Before becoming Senator, Dessaulles was President of the Bank of Ste Hyacinthe, and Mayor of Ste Hyacinthe, Quebec. His 100th birthday was marked as a historical moment in the Senate, because Dessaulles had became the second sitting senator to reach the age of 100 (the other being David Wark). At his death in 1930, Dessaulles was the oldest sitting politician in the world. To date, no one has beaten it.