J. F. Olivar Asselin

J. F. Olivar Asselin was born at St. Hilarion, in Charlevoix county, P. Q., November 8, 1874, a son of Rieule and Cedulie (Tremblay) Asselin, the latter of whom is still living. He emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1892, and in Fall River, Massachusetts, J. F. Olivar Asselin was for two years employed in the cotton mills.

Taking up journalism, he was at first connected with small French weekly publications. He afterward became editor of La Tribune, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island, daily, in which capacity he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of the Hon. Mr. A. J. Pothier, then lieutenant governor, and now governor of Rhode Island. While practicing his profession in Woonsocket, Mr. Asselin was principal of an evening public school in that city in 1897 and 1898.

He was the first man to enlist in the First Rhode Island Volunteers, at the breaking out of the Spanish-American War.

Returning to Canada in 1900, he was successively connected with the Montreal Herald, La Patrie, Le Journal, La Presse, La Nationaliste and Le Devoir, with a two years intermission—1901-1903—during which he was private secretary to the Hon., now Sir Lomer Gouin, then minister of colonization and public works of the province of Quebec. In 1902 he organized the Nationalist league, being for several years president of the Montreal branch. This indicates his deep interest in political problems and to disseminate the principles in which he believed, he founded La Nationaliste as the organ of the party, and for a time was editor of that publication.

He has written much upon various subjects, his publications including a series of political brochures with the title, Feuilles de Combat. He is also the author of “A Quebec View of Canadian Nationalism, an Essay by a Dyed-in-the-Wool French-Canadian,” which was published in 1910.

He has been in business for four years as manager of the Credit Metropolitain, one of the well known real-estate and financial firms of Montreal.

In 1912, he was appointed by the federal government, a special commissioner to French and Belgium, to study the question of emigration from those countries to Canada. Mr. Asselin has made a special study of municipal questions, and is well known as a member of the National Municipal league, as well as a contributor to the Municipal Journal. Mr. Asselin stood twice as a candidate for parliamentary honors, without success, a result which, in one case at least, was said to be due to his caustic spirit. In 1913 he was elected general president of the great St. Jean Baptiste Society, the national society of the French.

In 1903 Mr. Asselin wedded Mlle. Alice Le Bouthillier of Montreal.