Item 0048 - Letter, 11 December 1899

Journalist and politician Pierre Boucher de la Bruère, who often signed himself simply “Boucher de la Bruère,” was a descendant of the founder and seigneur of Boucherville, Pierre Boucher. He was also a grandson of the seigneur of Montarville, René Boucher de la Bruère. In 1846 he began classical studies at the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe, then studied law 1857-1858 at Université Laval in Quebec City. He was called to the bar and began practising law in 1860. He shocked his family in 1861 by marrying Victorine Leclere, the daughter of a Saint-Hyacinthe notary who had been superintendent of police in Montreal and some years before had arrested and imprisoned Pierre’s father, a member of the rebellious liberal Patriotes group. Nevertheless, the marriage was a success and Victorine gave birth to 18 children, of whom 12 survived infancy. Pierre took on the job of editing the Saint-Hyacinthe newspaper, the Courrier, and his politics, which had reflected his father’s, began to lean toward the right. The newspaper supported George-Étienne Cartier’s Conservative party and its plans for confederation and for alliance with the clergy. He was a protonary for the town from 1870 to 1875, but returned to his editor’s job in 1875, a responsibility he kept for the next 20 years. He became the owner of the newspaper in 1877 and the following year became a partner in the local law firm of Tellier, De la Bruère et Beauchemin. He participated in community affairs, promoting beet farming and encouraging the dairy and cheese industry; he also founded the École des Arts et Dessins Industriels in 1874 and was president of the Industrial Dairy Society of the Province of Quebec from 1882 to 1889. He also played a role in the establishment of a local dairy school in 1892.
During much of this period he was also active politically, with a particular interest in education. In 1877 he was appointed to Quebec’s Legislative Council for the division of Rougemont; in 1882 he was elevated to speaker, and in 1895 he became superintendent of education under the provincial Department of Public Instruction, a post he held until a year before his death. As well, he chaired the Council of Public Instruction and the Catholic Committee. He did not particularly involve himself in the 1897-1898 controversy over whether to give the ministry of education authority over the school system; it was clear, however, from a pamphlet he wrote in 1904, “Éducation et Constitution,” that he was in favor of provincial rights in educational matters. He also had a particular interest in the creation of normal schools for girls. A school in Montreal is named École Boucher de la Bruère; the library in Boucherville is named after his second son, Montarville, director of the Public Archives of Canada in Montreal.