Clifford Albert Lincoln (born September 1, 1928) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician who served as a member of the Quebec National Assembly, a provincial cabinet minister and a member of the House of Commons of Canada. Lincoln was born in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

to Francis Lincoln, a British colonial civil servant, and Régina De Baize. He studied

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

in Mauritius and in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. He emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1958, settling first in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

and then in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, where he became an insurance company executive. He was first elected to the Quebec National Assembly in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

as a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. When the Liberals formed government in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, Lincoln was appointed Minister of the Environment by Premier Robert Bourassa. Lincoln and two other

anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

ministers resigned from cabinet in 1989, to protest the Bourassa government's language policy and its adoption of Bill 178, which invoked the

notwithstanding clause Section 33 of the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause (french: clause dérogatoire, links=no or ), sometimes referred to as the override power, and ...

of the

Canadian Constitution The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents ar ...

to require French to be the dominant language on commercial signs. He campaigned for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. At the same time, he contested a by-election in the federal electoral district of Chambly. He lost the by-election to Phil Edmonston of the New Democratic Party and then withdrew from the Liberal leadership contest. He was elected to Parliament in the 1993 federal election in the district of

Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1997. This riding was created in 1987 from Lachine and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine East rid ...

and was re-elected in

Lac-Saint-Louis Lac-Saint-Louis is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997. Its population was 108,579 at the 2016 Canadian Census. Geography The district includes the Cities of ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. He served as parliamentary secretary to the

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

and the

Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of an ...

from 1993 until 1996. He also served as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage from 1997 until 2004. As such he wrote a report on Canadian broadcasting, ''Our Cultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting''; its recommendations were largely ignored by the government. Lincoln retired from politics at the 2004 federal election and was appointed Chairman of the Panel on Access to Third-language Public Television Services by the federal government. As of 2007, Lincoln is President of the Board of Directors of the English Speaking Catholic Council of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. In December 2012, he released
Toward New Horizons
', a memoir of his life in politics.

References

Sources

* *

Clifford Lincoln's resignation speech, accessed December 26, 2005.

accessed December 26, 2005.
Remember the Lincoln Report
accessed December 26, 2005.

Electoral record (incomplete)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Clifford 1928 births Living people Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the Executive Council of Quebec Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Quebec Liberal Party MNAs Anglophone Quebec people People from Plaines Wilhems District 21st-century Canadian politicians 20th-century Canadian politicians Canadian Catholics Mauritian emigrants to Canada