Ouimet was first elected to the
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. Despite fighting against the rebels, Ouimet opposed the execution of Riel when he returned to Ottawa. Ouimet's pleas fell on deaf ears, and, despite his efforts, he was condemned by French Canadians for having helped put down the rebellion. Ouimet voted in the House of Commons for a
Liberal motion to
censure the government for executing Riel. The execution of Riel seriously damaged the Conservative Party in
Quebec, and was one of the key factors in the party's decline and eventual loss of power. In an attempt at conciliation,
Prime Minister Macdonald nominated Ouimet for the position of
speaker of the House of Commons following the
1887 election. Because of the custom of alternating between English and French Speakers following each general election, Ouimet returned to the
backbench following the
1891 election. Macdonald died in June 1891, and his longtime
Quebec lieutenant, Sir
Hector Langevin, was forced to resign from
Cabinet due to a corruption scandal in August. In January 1892, Prime Minister Sir
John Abbott made Ouimet the senior minister from Quebec, and appointed him to Langevin's old job as
Minister of Public Works. Ouimet stayed in that position under the succession of
Prime Ministers who attempted to keep the Conservative government together. He also served as Acting
Minister of Agriculture and Acting
Secretary of State for Canada under Sir
Mackenzie Bowell. Bowell faced a
caucus revolt over his handling of the
Manitoba Schools Question and was forced to resign. The issue split the party as English Protestant Conservatives rejected Bowell's proposal to create a new Catholic School Board in
Manitoba. With the fall of Bowell's cabinet, the opposition of Tory MPs to French Catholic rights in Manitoba further hurt the party's prospects among
Catholic Quebecers. Perhaps sensing that the Conservative government was doomed and that his prospects of keeping his seat were dim as Quebecers turned against the Tories, Ouimet decided not to run in the
1896 election. He declined to serve in the short-lived Cabinet of the Sir
Charles Tupper, the final Tory prime minister prior to the election. He instead accepted a judicial appointment that he held until his death in 1916. == Legacy ==