Joseph Ferdinand Martial Asselin, (February 3, 1924 – January 25, 2013) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician and the

25th 25 (twenty-five) is the natural number following 24 and preceding 26. In mathematics It is a square number, being 52 = 5 × 5. It is one of two two-digit numbers whose square and higher powers of the number also ends in the same last t ...

Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1990–1996).

Life and career

Born in

La Malbaie La Malbaie is a municipality in the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality in the Province of Quebec, Canada, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Malbaie River. It was formerly known as Murray Bay. La ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, the son of Ferdinand Asselin and Eugénie Tremblay, he was called to the

Bar of Quebec The Bar of Quebec (french: Barreau du Québec) is the regulatory body for the practice of advocates in the Canadian province of Quebec and one of two legal regulatory bodies in the province. It was founded on May 30, 1849, as the Bar of Lower Ca ...

in 1951. He became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1967. From 1957 to 1963, he was the mayor of La Malbaie. Asselin was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1958 election as a Progressive Conservative

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

in the

Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...

sweep. He represented the riding of

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...

. Asselin was defeated in the 1962 election. Despite no longer having a seat, Diefenbaker appointed Asselin to the position of Minister of Forestry in 1963, in the hope that he and the Tories would both win the upcoming 1963 election. He served for only a month until the defeat of the Conservatives and Asselin's failure to regain his seat. He returned to the House of Commons in the 1965 election, and he was re-elected in the 1968 election. Prior to the 1972 election, he accepted an appointment to the Senate of Canada. He sat in the Senate until 1990, when he was appointed as lieutenant governor by the

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...

, on the advice of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Asselin was in office during the 1995 Quebec Referendum for sovereignty. In 1996, he was made an officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

. In 1992, he was given the right to use the honorific style of "

The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific Style (form of address), style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth ...

", which is granted for life and to very few eminent Canadians. On January 25, 2013, Asselin died at the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus de Québec in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

. He was 88 years old.

Coat of arms

References

*
Biography
at the official

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (officially in french: link=no, Assemblée nationale du Québec) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; french: link=no, déput ...

website *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Asselin, Martial 1924 births 2013 deaths Lieutenant Governors of Quebec Members of the 18th Canadian Ministry Members of the 21st Canadian Ministry Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada senators Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Canadian senators from Quebec Officers of the Order of Canada Mayors of places in Quebec Lawyers in Quebec Canadian King's Counsel People from Capitale-Nationale Université Laval alumni La Malbaie