Pierre-François Casgrain

Who was Pierre-François Casgrain?

Pierre-François Casgrain, PC was a Canadian politician and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons from 1936 to 1940.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, his father was a physician. Following the death of his mother when he was three years old, he was raised by his grandmother. Casgrain graduated in law from Université Laval and practiced in Montreal where he worked as an organizer for the Liberal Party of Canada and the Quebec Liberal Party.

When his father-in-law, Sir Rodolphe Forget, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Charlevoix, retired from politics, Casgrain decided to run for the seat as a Liberal in the 1917 election. The campaign occurred as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917. Casgrain ran as an opponent of the draft