Elzéar Bédard

Who was Elzéar Bédard?

Elzéar Bédard was a lawyer and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. He later became a judge.

He was born at Quebec City in 1799, the son of Pierre-Stanislas Bédard. Bédard received a typical education for the time which he completed in 1818, He then pursued a career in the priesthood but abandoned this and in 1819 articled to become a lawyer which took place in 1824. By 1830, he was involved in provincial politics and ran unsuccessfully in Kamouraska. He won a by-election in 1832 for Montmorency, a riding left vacant by Philippe Panet. He aligned himself with Louis-Joseph Papineau's Patriote party program and in 1834 was the member who introduced the Ninety-Two Resolutions, although likely he did not have a significant role in the preparation.

He was the first mayor of Quebec City, but lost the next election to René-Édouard Caron. A close friend and supporter of Lord Gosford, he was appointed a judge of the Court of King's Bench in 1836, an appointment that was called bribery by his radical adversaries in the Patriote party.

Bédard was a political moderate at a time when a more extreme outlook was held by most politicians and this stance brought him some adversity and misfortune during his political life.