Joseph-Alfred Mousseau

Joseph -Alfred Mousseau, PC, QC ( born July 17, 1837 in Sainte -Geneviève -de- Berthier, † March 30, 1886 in Montreal) was a Canadian politician. He was the sixth Prime Minister of the Province of Québec and reigned from 31 July 1882 to 23 January 1884. During this period he was also Chairman of the Parti conservateur du Québec held. Previously, he had been from 1874 to 1882 for the Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament in the House and was almost two years to the federal cabinet by John Macdonald on.

Biography

Mousseau attended the Académie de Berthier and then went to Montreal to study law. In 1860 he was admitted as a lawyer. Two years later he married Hersélie Desrosiers; from the marriage were born eleven children. In 1873 he was also appointed to the Attorney-General. Mousseau worked for 20 years in a law firm in which he was a partner of his predecessor as Premier Joseph -Adolphe Chapleau, until he left the firm. He worked on both civil and criminal cases during this time. In addition, he was a journalist, author, and active in a cross-party group of young intellectuals. This circle dabbled in settlement -related topics, which were published by a newspaper recently founded, but ultimately short-lived.

1870 dared Mousseau with two colleagues the establishment of the new weekly newspaper L' Opinion publique in Montreal, in which he, inter alia, contributed regular columns on international politics. After a heyday came the demise of the sheet due to internal stresses. As an author Mousseau published two major political treatises: the former treated two protagonists of the rebellion of 1838 In the second, which was published shortly after the founding of the state in 1867, he defended its formation on the grounds that this fancy solid foundation. against his opponents.

Mousseau stood as Conservative candidate for the general election in 1874 and tried the support of some moderate liberal to secure. He narrowly won the election district Bagot, but then played in the Parliament at first a subordinate role, especially since the Conservatives now found themselves in opposition. Some points still remained open, for example the creation of the Supreme Court of Canada, a general amnesty after the uprisings in the Northwest Territories as well as confessions separate schools in New Brunswick. These questions gave the French-Canadian nationalism buoyancy, the Mousseau represented accordingly in Parliament.

Mousseau supported the thrust of liberals to limit the powers of the Supreme Court on the federal level and thus away from Quebec City, but this was clearly rejected in a vote. He expected then a split in the Liberal Party, but the party discipline prevented this. In the Resolution to the uprisings in the Northwest Territories, he called for a full amnesty for three of the leader instead of the proposed five-year banishment, but only the support could this save 23 Conservative Member of Parliament of Quebec, the hoped-for support from some liberals this province remained. The fuse Catholic minority rights in education New Brunswick was dismissed with regard to the autonomy of the province. Ideologically firmly anchored in provincial matters, Mousseau took because of the free trade credo of the ruling Liberals reluctantly protectionist measures in his thinking on.

At the general election in 1878 Mousseau managed to re-election. He was considered a possible candidate for a ministerial post, was here but less ambitious, but more concerned with the vortex to the replacement of the Québec premier Charles -Eugène Boucher de Boucherville by the Lieutenant Governor Luc Letellier de Saint -Just. The Conservatives made ​​now in the federal parliament pressure to achieve dismissal because of this of them as illegitimate perceived dismissal in return Saint -Just. It was Mousseau, who brought a no-confidence motion against Saint -Just the stone to its later actually made dismissal rolling. He stood in this matter, however, under the influence of his former partner and former Premier of Quebec, Joseph -Adolphe Chapleau.

In November 1880 Mousseau was appointed as the new President of the Privy Council in the federal government and brought it in May 1882 Secretary of State. Prime Minister John Macdonald had Chapleau actually already provided for the change to Ottawa, July 31, 1882 finally came to the offices exchange with Chapleau. Mousseau became the new Prime Minister of Quebec, took over the office of Attorney General and the Chair of the Parti conservateur du Québec.

Due to its mild nature was Mousseau rather than an ideal compromise candidate for the transition. Chapleau had with his departure, left behind by selling sections of the rail network a crack in the party. This was now on Mousseau, who was considered Chapleaus shadows back. He did not manage to bridge this divide, which brought him to already on 23 January 1884 to withdraw from the office of prime minister. His successor John Jones Ross approached. Mousseau was subsequently appointed as a judge for the district of Rimouski, but died 48 years old in 1886 in Montreal at the consequences of a cold.