Succeeded by Gedeon Ouimet Spouse Flore Masse (m. 1840) | Preceded by John Neilson Preceded by None Children Alexandre Chauveau | |
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Name Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau Lieutenant governor Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau, Rene-Edouard Caron | ||
Preceded by Joseph Edouard Cauchon Preceded by Joseph Edouard Cauchon | ||
Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau (May 30, 1820 – April 4, 1890), born in Charlesbourg, near Quebec City, was a Canadian lawyer and politician. Chauveau was the first Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec, following the establishment of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.
He was a lawyer by profession, and practised in Quebec City. He co-founded the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of Quebec City in 1842. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1844, and reelected in 1848, 1851, and 1854. He served as solicitor-general of Lower Canada, without a seat in cabinet, from 1851 to 1853. From 1855 to 1867, he was superintendent of the bureau of Education.
In 1867, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in Québec-Comté electoral district and headed a Conservative government as the first Premier of Quebec. He was also the Minister of Education and Provincial Secretary. Also beginning in 1867, he was simultaneously the federal Member of Parliament for the riding of Quebec County (such "double mandates" were abolished in 1874). He resigned both his federal and provincial seats, as well the office of Premier, on February 25, 1873, following appointment as Speaker of the Canadian Senate on February 21, 1873. He resigned from the Senate on January 8, 1874, and later that year ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for Member of Parliament in the federal election in the riding of Charlevoix.
In 1878, he became professor of Roman law at Université Laval. He died April 4 in Quebec City in 1890. He had seven children, one of whom, Alexandre Chauveau, became a provincial politician in his own right.
His great-great-great-grandson is politician Thomas Mulcair.