Chabot served twice as Chief Commissioner of Public Works with a seat in the Executive Council.

He had a reputation as an alcoholic and at one point had to resign from the Executive Council due to an arrest for public drunkenness.

He studied at the Petit Séminaire de Québec from 1820 to 1828, then articled in law with Elzéar Bédard, a prominent lawyer in Quebec.

He was a supporter of Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine, the leader of the French-Canadian Group, who was campaigning for the introduction of responsible government.

Nonetheless, in the run-up to the general elections in 1848, he gave a trenchant critique in the Assembly of the ineffective policies of the government.

Chabot was appointed in part due to lobbying by his cousin, Charles-Félix Cazeau, an official at the Diocese of Quebec.

However, LaFontaine and Baldwin were also cautioned by two of their supporters, Lewis Thomas Drummond and Joseph-Édouard Cauchon, that Chabot did not have the qualities necessary for the position, in particular because he had a reputation as a drunkard.

As was required by the election law at that time, Chabot had to stand for re-election in his seat in the Assembly upon taking an office of profit under the Crown.

In March 1850, when Parliament was sitting in Toronto, Chabot was arrested for public drunkenness and spent a night in jail.

In the debate on the speech from the throne in the first session after the 1851 elections, Chabot indicated his continued support for the Reform coalition, now headed by Augustin-Norbert Morin and Francis Hincks, with the French-Canadian Group now being referred to as the Ministerialist group, indicating their support for the Morin-Hincks ministry.

Chabot's interests were largely related to infrastructure: better roads, an intercolonial railway linking Quebec City to Halifax, and abolition of seigneurial system of land-holding.

[1] Chabot was not initially included in the ministry, but in September 1852, the incumbent Chief Commissioner of Public Works resigned.

Chabot was dropped from the Executive Council and lost his position as Chief Commissioner of Public Works, but was continued as a government representative on the Grand Trunk.

He also was involved in inquiries in the Assembly to build steam ferries to cross the St. Lawrence River at Quebec in the winter, rather than relying on ice bridges.