Background
George Étienne Cartier was born on September 6, 1814 in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (then known as Lower Canada).
George Étienne Cartier was born on September 6, 1814 in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (then known as Lower Canada).
He was educated in Montreal for the law, but soon entered politics and became a leader of the French Canadian movement of 1837 to set up a French republic.
When the rebellion collapsed he fled to Burlington, Vt. , but in 1838 returned to Montreal, achieved success as a lawyer, became attorney general of Lower Canada in 1856, and co-premier in 1858. He represented Montreal in successive parliaments from 1861 until 1872, and was active in organizing Canada as a dominion. It was largely owing to his influence and his assurances to his fellow French Canadians that their special civil laws and religious and language rights would be protected under the new federal constitution, that the majority of them accepted the union of the provinces in 1867. After Confederation Cartier continued to be a major figure in the ruling Liberal-Conservative Party. He served as minister of militia and on occasion as acting prime minister but his chief contribution was to retain the vital support of the French Canadians for the national policies of the Macdonald government. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1868 and died in London on May 20, 1873.
He became a leading member of the federal government headed by Sir John A. Macdonald.
George-Étienne Cartier married Hortense Fabre, daughter of Édouard-Raymond Fabre, former Mayor of Montreal, on June 16, 1846. The couple had three children, all girls, one of whom died in infancy, and one in 1886.
