Career
Born in Wedgeport, Nova Scotia to an Acadian family, Cottreau was variously a professor at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, owner of an automobile dealership, Baker Motors, for fifteen years, a school principal, and a senator and served as president of the province"s Liberal association in 1955. He was named to the Canadian Senate in 1974 by Pierre Trudeau and retired upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 1989. He died at the age of 90 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.