Charles Boucher de Boucherville

Sir Charles-Eugène-Napoléon Boucher de Boucherville, KCMG (May 4, 1822 – September 10, 1915) was a Canadian politician and doctor. He twice served as the Premier of Quebec.

Senator The Honourable Sir Charles-Eugène-Napoléon Boucher de Boucherville
3rd Premier of Quebec
In office September 22, 1874 – March 8, 1878
Monarch	Victoria
Lieutenant Governor	René-Édouard Caron Luc Letellier de St.-Just
Preceded by	Gédéon Ouimet
Succeeded by	Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
In office December 21, 1891 – December 16, 1892
Monarch	Victoria
Lieutenant Governor	Auguste-Réal Angers Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau
Preceded by	Honoré Mercier
Succeeded by	Louis-Olivier Taillon
Senator for Montarville, Quebec
In office February 12, 1879 – September 10, 1915
Appointed by	John A. Macdonald
Preceded by	Louis Lacoste
Succeeded by	Charles-Philippe Beaubien
Member of Legislative Council for Montarville
In office July 1, 1867 – September 10, 1915
Appointed by	Narcisse Fortunat Belleau
Personal details
Born	May 4, 1822 Montreal, Lower Canada
Died	September 10, 1915 (aged 93) Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Conservative Party of Quebec
Other political affiliations	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Susan Elizabeth Morrogh Marie-Céleste-Esther Lussier

Personal life

Boucher was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Descended from Pierre Boucher, he was one of the three children of Pierre Boucher de Boucherville (1780–1857), Seigneur of Boucherville, and Marguerite-Émilie de Bleury (1786–1812), sister of Clément-Charles Sabrevois de Bleury. Boucher de Boucherville took his MD from McGill University, graduating with an MD in 1843.

Political career

During the Chauveau administration, he served as Speaker of the Legislative Council. He became premier in 1874 when his predecessor, Gédéon Ouimet, had to resign due to a financial scandal. He then won the 1875 Quebec election but was removed from office on March 8, 1878, in a conflict with Lieutenant Governor Luc Letellier de Saint-Just. Letellier de Saint-Just refused to approve legislation that had been passed by both houses of the Quebec legislature that would have forced municipalities to pay for railway construction. The Lieutenant-Governor deposed Boucher de Boucherville, and called on the Leader of the Opposition, Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, to form a government.

Boucher de Boucherville's second term came about after Honoré Mercier was removed from office by Lieutenant Governor Auguste-Réal Angers on December 16, 1891, on charges of corruption. Mercier was later cleared.

After Conservative leader Louis-Olivier Taillon had lost the 1890 election and his own seat, Jean Blanchet had taken over as Leader of the Opposition to the Mercier government. Blanchet, however, had resigned on September 19, 1891, to accept an appointment as a judge. The Lieutenant Governor, therefore, needed a Conservative to fill the post of Premier and turned to Boucher de Boucherville.

Boucher de Boucherville served for one year but resigned when former Conservative premier Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau was appointed Lieutenant-Governor in December 1892. Relations between the two may have been strained. By 1915 the oldest legislator in North America, he died that year in Montreal at the Deaf and Dumb Institute, in whose work he was so interested that he lived there.

See also

• Politics of Quebec
• List of Quebec general elections
• Timeline of Quebec history

External links and references

• "Charles Boucher de Boucherville". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
• Charles Boucher de Boucherville – Parliament of Canada biography
• "Senator de Boucherville Dies at 95", The New York Times, September 12, 1915, p. 17.