Date Published:
July 2007

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Alphonse Desjardins

Desjardins, Alphonse (1841-1912), minister of militia for Canada (1896), was born at Terrebonne, Lower Canada, on May 6, 1841. He was educated at Masson College and at the Seminary of Nicolet, and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1862. He practised law in Montreal until 1868, when he entered journalism, and became one of the editors of L'Ordre. Later he became chief editor of Le Nouveau Monde. From 1874 to 1896 he represented Hochelaga in the Canadian House of Commons; and in 1896 he was first minister of militia in the reconstructed Bowell administration, and then minister of public works in the Tupper administration. At the general election of 1896 he was defeated in Richelieu, and he then retired from political life. He died at Montreal on June 4, 1912. He was twice married, (1) in 1864 to Virginie (d. 1879), eldest daughter of Hubert Paré, and (2) in 1880 to Hortense, daughter of Joseph Barsalou. In 1872 he was created a knight of the order of Pius IX.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411pp., p. 201-202.