Victor Goldbloom, Canadian politician, Died at 92

Victor Charles Goldbloom was born on July 31, 1923, and died on February 15, 2016.

He was a Canadian pediatrician, lecturer, and politician.

Dr. Victor Goldbloom was the assistant resident at the Babies’ Hospital of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York.

Victor Goldbloom was elected in 1966 as the MNA for the Montreal riding of D’Arcy-McGee.

Goldbloom 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).

He served as the Minister of Municipal Affairs as well as Quebec’s first Minister of the Environment, in 1973, serving in both positions until the Liberal government’s defeat in 1976.

Mr. Goldbloom oversaw the Olympic Installations Board and is credited with ensuring that the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal started on time.

Victor Goldbloom was one of the first member of the Jewish community to become a cabinet minister in the Quebec government.

Minister Goldbloom remain in 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.

Before he entered politics, from 1980 to 1987, he was CEO of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. From 1991 until 1999, he was Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages.

Sheila became his wife in June 1948, she was born Barshay-Rothstein, of New York and Peekskill, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism.

Victor’s sons are Michael Goldbloom, who is a Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Bishop’s University and former publisher of the Toronto Star and the Montreal Gazette, and Jonathan Goldbloom, the founder, and president of Jonathan Goldbloom & Associates.

He also has a daughter, Susan Restler, lives in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2009, Victor revealed grave concerns about the state of Catholic-Jewish relations after the lifting of the suspension of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X.

Victor Goldbloom passed away at 92 yrs old due to a heart attack.