Louis-Joseph Papineau

Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871) was a Lower Canadian lawyer, seigneur, and politician.

Early Involment in Politics

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly

First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1809, he later became the leader of the nationalist Parti Canadien (later renamed Parti Patriote). Made Speaker in 1815, he began working for the reform of Lower Canada's political institutions. In 1832, this included being responsible for a law that granted full equivalent political rights to Jews, 25 years before anywhere else in the British Empire.

Leader of the Patriotes

An address to a rally at Saint-Charles in 1837 after the British rejected his list of demands for reform led to open rebellion (la révolte des Patriotes). Both his revolt and the simultaneous revolt in Upper Canada of William Lyon Mackenzie were quelled, and several of the Patriotes were executed, but the revolts led to Lord Durham's report (1839), which recommended responsible government and the merger of the Canadas.

In Exile

Papineau fled to the US and then to France, where he remained until pardoned in 1844. He returned from exile in 1845.

Return in Politics

Retirement

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