(8 April 1928-18 Dec. 2000), businessman. (Jean-Paul Touchette, Jean Paul Touchette, J. P. Touchette, commonly known as J. P.) Born at St-Polycarpe, Que. Parents: Ernest Joseph Touchette (d. 14 May 1964, aged 69), who was a CPR foreman, and his wife Agnes Carrière. When Jean-Paul Touchette was about six years old, the family moved to Mille Roches, Ont., west of Cornwall He attended primary school at Mille Roches, and Ottawa University 1941-1946 for his secondary and university training (receiving the degree of B. A.). He planned to enter the priesthood, and studied for this purpose with the Oblate Fathers at Orleans from 1946 to 1948, but later decided he did not have a vocation and returned to secular life. He then attended Cornwall Commercial College 1949-1950. In the period 1952-1974, with his brother Lionel (d. 15 Dec. 1988, aged 68), he operated seven IGA stores: in Mille Roches, Long Sault, Cornwall, Vankleek Hill, Lancaster and Alexandria.
Jean-Paul Touchette came to Alexandria in the early 1960s to operate the IGA store already in existence there. The store, expanded at this time, and by 1964 replaced completely with a larger store, was valued as providing Alexandria-area Glengarrians with a city-type supermarket. For the remainder of his life, he was a major force in the affairs of Alexandria. He plunged energetically into the business life of Alexandria, especially real estate. As he became more involved in real estate and other activities, he gave up the IGA to other hands. In 1968 he bought the church and rectory buildings at Green Valley, which were being replaced. In 1968, also, he and Lloyd McHugh were among the 4 Alexandria businessmen who bought Stanley Island in the St. Lawrence. In 1970, he and his business partner, Wally Hope, bought the plant and business of Ménard Construction, Green Valley. (Glengarry News 1 Feb. & 31 Oct. 1968, 30 July 1970) Touchette is quoted as saying, “I bought and sold anything.” He built about 125 houses in Alexandria, and at least one apartment building. In the 1980s, his development projects slumped, but he avoided bankruptcy, and he seems to have accepted his fall from millionaire status to mere affluence with admirable equanimity.
Deeply interested in politics, he was elected to the Alexandria town council in 1962 (Glengarry News 6 Dec. 1962), and then was mayor from 1969 to1973 and from 1979 to 1994. As mayor, he was actively involved in persuading businesses to come and settle in the town. He promoted and guided the development in Alexandria of the Glengarry Sports Palace, two housing subdivisions, low-income housing, and the Industrial Park. He stood as the Liberal candidate for GC in the provincial election of 21 Oct. 1971, but was defeated by Osie Villeneuve by a large margin. In 1984, when Denis Ethier (brother of Viateur Ethier) chose to retire from politics, Touchette strove to succeed him as the Liberal candidate for the GC seat, but the nomination went instead to Don Boudria, who became the next MP for the constituency. In the mayoral election of 1994, the veteran mayor Touchette was defeated by Grant Crack, who was a comparative newcomer to the town politics. (Glengarry News 16 Nov. 1994) In 1995, near the end of his life, Touchette was named to the Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunal.
Increasingly troubled with Alzheimer’s disease, he was hospitalized in the final stages of his life. He died at the Glengarry Memorial Hospital. Roman Catholic. He is buried at the Sacré-Coeur cemetery, Alexandria.
A small, cheerful, hyperactive man, whose very appearance with his bustling ways was itself an encouragement and a reproach to less energetic observers, he was for many years, with the possible exception of Osie Villeneuve, the best known resident of GC. During years in which clouds of gloom, thick and black, hung over the county which many then saw as destined to marginalization and decay (Eugene Macdonald’s harsh, probing editorials are the best record of the pessimism of this era), Touchette was an instructive reminder of the legendary energies with which the great contractors and so many others of the 19th-century Glengarrians had leaped upon the world.
He was married in 1951 at Cornwall, Ont., to Mary Leona Aubin (Leona Aubin) (d. 3 Feb. 2004, aged 72). (four children) The marriage ended in divorce, and in later years he was cared for by his fiancée Marlene Cholette.
He was a noted singer, perfoming as a soloist at funerals and weddings, and on other major occasions. He sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the painter Stuart McCormick.
Glengarry News 19 & 27 Dec. 2000, 7 Feb. 2001 * private information * interview articles with portraits, valuable biog. information, by Ronald Zajac, Brenda-Jane Kerr, resp., Vankleek Hill Review 9 Nov. 1994, GN 7 Dec. 1994 * obituaries of his father, brother Lionel, ex-wife Mary Leona Aubin, son Jacques, resp., GN 14 May 1964, 5 Jan. 1989, 24 March 2004, 11 Feb. 2009 * full page electoral advert., with various photos, Glengarry News 2 Dec. 1976 * tape recording of interview, 15 Aug. 1977, for Multicultural History Society of Ontario * many refs. in GN over many years * Rayside: index * IGA: GN 3 Nov. 1960, 21 Sept. 1961 (family move from Ingleside to his new house in Alexandria), 9 May,13 June & 31 Oct. 1963, 9 April 1964 * early housebuilding activities, Alexandria: GN 14 Nov. 1963, 9 Jan., 26 March, 20 Aug. 1964, 10 June & 2 Sept. 1965 * death (two obituaries) of GC businessman Ranald MacDonald, ex-Alexandria councillor, proprietor of the Auld Kirktown Craft and Gift Shoppe, South Lancaster, married to J. P. Touchette’s sister Madeleine, GN 26 April 2006