Laurent Desjardins

Laurent Louis "Larry" Desjardins (March 15, 1923 – February 7, 2012 ) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada.

In 1944, he married Bernice McGuire.

Desjardins began his political career at the municipal level, serving as an alderman on the St. Boniface City Council from 1951 to 1954, and also serving on the St. Boniface Hospital Board for a number of years.

He served as a member of the Manitoba legislature for most of the period from 1959 to 1988, and was a cabinet minister under New Democratic Premiers Edward Schreyer and Howard Pawley.

The son of Joseph A. Desjardins and Valentine Desautels, Desjardins was educated at St. Boniface College, St. Paul's College and the Cincinnati College of Embalming.

Desjardins played professional football with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

He was general manager of the St. Boniface Jr. Canadians and was a scout for the Montreal Canadiens.

In the Manitoba general election of 1959, he was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the riding of St. Boniface as a Liberal-Progressive.

This was the year of Progressive Conservative Premier Dufferin Roblin's first majority win, and Desjardins joined ten other Liberal-Progressives in the official opposition.

In 1961, Desjardins emerged as one of the leading parliamentary supporters of government funding for private and denominational schools.

A Roman Catholic and a native French-speaker, Desjardins regarded such funding as necessary for redressing anti-francophone legislation that had been pursued by previous Manitoba governments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Despite the Roblin government's popularity, Desjardins had little difficulty being returned in the elections of 1962 and 1966 (the Liberal-Progressives had changed their name to the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961).

In the 1969 election, Desjardins faced stronger than usual competition from his New Democratic opponent, Kam Gajdosik, but won by 4210 votes to 2656.

The 1969 election was a watershed in Manitoba politics, and resulted in a dramatic shift in Desjardins' career.

Under Edward Schreyer's leadership, the social-democratic NDP moved from third to first place, winning 28 seats out of 57 in the assembly.

This was one short of a majority, and there was initial uncertainty as to which party or parties would form government.

There was some consideration of an "anti-socialist coalition", which would have brought together all parties except the NDP under the leadership of former Liberal leader Gildas Molgat.

This, however, did not occur.

The impasse was ended when Desjardins announced that he would offer parliamentary support to the NDP, and change his party affiliation to Liberal-Democrat.

Desjardins' change of affiliation was significant, and on some levels surprising.

He had previously been known as an opponent of socialism, and the Franco-Manitoban community had not traditionally been supportive of the New Democratic Party before this time.

Nevertheless, Desjardins formed an alliance with Schreyer (himself a centrist New Democrat), on the understanding that he would be able to continue to work in favour of denominational school funding on the government side.

In order to make sure this move was supported by his constituents, Desjardins organized a vote of confidence on this decision on July 8.

Had he lost this vote, Desjardins would have resigned as MLA, and would have run as a Liberal-Democrat candidate in a subsequent by-election.

About 1000 people showed up at the Louis Riel School gymnasium for the vote of confidence, and Desjardins received a standing ovation when he arrived in the hall.

The vast majority of the attendees gave their support to Desjardins, with only 13 people opposing him.

Desjardins became Schreyer's legislative assistant in 1969, and formally joined the New Democratic Party in 1971.

The Roblin government took some steps on this front, but the issue was still unresolved by the 1970s.

On December 1, 1971, Desjardins was appointed Minister of Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.

In July 1972, his efforts in support of denominational schools were dealt a setback when a government-sponsored bill to permit funding was defeated by a free vote in the legislature.

(The Schreyer government did, however, make administrative agreements with certain private schools to provide them with access to public monies.)

Given the lack of historical francophone support for the NDP in Manitoba, it was unclear if Desjardins would be re-elected in the provincial election of 1973, and his riding was targeted by a right-wing "citizen's" group in the recently amalgamated city of Winnipeg (which included St. Boniface).

This group convinced the Progressive Conservative Party to withdraw their candidate in St. Boniface to provide a single "anti-socialist" alternative to the NDP.

Desjardins' sole opponent in June 1973 was Liberal candidate J. Paul Marion.

Following a very close race, Marion was declared the winner by a single vote (4301 to 4300).

This result was disputed, however, and was subsequently overturned by the Controverted Elections Act.

He was inducted into Manitoba’s sports hall of fame in 1990.

He served in the Canadian navy during World War II.

He worked as a funeral director, and was the President and Managing Director of Chapels, Ltd.

He also joined the Knights of Columbus and the Canadian Council of Christian and Jews during the early years of his career.