Premier of Canada since 1896, and the first French-Canadian to attain that honour, born in St. Lin; bred for the bar, soon rose to the top of his profession; elected in 1871 as a Liberal to the Quebec Provincial Assembly, where he came at once to the front, and elected in 1874 to the Federal Assembly, he became distinguished as "the silver-tongued Laurier," and as the Liberal leader; his personality is as winning as his eloquence, and he stood first among all the Colonial representatives at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897; b . 1841.