The Sir Wilfrid Laurier Memorial was constructed in 1953 by Emile Brunet on the southern side of Square Dorchester, facing towards the United States. Laurier, Canada's first French-Canadian Prime Minister, was a proponent of an early free-trade agreement with the United States and wanted to develop a more continental economic orientation.
Square Dorchester, part of Dominion Square until 1967, was developed along with the adjacent Place Du Canada between 1872 and 1892. After the death of René Lévesque in 1987, Dorchester Boulevard was re-named in his honour and the park was re-named after Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester. The four principal monuments--the others being the Robert Burns Memorial, the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Fountain, and Canadians in the Boer War Memorial--in the square are arranged to form an equilateral cross with the kiosk towards the Dominion Square Building.
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