1900 Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier appoints Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière as the first French-speaking Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Jules-Isaïe Benoît Livernois (ca. 1890). “Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière.” Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Licence: public domain.
Born in France, Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière was Premier of Quebec between 1878 and 1879, and then Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1900 to 1906.
Shortly after arriving in Canada, he became a lawyer and married Margaretta Gowen, an English speaker from Québec City. Right from the beginning, the couple embodied Canada’s linguistic duality.