Narcisse Cantin created the French Canadian settlement of Johnson’s Mills

St. Joseph, Huron County, Ontario

St. Joseph is a community in Huron County, Ontario, Canada, in the municipality of Bluewater. It is on the shore of Lake Huron near Grand Bend. St. Joseph has houses, a few shops, and a gas station....

, now known as St. Joseph. He was known as "The Father of the St. Lawrence Seaway".

St. Joseph was one of the first "planned" communities in Canada, which Narcisse Cantin intended to be a hub of manufacturing, railroad connections (to Stratford

Stratford, Ontario

Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...

, Grand Bend, and Parkhill), shipping, and the mouth of a canal cutting across southern Ontario (over a very short distance, with only one lock) and connecting into the St. Lawrence Seaway. Cantin's plans for the canal system was approved by parliament, however the outbreak of the great war prevented any work from going ahead.

Cantin failed to obtain the rights to develop the St. Lawrence River’s hydro-electric power potential.

He died poor. In the end, the Cantin family had to fund-raise to pay for his funeral expenses.

Narcisse, the play

A dramatization of Narcisse Cantin's life has been written by Paul Ciufo, directed by Duncan McGregor and financed by the St. Joseph's Historical Society. The action is narrated by the character of Narcisse's son Napoleon Cantin ("Nap" for short), and tells the story of Narcisse's life and the beginnings of St. Josephs, after the French Settlement there.