Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel

Louis-Joseph Papineau in 1840, Quesnell's sometime leader, sometime opponent

From 1820 to 1834, Quesnel represented Kent County (re-named Chambly in 1829), in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, gaining a reputation as an elegant speaker. In his early years in the Assembly, he was a member of the Parti canadien, which agitated for greater self-government in Lower Canada and a reduction in the powers of the governors, who were appointed by the British government. He supported Louis-Joseph Papineau and Denis-Benjamin Viger, who were the leaders of the Parti canadien. In 1822, he signed a petition against the proposed union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, which the British government was considering. He also spoke at the farewell dinner for Papineau and John Neilson, before they left for Britain on a successful mission to oppose the union.[2]

Although Quesnel initially supported the Parti canadien, he held moderate political views, which made his position increasingly difficult as the party became more radical in its nationalism and began to be known as the Parti patriote. After several stands against Papineau and his supporters, the final break for Quesnel came over the Ninety-Two Resolutions, which the Legislative Assembly adopted in 1834, calling for significant constitutional changes in the government of Lower Canada. Quesnel was one of the few French-Canadian members of the Assembly to vote against the Resolutions. He supported Neilson's attempt to introduce more moderate resolutions, but both men were condemned at a public meeting at Saint-Athanase-d’Iberville. For his rejection of the Resolutions and break with Papineau, he was called a "chouayen", or "turncoat". In the general elections of 1834, both of them lost their seats to supporters of Papineau. Quesnel was defeated by Louis Lacoste, a more ardent nationalist and member of the Parti patriote.[2][5][6]

As the political situation in Lower Canada worsened by 1837, Quesnel, Clément-Charles Sabrevois de Bleury, and George Moffatt arranged a public meeting at Montreal in support of the government. Two months later the Governor, Lord Gosford, appointed him to the Executive Council of Lower Canada. When the Lower Canada Rebellion broke out in late 1837, the Patriotes condemned Quesnel as a vendu ("sell-out"). His brother, Joseph-Timoléon, was forced to flee L'Acadie and to give up his magistrate’s commission.

Following the rebellion in Lower Canada, and the similar rebellion in 1837 in Upper Canada (now Ontario), the British government decided to merge the two provinces into a single province, as recommended by Lord Durham in the Durham Report. The Union Act, 1840, passed by the British Parliament, abolished the two provinces and their separate parliaments, and created the Province of Canada, with a single parliament for the entire province, composed of an elected Legislative Assembly and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor General retained a strong position in the government.[7][8][9]

As in 1822, Quesnel continued to oppose the union of the two Canadas. In March 1840, he was the head of a delegation of three hundred to the Governor General, Charles Poulett Thomson, later Lord Sydenham. As head of the delegation, Quesnel presented a petition to the Governor, with 6,370 signatures, opposing the union of Upper and Lower Canada.[2]

When the Canadas were united the following year, he was elected unopposed to the new Legislative Assembly for the Montmorency riding.[10][11] Lord Sydenham concluded that Quesnel was one of the members who would likely vote against Sydenham's government. This prediction was borne out in the first session of the new Parliament: Quesnel voted against a motion approving the union, and was a consistent vote against the governor. He was a member of the French-Canadian group, which supported Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin in their efforts to attain responsible government.[12]

The ministerial crisis of 1843 affected Quesnel's position. The dispute was over the implementation of responsible government. The Governor General, Sir Charles Metcalfe, asserted that he could appoint government officials without consulting the Executive Council, whose members were generally elected. The Reform ministry of LaFontaine and Baldwin resigned. Metcalfe was able to create a rump ministry composed of Henry Draper from Upper Canada, and Denis-Benjamin Viger and Dominick Daly from Lower Canada, but Metcalfe was seeking further support. There was concern in the Reform and French-Canadian groups that Quesnel might re-join his old colleague, Viger, in a Tory government. Although that did not occur, Quesnel was defeated in the 1844 elections by Joseph Cauchon, thought to be a more reliable reformer.[2]

Four years later, in 1848, Quesnel was appointed to the Legislative Council. The general respect in which he was held is shown that he had originally been offered the seat by Draper, then the Tory premier, but was actually appointed on the advice of the Reformers, Lafontaine and Baldwin, after a change in government. He held the seat until his death in 1866.[2]

While in the Legislative Council, Quesnel supported the 1849 Rebellion Losses Bill. The passage of the bill and grant of royal assent by the Governor General was the clear mark that responsible government had been achieved, although at the cost of the Montreal riot and burning of the Parliament Building. He also opposed annexation by the United States, which was proposed by some in the Montreal business community when Britain ended imperial tariff protection. He was convinced that French-Canadians would do better under British government than under American rule. He was also influential in ensuring that compensation for seigneurs was built into legislation to abolish seigneurial tenure.[2]

Quesnel was elected president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal in 1860.[1][2]