A portrait of a centenarian senator
On February 1, 1928, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King gathered in the Senate Chamber with his fellow parliamentarians for a rare birthday milestone.
Senator Georges-Casimir Dessaulles turned 100 years old, making him one of only two senators in Canada’s history to reach his centennial while still in office.
The parliamentarians unveiled a portrait of Senator Dessaulles in tribute to his very long life, which straddled Canada’s Confederation.
Lord, influential businessman and politician in his hometown of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Senator Dessaulles was also known as a humble man of few words.
“I haven’t done anything extraordinary in my life,” he said in his speech to the Senate Chamber during his 100thbirthday celebration. “I’ve always tried to do my utmost for the prosperity of the country and especially for the prosperity of the little town of Saint-Hyacinthe to which I belong.”
He lived to see 102; at his death he was believed to be the oldest parliamentarian in the western world.
Senator Dessaulles’s story may be a small part of Senate history, but it matters for one current member of the Red Chamber.
Quebec Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, appointed to the Senate in 2018, is Senator Dessaulles’s great-great-granddaughter.
“He is best known for his longevity,” said Senator Miville-Dechêne, a former journalist who has been researching her senatorial ancestry.
“We’re not at all alike, since I’m rather talkative and extroverted,” she added with a laugh. “I would have liked to know more about his political thinking, but my ancestor only made two speeches in the Senate in 23 years. He may have exerted a discreet influence, but I have no way of knowing.”
The life of a centenarian senator
Born before Confederation on September 29, 1827, Senator Dessaulles was a teenager when the British Parliament voted to unite Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, and he was the new mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe when Canada became a country in 1867. He also cofounded Saint-Hyacinthe’s first bank and owned more than one mill.
In 1897, he stepped in to run for the provincial Liberal Party after his riding’s candidate, who happened to be his son-in-law, died of pneumonia five days before the election (in French only). Mr. Dessaulles won the seat and resigned three years later, ending his career in provincial politics.
On March 12, 1907, he was called to the Senate at age 79 to represent the Quebec division of Rougemont. It was a time when senators could still serve past their platinum birthdays — if they managed to live that long. Senator Dessaulles served for 23 years until his death.
The portrait
Senator Dessaulles’s 100th birthday portrait remains in the Senate’s art and heritage collection in a temperature-controlled warehouse in Gatineau, Quebec.
Prolific Quebec artist Georges Delfosse — whose wide-ranging oeuvre includes more than 3,000 paintings, murals, engravings, drawings, large religious compositions and landscapes — painted the stark portrait of the reserved Senator Dessaulles standing next to a chair with a cane in hand.
In the fall of 2021, Ottawa-based studio Legris Conservation Inc. restored several portraits in the Senate’s collection, including those of King George III and Senator Dessaulles.
The conservation work included re-stretching the painting, flattening the deformations using a humidity treatment, and removing surface grime from the frame.
Senator Miville-Dechêne’s family tree
Senator Miville-Dechêne doesn’t lack for famous family. Senator Dessaulles’s uncle was Louis-Joseph Papineau, who led the 1837 rebellion in Lower Canada; his nephew was Henri Bourassa, another leading French-Canadian nationalist who founded the French-language newspaper Le Devoir.
But for Senator Miville-Dechêne, the most captivating figure in her family tree is her great-grandmother Henriette Dessaulles, who was Senator Dessaulles’s daughter.
Better known under her pseudonym Fadette, Henriette Dessaulles penned 1,700 letters in Le Devoir on women’s lives and their place in society at the time. She wrote these columns from 1911 until her death at the age of 86.
Henriette Dessaulles had kept a diary during her adolescence and early adulthood in a middle-class environment in Saint-Hyacinthe. In 1971, these journals were published as a book with a preface by the late historian Louise Dechêne, who was Senator Miville-Dechêne’s mother.
“I believe that the ability to write and express oneself is important in my family,” said Senator Miville-Dechêne. “Henriette Dessaulles was one of the first female journalists. She had great sensitivity and was a gifted writer. Unfortunately, influenced by her milieu, she opposed women’s suffrage.”
Today, Senator Miville-Dechêne displays copies of two portraits in her office — one of her journalist great-grandmother and the other of Senator Dessaulles — two significant figures in her family tree.
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A portrait of a centenarian senator
On February 1, 1928, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King gathered in the Senate Chamber with his fellow parliamentarians for a rare birthday milestone.
Senator Georges-Casimir Dessaulles turned 100 years old, making him one of only two senators in Canada’s history to reach his centennial while still in office.
The parliamentarians unveiled a portrait of Senator Dessaulles in tribute to his very long life, which straddled Canada’s Confederation.
Lord, influential businessman and politician in his hometown of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Senator Dessaulles was also known as a humble man of few words.
“I haven’t done anything extraordinary in my life,” he said in his speech to the Senate Chamber during his 100thbirthday celebration. “I’ve always tried to do my utmost for the prosperity of the country and especially for the prosperity of the little town of Saint-Hyacinthe to which I belong.”
He lived to see 102; at his death he was believed to be the oldest parliamentarian in the western world.
Senator Dessaulles’s story may be a small part of Senate history, but it matters for one current member of the Red Chamber.
Quebec Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, appointed to the Senate in 2018, is Senator Dessaulles’s great-great-granddaughter.
“He is best known for his longevity,” said Senator Miville-Dechêne, a former journalist who has been researching her senatorial ancestry.
“We’re not at all alike, since I’m rather talkative and extroverted,” she added with a laugh. “I would have liked to know more about his political thinking, but my ancestor only made two speeches in the Senate in 23 years. He may have exerted a discreet influence, but I have no way of knowing.”
The life of a centenarian senator
Born before Confederation on September 29, 1827, Senator Dessaulles was a teenager when the British Parliament voted to unite Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, and he was the new mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe when Canada became a country in 1867. He also cofounded Saint-Hyacinthe’s first bank and owned more than one mill.
In 1897, he stepped in to run for the provincial Liberal Party after his riding’s candidate, who happened to be his son-in-law, died of pneumonia five days before the election (in French only). Mr. Dessaulles won the seat and resigned three years later, ending his career in provincial politics.
On March 12, 1907, he was called to the Senate at age 79 to represent the Quebec division of Rougemont. It was a time when senators could still serve past their platinum birthdays — if they managed to live that long. Senator Dessaulles served for 23 years until his death.
The portrait
Senator Dessaulles’s 100th birthday portrait remains in the Senate’s art and heritage collection in a temperature-controlled warehouse in Gatineau, Quebec.
Prolific Quebec artist Georges Delfosse — whose wide-ranging oeuvre includes more than 3,000 paintings, murals, engravings, drawings, large religious compositions and landscapes — painted the stark portrait of the reserved Senator Dessaulles standing next to a chair with a cane in hand.
In the fall of 2021, Ottawa-based studio Legris Conservation Inc. restored several portraits in the Senate’s collection, including those of King George III and Senator Dessaulles.
The conservation work included re-stretching the painting, flattening the deformations using a humidity treatment, and removing surface grime from the frame.
Senator Miville-Dechêne’s family tree
Senator Miville-Dechêne doesn’t lack for famous family. Senator Dessaulles’s uncle was Louis-Joseph Papineau, who led the 1837 rebellion in Lower Canada; his nephew was Henri Bourassa, another leading French-Canadian nationalist who founded the French-language newspaper Le Devoir.
But for Senator Miville-Dechêne, the most captivating figure in her family tree is her great-grandmother Henriette Dessaulles, who was Senator Dessaulles’s daughter.
Better known under her pseudonym Fadette, Henriette Dessaulles penned 1,700 letters in Le Devoir on women’s lives and their place in society at the time. She wrote these columns from 1911 until her death at the age of 86.
Henriette Dessaulles had kept a diary during her adolescence and early adulthood in a middle-class environment in Saint-Hyacinthe. In 1971, these journals were published as a book with a preface by the late historian Louise Dechêne, who was Senator Miville-Dechêne’s mother.
“I believe that the ability to write and express oneself is important in my family,” said Senator Miville-Dechêne. “Henriette Dessaulles was one of the first female journalists. She had great sensitivity and was a gifted writer. Unfortunately, influenced by her milieu, she opposed women’s suffrage.”
Today, Senator Miville-Dechêne displays copies of two portraits in her office — one of her journalist great-grandmother and the other of Senator Dessaulles — two significant figures in her family tree.