Léo Cadieux

The Honourable Léo Cadieux PC OC
Cadieux, c. 1968
Canadian Ambassador to France
In office 16 October 1970 – 8 September 1975
Prime Minister	Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Paul André Beaulieu
Succeeded by	Gérard Pelletier
Minister of National Defence
In office 19 September 1967 – 16 September 1970
Prime Minister	Lester B. Pearson Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Paul Hellyer
Succeeded by	Charles Drury (acting)
Associate Minister of National Defence
In office 15 February 1965 – 18 September 1967
Prime Minister	Lester B. Pearson
Preceded by	Lucien Cardin
Succeeded by	Vacant
Member of Parliament for Labelle
In office 25 June 1968 – 5 October 1970
Preceded by	Gaston Clermont
Succeeded by	Maurice Dupras
Member of Parliament for Terrebonne
In office 18 June 1962 – 24 June 1968
Preceded by	Marcel Deschambault
Succeeded by	Joseph-Roland Comtois
Personal details
Born	Joseph Alphonse Léo Cadieux (1908-05-28)28 May 1908 Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Canada
Died	11 May 2005(2005-05-11) (aged 96) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Monique Plante ​ (m. 1961)​
Children	1

Léo Alphonse Joseph Cadieux PC (/kəˈdjuː/ kə-DEW, French: [kadjø]; May 28, 1908 – May 11, 2005) was a Canadian politician.

A newspaper journalist and publisher who was born in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Cadieux was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Terrebonne, Quebec in the 1962 election.

In 1965, he was appointed to the Cabinet by Prime Minister Lester Pearson as Associate Minister of National Defence. In 1967, he was promoted to Minister of National Defence (and the first Francophone to hold the post), and remained in that position under Pearson and then Pierre Trudeau until he retired from politics in 1970.

On his retirement from Parliament, he was appointed Canada's Ambassador to France. He remained Canada's envoy until 1975.

During Cadieux's tenure as Defence Minister, Canada cut its troop commitment to Europe from 10,000 to 5,000 troops and ended Canada's commitment to send re-enforcements to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Central Front following a review of Canadian defence priorities. In Cabinet debates on Canada's attitude towards nuclear deterrence, Cadieux argued in support of the doctrine. He also oversaw the reorganization of the Canadian Emergency Measures Organization, Canada's civil defence agency.

In 1974, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Electoral record

1965 Canadian federal election: Terrebonne
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Léo Cadieux	16,806	44.2	-1.8
	Progressive Conservative	André Fauteux	10,417	27.4	15.8
	Ralliement créditiste	Jean-Marc Fontaine	5,412	14.2	-18.7
	New Democratic	Jean-Maurice Sénécal	5,384	14.2	4.7
Total valid votes			38,019	100.0

Note: Ralliement créditiste vote is compared to Social Credit vote in the 1963 election.

1963 Canadian federal election: Terrebonne
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Léo Cadieux	19,015	46.0	6.8
	Social Credit	Hubert Murray	13,618	33.0	9.6
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Walker	4,798	11.6	-16.5
	New Democratic	Gérard Gagnon	3,895	9.4	0.1
Total valid votes			41,326	100.0

1962 Canadian federal election: Terrebonne
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Léo Cadieux	15,547	39.2	-9.4
	Progressive Conservative	Marcel Deschambault	11,155	28.1	-23.3
	Social Credit	Lucien Bachand	9,269	23.4
	New Democratic	Jean Philip	3,680	9.3
Total valid votes			39,651	100.0

External links

• Léo Cadieux – Parliament of Canada biography
• Order of Canada Citation
• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Complete List of Posts Archived 5 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine