Martial Asselin

Born in La Malbaie, Quebec, the son of Ferdinand Asselin and Eugénie Tremblay, he was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1951. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1967. From 1957 to 1963, he was the Mayor of La Malbaie.

Asselin was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1958 election as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) in the Diefenbaker sweep. He represented the riding of Charlevoix.

Asselin was defeated in the 1962 election. Despite no longer having a seat, he was appointed to the position of Minister of Forestry in Diefenbaker's pre-1963 election Canadian cabinet, in the hope that he and the Tories would both win the upcoming election. He served for only a month until the defeat of the Conservatives and Asselin's failure to regain his seat.

He returned to the House of Commons in the 1965 election, and he was re-elected in the 1968 election.

Prior to the 1972 election, he accepted an appointment to the Senate of Canada. He sat in the Senate until 1990, when he was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec by the Governor General, on the advice of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Asselin was in office during the 1995 Quebec Referendum for sovereignty. In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

In 1992, he was given the right to use the honorific style of "The Right Honourable", which is granted for life and to very few eminent Canadians. On January 25, 2013, Asselin died at the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus de Québec in Quebec City. He was 88 years old.[3]

• "Table of titles to be used in Canada". Retrieved February 7, 2006.
• Biography at the official National Assembly of Quebec website (in French)
• "Canadian Who's Who 1997 entry". Retrieved February 7, 2006.

• Martial Asselin – Parliament of Canada biography