Papineau, Louis Joseph (lwē zhôsĕf ` päpēnō`), 1786–1871, French Canadian political leader and insurgent, b. Montreal. After serving as an officer in the War of 1812, he entered (1814) the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (Quebec), of which he was (1815–37) speaker. Eloquent and able, he soon became leader of the French Canadian Reform party. His hostility to the British government in Canada, whose measures he considered unfair to the French Canadians, inflamed some of his followers, the Patriotes, to open rebellion in 1837; shortly afterward a rebellion incited by William Lyon Mackenzie broke out in Upper Canada (Ontario). Papineau took no active part in the uprisings but fled to the United States, where he sought assistance for the Canadian colonial cause. Failing in his effort, he went to France. He received full amnesty in 1844 and returned to Canada in 1845. He reentered politics and again sat (1848–54) in the Canadian legislative assembly, but he never regained his former influence.

Bibliography

See biographies by A. D. De Celles (in "Makers of Canada" series, Vol. V, 1926) and F. Guellet (1961).

Papineau, Louis Joseph

(born Oct. 7, 1786, Montreal, Que.—died Sept. 23, 1871, Montebello, Que., Can.) Canadian politician. He was elected to the legislative assembly of Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1808 and became its speaker in 1815. A leader of the French-Canadian Party, he opposed the British-dominated government of Lower Canada. In 1834 he helped draft the 92 Resolutions, a statement of French-Canadian demands and grievances. When the British governor rejected the resolutions, hostilities broke out. Papineau escaped to the U.S. and then to France, where he lived from 1839 to 1844. He returned to Canada under an amnesty in 1844 and served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1848 to 1854, though he never regained his leadership of the French-Canadians.