The Golden Age of Liberalism

A Portrait of Roméo LeBlanc

This book explores the life and times of Roméo LeBlanc, one of Canada's most popular and successful politicians and statesmen. Probably best known as the long-standing fisheries minister in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet from 1974 to 1982, LeBlanc's career spanned the golden era of Liberalism in Canada. He capped his career during the nineties as the country's twenty-fifth governor general.

Historian Naomi E. S. Griffiths spent many years reading through LeBlanc's papers and interviewing many of his colleagues to explore the worlds he moved in -- Paris in the late forties and early fifties, world capitals during his time as a journalist, and then Ottawa. As a writer with an in-depth knowledge of the Acadian communities of the Maritimes, she knows his roots very well. Her biography covers his early years in New Brunswick where he was born into rural poverty, his years as a journalist in Ottawa, his heyday as a minister in Trudeau's cabinet, and his years at Rideau Hall. Along the way, Ms. Griffiths reveals many intriguing insights about her subject's contemporaries, including Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, and Jean Chrétien. She also discusses the importance of LeBlanc's Acadian heritage in animating all that he did.

This engrossing biography illuinates the life of one of Canada's most beloved politicians and statesmen and, with it, a fascinating era in our history.