Aristide Blais

Aristide Blais was born on October 18, 1875 in Berthier, Quebec to Narcisse Blais and Philomène Buteau.[1] He attended Laval University earning a Bachelor of Science and medical degree in 1899.[1][2] Blais did two years of post-graduate medical studies in Paris.[3] He married Antoinette Bolduc on April 9, 1903 and they had one daughter together. He later married Marie Moriarty and they also had one daughter together.[1] Early in his medical career, Blais partnered with French-Canadian physician and Senator Philippe Roy in practice.[3]

During the First World War Blais served as a captain in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, later promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and was appointed in charge of the No. 6 Casualty Clearing Hospital in Saint-Cloud, France.[1] During his time he also served with the 38th Battalion and the 11th Field Ambulance Corps.[3]

Blais was summoned to the Canadian Senate in 1940 by Prime Minister Mackenzie King. A Liberal, he represented the senatorial division of St. Albert, Alberta. Blais publicly noted his appointment to the Senate was a tribute to French Canadians in Alberta, and a fulfillment of former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier's promise upon Alberta entering Confederation in 1905, that French Canadians in the province would always have a Senate representative.[3]

Blais served until his death on November 10, 1964 at 89 years of age, at Shaughnessy military Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.[3]

• List of Alberta senators

• Aristide Blais – Parliament of Canada biography