Louis-Joseph Papineau, along with John Molson Jr., the son of John Molson, and Horatio Gates, served as the first Vice-Presidents of the Montreal Mechanics' Institute. He participated in the creation of the "Parti rouge". He was defeated in 1851 but elected in a by-election in 1852. He did not present himself again in the elections of 1854. He retired from public life and reappeared only once to hold a conference at the "Institut Canadien de Montréal" in December 1867. He died at his manor in Montebello, Quebec near the modern Château Montebello on September 23, 1871.