Growing up in the Ottawa-Hull area, he served as a House of Commons page,[1] then went on to work as a journalist for the Montreal Gazette and several other newspapers.

Marcil ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Quebec Liberal Party in the 1897 provincial election before winning a seat in the federal parliament in 1900.

He worked hard to obtain projects for his community including the construction of bridges, lighthouses and the establishment of a ferry service.

He returned to the backbenches, and concurrently was elected to sit on Montreal's city council as an alderman in 1918 while remaining an MP.

Another notable relative was Charles Marcil's maternal uncle, Edward P. Doherty, an American Civil War officer who formed and led the detachment of soldiers that captured and killed John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of United States President Abraham Lincoln.