Preceded by Henri Bourassa Preceded by Armand Boisseau Preceded by Hector Laferte Role Politician Resigned 1939 | Succeeded by Armand Boisseau Succeeded by Ernest-Joseph Chartier Succeeded by Lucien Dugas Political party Liberal Party of Canada | |
 | ||
Name Telesphore-Damien Bouchard Died November 13, 1962, Westmount, Canada | ||
Telesphore-Damien Bouchard (December 20, 1881 – November 13, 1962) was a politician in Quebec, Canada.
Born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, he was the mayor of the municipality from 1917 to 1930 and from 1932 to 1944 and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 1918. He also founded the Union des municipalites de la province de Quebec (Federation of municipalities in the province of Quebec) in 1919. He served as Liberal leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1936 to 1939, after Liberal leader Adelard Godbout lost the 1936 election and also narrowly lost his own seat. Bouchard served as opposition leader while Godbout remained leader of the Liberal Party.
After the Liberals returned to power in the 1939 election, he served in Godbout's cabinet. Resigned in 1944 when he was appointed to the Senate, where he remained until his death. Overall, he was the MLA for the district of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1912 to 1919 and from 1923 to 1944.
A leading campaigner for public ownership of electric utilities, he became first president of Hydro-Quebec in April 1944. Two months later he was fired by Premier Godbout, after Bouchard made a series of anticlerical statements.