Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (1807-1864) was a Canadian politician of French-speaking background who collaborated with Robert Baldwin in the achievement of "responsible government" and who laid the basis for the effective participation of French-Canadians in the government of the country.

Born on Oct. 4, 1807, at Boucherville in Quebec, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine was called to the bar in 1828 and, like so many other ambitious young French-Canadian lawyers, embarked on a political career. He served in the House of Assembly of Lower Canada from 1830 to 1837 as a member of the Popular, or Patriote, party, which expressed the grievances of the French-speaking majority against the English domination of the executive branch of government. He did not, however, approve of the revolutionary action taken by Louis-Joseph Papineau in 1837, and he prudently left Canada to live abroad for 5 months. On his return Lafontaine was briefly arrested as a person connected with the rebels, but he was...