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Labelle, Captain Jean Baptiste, Montreal, M.P. for the county of Richelieu, was born at Sorel, province of Quebec, on 27th May, 1836. He is descended on the paternal side from a very old French-Canadian family, the first of whom came from France as a soldier, and after getting his discharge settled in the country. On the maternal side the family also came from France, and has been many years in the country. His father, Toussaint Labelle, was a navigator, and his mother was named Marguerite Genton Dauphine. Captain Labelle received his education in the parish school at Sorel; and as he grew up took to sailing craft on the St. Lawrence river. He soon became an expert navigator, and for over twenty-five years commanded one of the finest of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company’s passenger steamers, sailing between Montreal and Quebec. In 1880 Captain Labelle gave up sailing, and received the appointment of passenger agent at Montreal, of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway Company; and in 1883 he was made general manager of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, which position he still holds. In 1868, at the general election then held, Mr. Labelle presented himself as a candidate for the Quebec Legislature for Richelieu county, but was defeated by the small majority of nine against him. At the general election held in 1887, he again presented himself to the same constituency, and was returned as a member of the House of Commons at Ottawa. As a commander, Mr. Labelle was one of the most popular who ever sailed the St. Lawrence. He was noted for his courtesy and forbearance; his ability, and his coolness and intrepidity, which he exhibited on several occasions, especially during the inundation of the Island of Sorel in 1865, and on the occasion of the burning of the steamer Montreal, in 1857. In politics, Captain Labelle is a Conservative; and in religion, a member of the Roman Catholic church. In 1856, he was married to Delphine Crébassa, daughter of Narcisse Crébassa, notary, of Sorel, a remote descendant of a Spanish family that at first emigrated to Holland, and from thence came and settled in Canada.