He was born in the parish of Notre-Dame de Québec, October 18, 1854, son of John Kaine and Ellen McGowan.

He represented the Lake Champlain Transportation Co., and Burleigh and Weeks, a wood-pulp import company in Whitehall, New York.

John Charles Kaine was President of the St. Patrick's Literary Institute in Quebec; he published The Irish Man in Canada (1907).

John Charles Kaine died in office in Quebec, on April 1, 1923, at the age of 68 years and six months.

He was buried in St. Patrick's Church cemetery, in Sillery (part of modern-day Quebec City), on April 4, 1923.