Roger Chiasson was born in New Waterford, Cape Breton Island, in 1943, to a family of modest but adequate means, which provided for a healthy and happy childhood. He has traced his roots to one of two Chiasson brothers who were married in Port Royal, the cradle of Acadia, in the 1660's. He is grateful for the fact that his branch of the family tree escaped the expulsion of the Acadians in the mid eighteenth century, and was part of the migration of Acadians from Prince Edward Island that founded Cheticamp in 1885.

His idyllic childhood in the beautiful Margaree valley ended in 1954 when his family moved to Quebec in pursuit of greener financial pastures for his teacher father. The move however exposed him to new opportunities that may not otherwise have presented themselves had he stayed in Cape Breton. He joined the Canadian Navy at the age of 16, and enjoyed a long career that took him to five Canadian provinces, England and Japan, where the selection process broke down and allowed a Cape Bretoner engineer to serve as a foreign diplomat, as the Canadian Forces Attaché. At least his roots qualified him to eat and drink for his country.

As the saying goes, you can take the boy out Cape Breton, but you can't take Cape Breton out of the boy!