Laurier then married a much older French woman by the name of Zoë Lafontaine in 1868 but had no children. Even though Laurier had no children with Zoë, it is lead to believe that Laurier fathered a child that belonged to Emilie Lavergne.
Emilie had been Laurier’s best friend. Emilie had made Laurier into an amazing people person and taught him how to be presentable when doing his job. Because of Emilie’s help, Laurier quickly earned a reputation as an excellent lawyer and public speaker.
On the left is Wilfrid Laurier and on the right is Armand Lavergne, son of Emilie Lavergne and believed to be the son of Wilfrid Laurier. This is believed because of their striking resemblance.
When Laurier ran for a seat in the Quebec Legislature in 1871, he felt very strongly about people having freedom to vote in their own opinion. In 1874 he was elected as an MP. Even after the Catholics told people not to vote for freethinking Liberals. After 13 years as an MP he became Liberal leader. And in 1896 defeated the Conservatives and became Prime Minister.
After Laurier was elected as prime minister he tried to make Canada no longer divided along language and religion lines.
In 1896 gold was discovered in the Klondike. Because of this, people went north to claim the riches. Laurier also wanted people to go west by offering them free land in exchange for setting up homesteads.
In 1899 Britain called on Canadian soldiers to help them in the Boer War in South Africa. Going along with his policy Laurier didn’t want to force Canadians to go if they didn’t want to, so Laurier made it voluntary. He agreed to pay for whoever wanted to go. Meanwhile English Canadians felt that Laurier wasn’t doing enough while French Canadians thought that Canada shouldn’t help at all.
In 1910 Lauriers government passed a bill to create the Royal Canadian Navy. It wasn’t very big, so many Canadians made fun of it. They called it a ‘Tin Pot Navy’. Laurier ordered the program of eleven ships.
- A Badicea- Class armored cruiser
- 4 Bristol- Class light cruisers
- 6 destroyers
The first Captain of Canada’s first commissioned ship the HMCS Rainbow.
In 1910 almost 8000 farmers went to Ottawa to demand better wheat prices. The next year Laurier worked out a deal for the farmers but upset the eastern business owners. The next year an election was held and the Canadians voted against “trade with the Yankees” and “a tin pot navy” and they won.
Laurier died February 17, 1919 at the age of seventy-eight. The last thing he said was “C’est fini” (which translates to It’s finished) to his wife that was by his bedside. He died of two paralytic strokes just like First prime minister Sir. John A. McDonald.
At Lauriers funeral 50 000 people lined the streets of Ottawa. This was one of the first public events to be recorded on film.
