His older brother, Louis-Joseph Papineau, was a leader of the Patriote movement leading up to the Lower Canada Rebellion.

Another cousin, Denis-Benjamin Viger, was also involved in the Patriote movement, and later served as joint premier of the Province of Canada.

In 1822, he became a seigneur in his own right, buying the fief of Plaisance, located near Petit-Nation, but he was forced to sell part of it a few years later because of financial difficulties.

In 1821, the vicar general of the diocese of Montreal, Jean-Jacques Lartigue (another of Papineau's cousins), issued an order permitting the erection of a chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours.

[1][2] Papineau was not politically active as a young man, unlike his older brother and several cousins, who were involved in the Patriote movement and had been members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada leading up to the Rebellion.

[11][12] Metcalfe then appointed Viger as joint premier, along with a moderate Tory from Upper Canada, William Draper.

Governor General Metcalfe and Viger hoped that appointing Papineau would gain support from French-Canadians, given the political strength of his family.

Viger and Neilson were both defeated in their own ridings, and LaFontaine and his supporters won a strong majority of the seats from Canada East.

After the elections, Governor General Metcalfe kept the Viger–Draper ministry in office, supported primarily by Draper and the Tories, who had won a majority of the seats in Upper Canada.

His own brother, Louis-Joseph Papineau, had earlier been critical of anyone who took an appointment from the governor, saying: "One cannot accept a position as minister and remain an honourable man."

In the election of the new Speaker, he voted for Allan MacNab, a unilingual Family Compact Tory from Upper Canada.

Nor did Papineau appear to have a firm grasp of parliamentary procedure, contradicting one of his own government colleagues during the debate on the speech from the throne.

[1][17][18] He did win some support by introducing an address to Queen Victoria, requesting that the statutory restrictions on the use of French in the Assembly be lifted, but he also attracted further criticism for introducing legislation to reorganise the schools and municipalities, triggering opposition from the Catholic church and landowners.

Viger remained in office for another year, until June 1846, when he retired from politics, resigning his leadership position in the ministry.

There was considerable turnover in the membership of the Executive Council in the eighteen months after Viger's retirement (including the addition of a young John A. Macdonald in 1847).

Papineau resigned his seat in the Executive Council at that time, and did not stand for re-election in the general elections that followed.

[1][2] In 1858, his son, Denis-Émery Papineau, was elected to represent Ottawa County, the same seat his father had held.