Joseph Léon Vital Mallette (16 September 1888 – 17 April 1939) was a Liberal party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 member of 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...

. He was born in Pointe-Claire, 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....

 and became a miller and secretary-treasurer.

Mallette was mayor of Pointe-Claire, 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....

 from 1923 to 1927, after terms as a community alderman from 1915 to 1917 and from 1922 to 1923.

He was elected to Parliament at the Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier (electoral district)

Jacques Cartier was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1953.It was created by the British North America Act of 1867...

 riding in the 1935 general election

Canadian federal election, 1935

The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party.The central...

. In 1937, Mallette spoke in the House of Commons of the representative politics that followed the Lower Canada Rebellion

Lower Canada Rebellion

The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...

 a century earlier, in which his grandfather was a Patriote

Patriote movement

The Patriote movement was a political movement that existed in Lower Canada from the turning of the 19th century to the Patriote Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 and the subsequent Act of Union of 1840. It was politically embodied by the Parti patriote at the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada...

. His speech carried an implied charge that Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

 had ignored the centennial of the rebellion.

Before he was able to complete his first term, the 18th Canadian Parliament

18th Canadian Parliament

The 18th Canadian Parliament was in session from February 6, 1936 until January 25, 1940. The membership was set by the 1935 federal election on October 14, 1935, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1940 election.It was controlled...

, Mallette died on 17 April 1939 after he collapsed while crossing a Montreal street.

External links