Joseph-Aldric Ouimet

Who was Joseph-Aldric Ouimet?

Joseph-Aldric Ouimet, PC was a Canadian parliamentarian.

Ouimet was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in an 1873 by-election as Member of Parliament for Laval, Quebec. He was a Liberal-Conservative and supporter of the government of Sir John A. Macdonald.

After being educated in a seminary, and a brief career as a journalist, Ouimet became a lawyer. He was first elected to the House of Commons at the age of 25. His advocacy of the rights of French-Canadians was challenged by the Conservative government's attitude to Louis Riel. Following the First Riel Rebellion, Ouimet argued for Riel to be pardoned, and, in 1875, voted against a Conservative motion to expel Riel from the seat in the House of Commons to which he had been elected.

With the beginning of the Second Riel Rebellion in 1885, Minister of Militia Adolphe Caron asked Ouimet to raise a regiment from Montreal to join in the suppression of the uprising. Ouimet raised three hundred men, and led his regiment as its Lieutenant-Colonel. He was put under the command of Thomas Bland Strange who rejected Ouimet's proposal to negotiate safe passage for Riel.

Strange sent Ouimet to Ottawa to secure supplies resulting in newspapers accusing him of desertion. He returned west and was placed in command of Fort Edmonton.