Gérald Godin (November 13, 1938 – October 12, 1994) was a Canadian poet and politician from Quebec.

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.

Gérald Godin

In the 1976 Quebec provincial election, he won a seat as a candidate for the Parti Québécois, 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 life companion was the Québécois singer Pauline Julien.

Gérald Godin

As a poet, he won the Prix Québec-Paris for his 1987 work Ils ne demandaient qu'à brûler.

Gérald Godin

Godin died from brain cancer in October 1994.

The area surrounding the Mont-Royal metro station has been named Place Gérald-Godin in his honour. One of his poems, Tango de Montréal, is displayed as a mural overlooking the square.

Cégep Gérald-Godin (college), in Sainte-Geneviève, Montreal, is named after him.

See also

List of Mauriciens

Politics of Quebec

Quebec general elections

History of Quebec

Quebec sovereigntism

Electoral record

References

External links

Gérald Godin's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

1938 births

1994 deaths

French Quebecers

Parti Québécois MNAs

Journalists from Quebec

Writers from Quebec

20th-century Canadian poets

20th-century Canadian male writers

Canadian male poets

People from Trois-Rivières

Canadian poets in French

October Crisis

Canadian male non-fiction writers

Deaths from cancer in Quebec

Neurological disease deaths in Quebec

Deaths from brain tumor