Gérald Godin
Quebec politician (1938–1994)
Gérald Godin (November 13, 1938 – October 12, 1994) was a Canadian poet and politician from Quebec. During his time as a politician, he served in various cabinet posts in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. As cabinet minister, Godin has been noted for his openness towards immigrants.
Biography
Born in Trois-Rivières, he worked as a journalist at La Presse and other newspapers and magazines. His most important poetry collection, Les cantouques: poèmes en langue verte, populaire et quelquefois française, was published in 1967. He was among those arrested under the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970.
Political career
In the 1976 Quebec provincial election, he won a seat as a candidate for the Parti Québécois (PQ), heavily defeating incumbent Premier Robert Bourassa in his own riding of Mercier.
He served in various cabinet posts in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. His most notable role was Minister of Cultural Communities and Immigration. Godin saw immigrants as the future of Quebec’s sovereigntist movement by believing that they should be welcomed and acknowledged that they left due to negative impact of authoritarianism in their home country.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Gérald Godin” as quebec politician (1938–1994). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as quebec politician (1938–1994). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3123624. VIAF identifies the subject as 32018576. The Library of Congress control number is n89673751. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1994, 1967 and 1970.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gérald Godin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gérald Godin primary sources, Gérald Godin archive and Gérald research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gérald Godin”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gérald Godin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.