204 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     in 1893, one of the Senate seats for the Island became vacant. L’Impar- 
     
     tial immediately asked that it be filled by a francophone: 
     
    
   
   
    
     We still only have one Acadian in the Senate for all the Maritime Provinces, 
     
     and it would seem reasonable that, given our numbers in Prince Edward Island, 
     
     New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the government acknowledge that we merit 
     
     a second senator. We have amongst us the Honourable J.O. Arsenault and the 
     
     Honourable S.F. Perry, both eminently qualified for the position from every 
     
     aspect. (TR)’° 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Acadians missed out on the vacant seat this time. But when 
     
     Senator George W. Howlan was named Lieutenant-Governor of Prince 
     
     Edward Island the following year (1894), L’Impartial took up the cause 
     
     once again. The paper asked Acadians to unite in order to demand a 
     
     seat in the Senate. The campaign was successful. In February 1895, 
     
     Joseph-Octave Arsenault, after twenty-eight years in the provincial 
     
     Legislative Assembly, was appointed to the Upper Chamber of the 
     
     country. English as well as French newspapers were pleased with the 
     
     choice. According to The Charlottetown Herald, no other appointment 
     
     in the province to such an honourable post had ever been more 
     
     deserved’’. Not to be outdone, The Summerside Journal stated that this 
     
     felicitous nomination crowned an irreproachable and honourable 
     
     political career’. 
     
    

    
     J.-O. Arsenault’s career as a senator was of short duration. He 
     
     died in 1897 at the age of sixty-nine. Thus ended the very brief 
     
     Acadian participation in the Canadian Senate. Since then, despite 
     
     numerous requests, the Acadians have never succeeded in obtaining 
     
     one of the four senatorial seats reserved for the Island. In 1925, they 
     
     mounted an impressive campaign to get an Acadian appointed to one 
     
     of the two vacant seats representing the Island. Requests, resolutions 
     
     and personal letters were sent to the Prime Minister by the Acadians 
     
     of Prince Edward Island with the support of French-Canadian societies, 
     
     newspapers and Members of Parliament. Finally, a small delegation 
     
     of Acadians went to Ottawa to present a request directly to the Prime 
     
     Minister. Once again they were disappointed, even frustrated; neither 
     
     of the two seats was given to an Acadian”. 
     
    

    
     Since Stanislas F Perry’s death in 1898 there has never been an 
     
     Acadian from the Island elected to the House of Commons. The 
     
     proportionately small number of Acadians in the federal ridings does