Gérald Godin

Who was Gérald Godin?

Gérald Godin was a Quebec poet and politician.

Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, he worked as a journalist at La Presse and other newspapers and magazines. He was among those arrested under the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970.

In the 1976 Quebec provincial election, he won a seat as a candidate for the Parti Québécois, defeating incumbent Premier of Quebec Robert Bourassa in his own riding of Mercier. He served in various cabinet posts in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. His life companion was the Québécois singer Pauline Julien.

As a poet, he won the Prix Québec-Paris for his 1987 work Ils ne demandaient qu'à brûler.