Louis-Joseph Riopel was a lawyer, notary

Civil law notary

Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...

 and political figure in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. He represented Bonaventure

Bonaventure (provincial electoral district)

Bonaventure is a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of Quebec that elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. It was originally created in 1829.-Geography:...

 in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec

Legislative Assembly of Quebec

The Legislative Assembly of Quebec was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature until 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, the upper house of the legislature, the Legislative Council, was abolished...

 from 1881 to 1882 and Bonaventure

Bonaventure (electoral district)

Bonaventure was a federal electoral district in the province of Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1997...

 in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 from 1882 to 1891 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member.

He was born in St-Jacques-L'Achigan

Saint-Jacques, Quebec

Saint-Jacques is a municipality in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, part of the Montcalm Regional County Municipality.-Demographics:Population:* Population in 2006: 3706 * Population in 2001: 3692...

, Canada East

Canada East

Canada East was the eastern portion of the United Province of Canada. It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day Canadian Province of Quebec, and was primarily a French-speaking region....

, the son of Louis Riopel and Julie Mercure. Riopel was educated at the Collège de l'Assomption, then articled as a notary with Louis Archambeault

Louis Archambeault

Louis Archambeault was a Quebec notary and political figure. He was a Liberal-Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons representing L'Assomption from 1867 to 1874....

, was qualified to practice in 1865 and set up practice in New Carlisle

New Carlisle, Quebec

New Carlisle, Quebec is a small town in the Gaspé region of Quebec, best known as the boyhood home of René Lévesque; although he was born at Campbellton, New Brunswick. The population is approximately 1430, half English-speaking and half French-speaking...

. In 1875, he married Marie Louise Justine Robitaille, the daughter of a notary. Riopel served as Superintendent of Colonization and Public Works for Bonaventure County from 1869 to 1873 and then crown lands agent from 1873 to 1880. He went on to study law at the Université Laval

Université Laval

Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...

and was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1880. Riopel resigned his seat in the Quebec assembly in 1882 to run for a seat in the House of Commons. He retired from politics in 1891. Riopel was a director of the North West Central Railway and one of the promoters of the Baie-des-Chaleurs Railway. He died in New Carlisle at the age of 73.