Arthabaska, QC

Arthabaska has been amalgamated with Victoriaville, but it was inhabited as early as 1830 while Victoriaville was only named after Queen Victoria in 1861. More famously, Arthabaska is known to be the summer home of Sir Wilfred Laurier, the first Prime Minister of Canada who spoke French as a first language. He was in office from 1896 to 1911.

Before he became a Liberal prime minister, he was deeply influenced by his father and grandfather, both of whom were staunch Liberals. His father held several occupations from being a surveyor, a farmer, and a carpenter. When Laurier was married his father made him a large wooden chair that now sits in the dining room of the Italian home built in 1877.

Laurier loved Arthabaska. After graduating from McGill with a degree in law, he practiced law here until he realized nobody wanted to hire a young and inexperienced lawyer and closed the law practice that wasn’t making him enough money. He started earning real money once he entered politics, earning the handsome sum of $1000 a year. The house cost $3000, which he paid off in just two years with the help of some savings.

The cheapness that he likely inherited from the early years of his career showed through the design of the house. Ceiling cornices were only installed in rooms where guests were expected to be entertained and his office consisted of no more than a desk, a chair, and a bookcase. He was not in good health, so heating was installed in the house to warm up its 12-foot ceilings, a system that still works today.

In the living room is a painting by Suzor-Côté who also lived in Arthabaska. The painting titled La Bénédiction des érables depicted an annual tradition of a blessing of maple trees for plentiful maple syrup harvest. Back then, containers were placed on the ground to collect the sweet sticky stuff.

Laurier loved his office but hated dinner parties or entertaining guests. He would decline every invitation he could and preferred to host at his holiday home in Arthabaska. Intimate gatherings of six to 20 people were served with English scones and pastries accompanied by tea until 11pm. Official gatherings of up to 40 people began at 9:30pm and lasted until midnight.

After Laurier died without children, the house was passed on to his niece who then sold it to anglophone businessmen from Montreal in 1928. The buyers turned the house into a museum to honour the life of Laurier by gifting it to the Quebec government. Rooms were added in the 1930s and 40s to the rear of the house including a new dining room, kitchen and servants’ quarters upstairs.

The church just down the road from Musée Laurier was the centre of social life during his day. The town was mostly conservative so residents gossiped in hushed voices about Laurier and his family’s Liberal leanings. The Maison d’ecole du rang Cinq-Chicots built in 1903 is an example of a typical old secondary schoolhouse in Quebec. There were 5,000 such schools until the 1960s when they shuttered from a lack of electricity, running water, or space.

The Musée de l’Hôtel de Postes, a former post office dating back to the 1860s. The current building was constructed in 1911 and served as lodging for postal workers, a distinguishing feature of a hôtel de poste versus a bureau de poste. The building is now a postal museum and an art gallery where the artwork is for sale.