Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau (9 November, 1840 – 13 June, 1898), born in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, was a French-Canadian lawyer and politician.

As a lawyer, he defended Ambroise-Dydime Lépine against the charge of murdering Thomas Scott during the Red River Rebellion of 1869 – 1870.

He served as Conservative Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec, federal Cabinet minister, and Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.

After the 1878 Quebec election, he was the Leader of the Opposition. He became premier in 1879 after the fall of the minority government of Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. He won the 1881 election, but resigned on July 29, 1882 to seek election to the federal House of Commons. He won a by-election held on August 16, 1881.

He served as cabinet minister under prime ministers John A. Macdonald and John Abbott, but declined to serve under John Thompson. He resigned in 1892, and was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Quebec from December 1892 until January 1898. He died in June of that same year.

Elections as party leader

He won the 1881 election.

See also

• Politics of Quebec
• List of Quebec general elections
• Timeline of Quebec history

External links

• National Assembly biography (in French)
• Biography at the Canadian Dictionary of Biography Online

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Auguste-Réal Angers | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
1892–1898 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Louis-Amable Jetté