Esioff-Léon Patenaude

Who was Esioff-Léon Patenaude?

Esioff-Léon Patenaude, PC, KC, often called E.L. Patenaude was a Canadian politician and statesman who served as the 17th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. Born in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, in 1875, he studied law at Université Laval and was called to the Quebec bar in 1899. He established a successful law practice and was soon drawn to politics, serving as a chief organizer for the Conservative Party of Canada in Montreal.

He was first elected to the Quebec National Assembly as a Conservative in La Prairie in the 1908 provincial election, and was re-elected in the 1912 election. In 1915, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in a by-election, and joined the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden as Minister of Inland Revenue. He served in that position until early 1917, when he was appointed as Secretary of State and Minister of Mines. In July, however, Patenaude resigned from the Canadian Cabinet in protest of the government's decision to implement conscription. He chose not to seek re-election in the 1917 federal election. When Arthur Meighen became Prime Minister in 1920, he offered Patenaude a seat in cabinet, which the latter declined.