Victor Goldbloom

Victor Goldbloom CC OQ
4th Commissioner of Official Languages
In office 1991–1999
Preceded by	D'Iberville Fortier
Succeeded by	Dyane Adam
Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for D'Arcy-McGee
In office 1966–1979
Succeeded by	Herbert Marx
Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Environment
In office 1973–1976
Personal details
Born	Victor Charles Goldbloom (1923-07-31)July 31, 1923 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	February 15, 2016(2016-02-15) (aged 92) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Sheila Barshay-Rothstein ​ ​ (m. 1948)​
Children	Michael Goldbloom Jonathan Goldbloom Susan Restler

Victor Charles Goldbloom CC OQ (July 31, 1923 – February 15, 2016) was a Canadian pediatrician, lecturer, and politician.

Early life and education

He was born in Montreal, the son of pediatrician Alton Goldbloom and Annie Ballon. He studied at Selwyn House School and Lower Canada College. He studied at McGill University receiving his BSc in 1944, his MD in 1945, his DipEd in 1950 and his DLitt in 1992. Dr. Goldbloom was assistant resident at the Babies' Hospital of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York.

Career

He was a professor of pediatrics and of medicine at McGill University from 1950 to 1970. He was elected in 1966 as the MNA for the Montreal riding of D'Arcy-McGee. He was re-elected in 1970, 1973, and 1976. While Robert Bourassa was Premier of Quebec, Goldbloom was Minister of State responsible for Quality of Environment (1970–73). In 1973, he was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs as well as Quebec's first Minister of the Environment, serving in both positions until the Liberal government's defeat in 1976. Goldbloom was in charge of the Olympic Installations Board for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

He was the first member of the Jewish community to become a cabinet minister in the Quebec government. He kept his seat in the 1976 provincial election that defeated the Liberal government and sat on the Opposition benches until he resigned his seat on October 16, 1979 after Claude Ryan became Liberal leader.

Subsequently, from 1980 to 1987, he was CEO of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.

From 1991 until 1999, he was Canada's fourth Commissioner of Official Languages. During his tenure, Commissioner Goldbloom conducted two comprehensive studies. The first study examined the availability of services in both official languages in offices designated bilingual, which concluded that the federal government's bilingualism was not yet fully implemented nor functional. The second study focused on the implementation of Part VII of the Official Languages Act by the federal government and suggested different ways that Section 41 of the Official Languages Act could be implemented. In this report, Goldbloom suggested assigning a role of Coordinator of Language Policy at the Privy Council Office.

In 2009, he expressed concerns on the state of Catholic-Jewish relations after the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. Goldbloom died of a heart attack at Montreal in February 2016.

Family

In June 1948, he married Sheila Barshay (1925-2022) of Montreal, a social worker who was later named to the Order of Canada. Their sons are Michael Goldbloom, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Bishop's University and former publisher of the Toronto Star and the Montreal Gazette, and Jonathan Goldbloom, founder and president of Jonathan Goldbloom & Associates. Their daughter, Susan Restler, lives in Brooklyn, New York.

His brother Richard Goldbloom was also a pediatrician, who worked in Halifax, Nova Scotia at Dalhousie University and at the Izaak Walton Killam Hospital for Children.

Honours

• Officer of the Order of Canada (1983), was promoted to Companion in 2000.
• Officer of the National Order of Quebec. (1991)
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa.(1994)
• Honorary Doctorate from the Université Sainte-Anne at Church Point (Pointe de l'Église), Nova Scotia (1996)
• James H. Graham Award of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (1996)
• Knight of the Order of St. Sylvester (2012)

Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award

In June 2009, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) established the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award in their honor.

In September 2009, the first awards were presented to lawyer and longtime promoter of quality and English rights Casper Bloom, Eastern Townships-based health-care advocate Marjorie Goodfellow, and researcher Jack Jedwab, who has contributed to the knowledge and understanding of English-speaking Quebec.

Electoral record

1966 Quebec general election: D'Arcy-McGee
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Victor Goldbloom	24,709	90.57
	Union Nationale	Boris Garmaise	1,548	5.67
	RIN	Louise Belzile	895	3.28
	Ralliement national	Gilles Côté	129	0.47
Total valid votes			27,281	100.00
Rejected and declined ballots			699
Turnout			27,980	60.88
Electors on the lists			45,962
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

1970 Quebec general election: D'Arcy-McGee
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Victor Charles Goldbloom	36,543	90.41	-0.17
	Parti Québécois	Paul Unterberg	3,230	7.99	N/A
	Union Nationale	Léonard Rosen	647	1.60	-4.07

1973 Quebec general election: D'Arcy-McGee
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Victor Charles Goldbloom	26,958	93.77	+3.36
	Parti Québécois	Jacqueline Dugas	1,221	4.25	-3.74
	Ralliement créditiste	John Holmes	418	1.45	N/A
	Union Nationale	Florian Prévost	152	0,53	-1.07

1976 Quebec general election: D'Arcy-McGee
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Victor Charles Goldbloom	21,248	68.03	-25.74
	Union Nationale	Barry Fridhandler	7,058	22.60	+22.07
	Parti Québécois	Jacques Mackay	1,476	4.73	+0.48
	Democratic Alliance	Elie Chalouh	950	3.04	–
	Independent	Max Wollach	417	1.33	–
	Ralliement créditiste	Gaëtan Gauthier	83	0.27	-1.18

External links

• The Great Names of the French-Canadian Community
• Multicultural Canada, article in the Canadian Jewish Review on Goldbloom's wedding, June 25, 1948
• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
• Victor Goldbloom: Eminent Quebecker brought people together Globe and Mail obituary by Lisa Fitterman, Feb.28, 2016