He served as a member of the Manitoba legislature for most of the period from 1959 to 1988,[2] and was a cabinet minister under New Democratic Premiers Edward Schreyer and Howard Pawley.
This was the year of Progressive Conservative Premier Dufferin Roblin's first majority win, and Desjardins joined ten other Liberal-Progressives in the official opposition.
A Roman Catholic and a native French-speaker, Desjardins regarded such funding as necessary for redressing anti-francophone legislation that had been pursued by previous Manitoba governments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Despite the Roblin government's popularity, Desjardins had little difficulty being returned in the elections of 1962 and 1966 (the Liberal-Progressives had changed their name to the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961).
The impasse was ended when Desjardins announced that he would offer parliamentary support to the NDP, and change his party affiliation to Liberal-Democrat.
Nevertheless, Desjardins formed an alliance with Schreyer (himself a centrist New Democrat), on the understanding that he would be able to continue to work in favour of denominational school funding on the government side.
About 1000 people showed up at the Louis Riel School gymnasium for the vote of confidence, and Desjardins received a standing ovation when he arrived in the hall.
[6] In July 1972, his efforts in support of denominational schools were dealt a setback when a government-sponsored bill to permit funding was defeated by a free vote in the legislature.
Given the lack of historical francophone support for the NDP in Manitoba, it was unclear if Desjardins would be re-elected in the provincial election of 1973, and his riding was targeted by a right-wing "citizen's" group in the recently amalgamated city of Winnipeg (which included St. Boniface).
This group convinced the Progressive Conservative Party to withdraw their candidate in St. Boniface to provide a single "anti-socialist" alternative to the NDP.
The New Democrats returned to power in the 1981 provincial election under the leadership of Howard Pawley, and Desjardins was personally re-elected without difficulty.
[8] Desjardins resigned from his cabinet positions on February 10, 1988, after a Supreme Court ruling that provinces could not restrict a woman's right to abortion,[3] and announced that he would be leaving the legislature to take a job in the private sector.
[1] Ironically, just as Desjardins had helped bring the NDP into government in 1969, his decision to leave the legislature in 1988 played a major role in the party's unexpected fall from power.
During his time in the legislature, Desjardins was known as a personable figure; fellow New Democratic cabinet minister Russell Doern once called him a "Rabelasian character".