Simon-Napoléon Parent

Parent, Simon-Napoléon

Simon-Napoléon Parent, lawyer, businessman, Liberal politician, premier of Québec (b at Beauport, Canada E 12 Sept 1855; d at Montréal 7 Sept 1920). Québec City's first "modern" mayor (1894-1906), promoting city planning and economic development, Parent became provincial minister of lands and forests in 1897, and immediately encouraged the large-scale exploitation of Québec's forest and hydraulic resources. He became premier after Félix-Gabriel MARCHAND died in 1900, but was driven from office in 1905 by a combination of personal rivals and young nationalists critical of his concessions to foreign capitalists. He retired as mayor shortly afterwards but became chairman of the federal Transcontinental Railway Commission and later the Québec Streams Commission.