François-Xavier-Ovide Méthot

Who was François-Xavier-Ovide Méthot?

François-Xavier-Ovide Méthot was a Quebec farmer and political figure. He presented Nicolet in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1871 to 1876 and in the Canadian House of Commons as an Independent Conservative member from 1877 to 1884.

He was born in Quebec City in 1843, the son of François-Xavier Méthot, and studied at the Séminaire de Québec. He married his cousin Clara, the daughter of Antoine-Prosper Méthot, in 1864. Méthot was a farmer at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets and served as mayor there from 1868 to 1872. In 1871, he was elected to the legislative assembly of the province in Nicolet as a Conservative; he was reelected in 1875 but his election was declared invalid by the Quebec Superior Court in June 1876. He did not run again in the subsequent by-election but was elected to the federal parliament in an 1877 by-election after the then-sitting member was named to the Legislative Council of Quebec. Méthot represented Nicolet until 1884, when he was named to the Legislative Council of Quebec in De La Vallière district. He remarried in 1885; his second wife was Marie-Clara-Louise-Ernestine Paradis. He died in office at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets in 1908.