Jean-Charles Chapais served as Canada’s first minister of agriculture from 1867 to 1869. He was also a farmer, fishery owner and conservative politician from Rivière-Ouelle, Que.
As ag minister in Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald’s government, Chapais’s responsibilities included monitoring the import and export of animals, the census, and patent administration and trademarks.
His first documented action as ag minister was to ban imports of horned cattle from the United States because of the threat of Texas Fever, a disease transmitted by ticks.