Jean-Baptiste Romuald Fiset

Who was Jean-Baptiste Romuald Fiset?

Jean-Baptiste Romuald Fiset was a Canadian physician and parliamentarian.

Born in St-Cuthbert, Canada East, the son of Henri Fiset, he was educated at the Collège de Montréal and the Université Laval. Fiset practised medicine at Rimouski. He also served on the town council and was mayor of Rimouski. In 1869, he married Aimée Plamondon.

Fiset was elected five times as the Liberal Member of Parliament representing the Quebec electoral district of Rimouski in the Canadian House of Commons. He was first elected in the Canadian federal election of 1872, and was re-elected in 1874 and 1878. Although he was defeated in 1882, he regained his seat in 1887. This pattern repeated when he lost once again in 1891, but regained his seat a final time in 1896.

A notable moment in his career in the house took place on 30 March 1874 when Fiset guided a hooded Louis Riel into the parliament buildings so that he might sign the parliamentary registry and thereby become an official Member of Parliament. Despite having been elected to parliament as the member for Provencher, Riel at that time was a fugitive because of his role in execution of Thomas Scott during the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870.