Gildas Laurent Molgat, CD (January 25, 1927 – February 28, 2001) was a Canadian politician. He served as leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1961 to 1969, and was subsequently appointed to the Senate of Canada, where he served as Speaker from 1994 until 2001. He died shortly thereafter. The son of Louis F. Molgat and Adele Abraham, Molgat was born in Ste. Rose du Lac, Manitoba. He was educated at Ste. Rose School and the University of Manitoba. He worked as a manager for Bethel-Rennie Ltd. United Stores and Advance Credit Corporation, and served as an army captain in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He was married to Allison Malcolm. Molgat was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1953, in the francophone riding of Ste. Rose. He was a Liberal-Progressive, and a supporter of Premier Douglas Lloyd Campbell. The Liberal-Progressives lost the election of 1958, though Molgat was easily re-elected over his Progressive Conservative opponent. This was partly the result of historical francophone voting patterns in the province—most Franco-Manitobans supported the Progressive Party of John Bracken in the 1920s, and continued to support the party after it merged with the Liberals in 1932. Although Dufferin Roblin's Tories made several gains in 1958, the province's francophone ridings continued to elect Liberal-Progressive MLAs. Molgat was re-elected in 1959, again by a significant margin. When Campbell resigned as Liberal leader in 1961 (the "Progressive" name having been dropped), Molgat was selected to replace him. A protégé of Campbell, he was aligned with the more traditionalist wing of the party. His primary opponent for the party's leadership was Stan Roberts, who represented its modernizing wing. He was the first francophone party leader in Manitoba since 1919, and the first ever in the province's Liberal Party. As party leader, Molgat prevented the Liberals from falling behind the New Democratic Party for third-party status, but he was never able to pose a serious threat to Roblin's government. The Progressive Conservatives had greater urban support, and were generally regarded as the more "modernizing" party. The Liberals won 13 seats in 1962, and 14 in 1966 (out of 57). Molgat never faced any serious competition in his own riding. Roblin resigned as Progressive Conservative leader in 1967 and was replaced by the more conservative Walter Weir. After the election of Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada in 1968, Weir's government took a number of steps