Early Life
The second child of Carolus Laurier and Marcelle Martineau, Wilfrid Laurier was born in Saint-Lin, Canada East (today called Saint-Lin-Laurentides, Quebec) on 20 November 1841. Laurier was the 7th generation of his family in Canada. His ancestor François Cottineau, dit Champlaurier came to Canada from Saint-Claud, France. He grew up in a family where politics was a staple of talk and debate. His father, an educated man having liberal ideas, enjoyed a certain degree of prestige about town. In addition to being a farmer and surveyor, he also occupied such sought-after positions as mayor, justice of the peace, militia lieutenant and school board member. At the age of 11, Wilfrid left home to study in New Glasgow, a neighbouring village largely inhabited by immigrants from Scotland. Over the next two years, he had the opportunity of familiarizing himself with the mentality, language and culture of British people. Laurier attended the College of L'Assomption and graduated in law from McGill University.
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in the 1871 Quebec general election in Drummond-Arthabaska, but resigned on 19 January 1874 to enter federal politics. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1874 election, serving briefly in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie as Minister of Inland Revenue.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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