury?
Louis Pierre Cécile represented the former Prescott riding in the Ontario Legislature from 1948 to 1967. Cécile was born on January 15, 1905, in Tecumseh, a town in Essex County near Windsor where there is also a significant, historic francophone population. He studied at the Universite de Montreal and graduated from law school at Osgoode Hall in Toronto in 1932. He established a law practice in Hawkesbury and married Fabienne Gascon in 1941. They raised a son and two daughters.
Cécile’s entry into politics first began as Chairman of the Board for Hawkesbury’s secondary school. He unsuccessfully ran as the federal Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate in Prescott in 1945. But in June 1948, Cécile was elected as the provincial PC Member of Parliament (MPP) for Prescott. Cécile’s election was noteworthy as most francophone political support in Ontario at the time leaned Liberal, and then PC Leader and Premier George Drew was known for his strong, pro-anglophone opinions. Cécile’s political ascendancy further defied the mood of old, anglophone Tory Ontario when in September 1948, he was appointed to cabinet by Drew as a Minister Without Portfolio. One month later, Cécile was named Minister of Travel and Publicity, a position he would hold, first under Drew, and then under his successors Thomas L. Kennedy and Leslie Frost, until 1955.
As Minister of Travel and Publicity, Cécile provided over a department that reflected Ontario during a time of significant economic and social change. A strong post-World War Two economy and advances in working conditions allowed many residents of the province, and people from outside it, to take vacations for the first time. From fishing and hunting to hotels and heritage sites, tourism in Ontario burgeoned in the 1950’s. The province promoted itself as a place to enjoy.
In August 1955, Premier Frost reassigned Cécile to a new role in cabinet as Minister of Public Welfare, overseeing the department responsible for the province’s social assistance programs. Cécile retained that position after John P. Robarts succeeded Frost as PC Leader and Premier in 1961 and remained Minister for nearly six years. After being re-elected as MPP for Prescott in 1951, 1955, and 1963, Cécile left provincial politics in 1967. On February 15 that year, he was appointed as a Provincial Court Judge in the Criminal Division and served at the courthouse in L’Orignal until retirement in 1980.
Louis P. Cécile died on February 19, 1995. In Hawkesbury, the Cécile Bridge and Cécile Boulevard are named after him.
