Douglas Charles Abbott (May 29, 1899 – March 15, 1987) was a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

Member of Parliament, federal

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

, and justice of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. Abbott's appointment directly from the

Cabinet of Canada The Canadian Ministry (Canadian French, French: ''Conseil des ministres''), colloquially referred to as the Cabinet of Canada (), is a body of Minister of the Crown, ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the t ...

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

to the Supreme Court was one of the most controversial in the Supreme Court's history.

Early life

Abbott was born in

Lennoxville, Quebec Lennoxville () is an ''arrondissement'', or borough, of the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Lennoxville is located at the confluence of the St. Francis and Massawippi Rivers approximately five kilometres south of downtown Sherbrooke. Lenn ...

(now

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

). He attended

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

. He then attended

McGill Law School The Faculty of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest law school in Canada. 180 candidates are admitted for any given academic year. For the year 2021 class, the acce ...

, but interrupted his studies to sign up for service overseas, in 1916. Returning from the Great War, he completed his legal studies, earning his

Bachelor of Civil Law Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL or B.C.L.; ) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; at Oxford, the BCL contin ...

. He then went to France to attend the Université de Dijon. Returning to Canada, he was called to the Barreau du Québec in 1921 and practised law in Montreal with the firm of Fleet, Phelan, Fleet & Le Mesurier.

Political career

A member of the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

, Abbott successfully stood for election to the House of Commons in 1940. He remained a member of the House for fourteen years, and unlike most contemporaries did not return to military service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He held office as Minister of National Defence (1945–1946) and then

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

(1946–1954).

Supreme Court justice

He was appointed to the

on July 1, 1954 and served as

puisne justice Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

until December 23, 1973. Abbott was appointed to the court directly from the federal Cabinet, where he had served the previous seven years as Finance Minister. The appointment is considered one of the most controversial in the history of the Supreme Court. It was the first appointment directly from Cabinet since the 1911 appointment of

Louis-Philippe Brodeur Louis-Philippe Brodeur, baptised Louis-Joseph-Alexandre Brodeur (August 21, 1862 – January 2, 1924) was a Canadian journalist, lawyer, politician, federal Cabinet minister, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, and puisne justice of ...

. As of , Abbott was the last justice of the Supreme Court of Canada appointed directly to the Court from the Cabinet, and the last justice to have held elected office prior to his appointment.

Parliamentary seats

House of Commons

* 16 May 1940 – 16 April 1945: St. Antoine—Westmount, Quebec * 6 September 1945 – 30 April 1949: St. Antoine—Westmount, Quebec * 15 September 1949 – 13 June 1953: St. Antoine—Westmount, Quebec * 12 November 1953 – 30 June 1954:

Saint-Antoine—Westmount St. Antoine—Westmount and Saint-Antoine—Westmount were federal electoral district (Canada), electoral districts in Quebec, Canada, that were represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1935 to 1968. "St. Antoine—Westmount" Riding ...

, Quebec

Parliamentary functions

Ministry

* 18 April 1945 – 11 December 1946: Minister of National Defence for Naval Services * 21 August 1945 – 11 December 1946: Minister of National Defence * 10 December 1946 – 30 June 1954:

and Receiver General

Parliamentary Secretary

* 1 April 1943 – 7 March 1945: Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance * 8 March 1945 – 16 April 1945: Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of National Defence

References

External links

*
Supreme Court of Canada biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Douglas Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers Ministers of finance of Canada Ministers of national defence of Canada Canadian Anglicans Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Liberal Party of Canada MPs Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada 1899 births 1987 deaths Politicians from Sherbrooke Anglophone Quebec people McGill University Faculty of Law alumni 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada