Albert Prefontaine (original) (raw)
Albert Préfontaine (October 11, 1861 – February 21, 1935) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as leader of the Manitoba Conservatives in the late 1910s, and was subsequently a member of the United Farmers of Manitoba. Préfontaine was first elected to the provincial parliament in 1903, running for Rodmond Roblin's governing Conservatives in the francophone riding of Carillon. He was re-elected in 1907 and 1910. His son Edmond also served in the Manitoba assembly. The resort community of Albert Beach, Manitoba (French: "Plage Albert") was named after him.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| dbo:abstract | Albert Préfontaine (October 11, 1861 – February 21, 1935) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as leader of the Manitoba Conservatives in the late 1910s, and was subsequently a member of the United Farmers of Manitoba. Born in Upton, Canada East (now Quebec), the son of Firmin Prefontaine and Mathilde (Mathilda) Desautels, Préfontaine was educated in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He subsequently moved to Manitoba in 1880, where he worked as a farmer and store manager and served as Reeve of the Municipality of De Salaberry from 1892 to 1896. In 1888, he married Albina L'Heureux. Préfontaine was president of the Carillon Agricultural Society, of the Carey Elevator Company and of the St. Pierre Trading Company. Préfontaine was first elected to the provincial parliament in 1903, running for Rodmond Roblin's governing Conservatives in the francophone riding of Carillon. He was re-elected in 1907 and 1910. In 1914, Préfontaine lost his seat to Liberal Thomas Molloy by seven votes. He was re-elected the following year, despite the disastrous showing of the Conservatives in the rest of the province. His victory may be credited to the fact that the provincial Conservatives were seen as more supportive of francophone rights than were Tobias Norris's Liberals (indeed, Norris' government withdrew state funding for French-language education soon after the election). Conservative leader James Aikins lost his seat in the 1915 election, and Préfontaine was chosen to lead the small opposition caucus in parliament (he was sworn in as leader of the opposition in January 1916). He declined to be a candidate in the party's leadership convention, held on November 6, 1919. Although it had been in government from 1900 to 1915, the Conservative Party of Manitoba was marginalized by developments in the later half of the 1910s. Increasingly radicalized farmer and labour groups were forming political organizations of their own, and the old divisions between Grit and Tory no longer seemed as relevant. The Conservatives again fared poorly in the election of 1920, and Préfontaine was personally defeated by Farmer candidate Maurice Duprey. After this loss, Préfontaine detached himself from the Conservative Party. He ran as an Independent in the federal election of 1921, losing to Progressive candidate Arthur-Lucien Beaubien in the Provencher riding, and subsequently left the Conservatives to join the United Farmers of Manitoba. Running as a UFM candidate, he was re-elected for Carillon in 1922. On December 3, 1923, Premier John Bracken appointed Préfontaine to the high-level cabinet positions of Provincial Secretary, and . Préfontaine also became Minister of Agriculture in 1925. In the 1927 election, he defeated his old nemesis Thomas Molloy by a landslide. Préfontaine stood down as Provincial Secretary, Provincial Lands Commissioner and Minister of Agriculture in 1928, though he retained the Railway Commissioner's position until 1932. He was re-elected in that year's general election, and continued to serve the Franco-Manitoban community as a Minister without Portfolio until his death in 1935. Préfontaine's career reveals the continued importance of the francophone community to Manitoba politics, even after immigration from Ontario and Eastern Europe had significantly reduced their relative strength. His decision to join the UFM was indicative of a larger cultural change, as Franco-Manitobans became an important part of the Progressive Party of Manitoba during its long period in government. His son Edmond also served in the Manitoba assembly. The resort community of Albert Beach, Manitoba (French: "Plage Albert") was named after him. (en) |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 852682 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 6856 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1090319759 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:Canada_East dbr:Carillon dbr:Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Manitoba dbr:Progressive_Party_of_Canada dbr:Progressive_Party_of_Manitoba dbr:Quebec dbr:Rodmond_Roblin dbr:Thomas_B._Molloy dbr:Upton,_Quebec dbr:1915_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1920_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1921_Canadian_federal_election dbr:1922_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1927_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1932_Manitoba_general_election dbc:1861_births dbc:1935_deaths dbc:People_from_Eastman_Region,_Manitoba dbc:Progressive_Party_of_Manitoba_MLAs dbc:Franco-Manitoban_people dbc:Members_of_the_Executive_Council_of_Manitoba dbr:Tobias_Norris dbr:Leader_of_the_Opposition_(Manitoba) dbr:Edmond_Prefontaine dbr:Maurice_Duprey dbr:Provincial_Secretary dbr:Greenfield,_Massachusetts dbr:James_Albert_Manning_Aikins dbr:Provincial_Secretary_(Manitoba) dbr:Arthur-Lucien_Beaubien dbc:Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Manitoba_MLAs dbc:Leaders_of_the_Manitoba_Conservative_Party dbr:John_Bracken dbr:Manitoba dbr:Manitoba_Liberal_Party dbr:Provencher_(electoral_district) dbr:Minister_without_Portfolio dbr:Minister_of_Agriculture dbr:De_Salaberry,_Manitoba dbr:Provincial_Lands_Commissioner dbr:Railway_Commissioner |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Reflist dbt:Short_description dbt:Manitoba_PC_Leaders |
| dcterms:subject | dbc:1861_births dbc:1935_deaths dbc:People_from_Eastman_Region,_Manitoba dbc:Progressive_Party_of_Manitoba_MLAs dbc:Franco-Manitoban_people dbc:Members_of_the_Executive_Council_of_Manitoba dbc:Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Manitoba_MLAs dbc:Leaders_of_the_Manitoba_Conservative_Party |
| gold:hypernym | dbr:Politician |
| rdf:type | dbo:Person yago:WikicatLeadersOfTheManitobaConservativeParty yago:CausalAgent100007347 yago:Leader109623038 yago:LivingThing100004258 yago:Object100002684 yago:Organism100004475 yago:Person100007846 yago:PhysicalEntity100001930 yago:YagoLegalActor yago:YagoLegalActorGeo yago:Whole100003553 yago:WikicatFranco-ManitobanPeople |
| rdfs:comment | Albert Préfontaine (October 11, 1861 – February 21, 1935) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as leader of the Manitoba Conservatives in the late 1910s, and was subsequently a member of the United Farmers of Manitoba. Préfontaine was first elected to the provincial parliament in 1903, running for Rodmond Roblin's governing Conservatives in the francophone riding of Carillon. He was re-elected in 1907 and 1910. His son Edmond also served in the Manitoba assembly. The resort community of Albert Beach, Manitoba (French: "Plage Albert") was named after him. (en) |
| rdfs:label | Albert Prefontaine (en) |
| owl:sameAs | freebase:Albert Prefontaine yago-res:Albert Prefontaine wikidata:Albert Prefontaine https://global.dbpedia.org/id/4MgCF |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:Albert_Prefontaine?oldid=1090319759&ns=0 |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:Albert_Prefontaine |
| is dbo:father of | dbr:Edmond_Prefontaine |
| is dbo:predecessor of | dbr:Edmond_Prefontaine__Tenure__1 |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of | dbr:Albert_Préfontaine |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Manitoba dbr:Thomas_B._Molloy dbr:11th_Manitoba_Legislature dbr:12th_Manitoba_Legislature dbr:13th_Manitoba_Legislature dbr:1903_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1907_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1910_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1914_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1915_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1920_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1922_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1927_Manitoba_general_election dbr:1932_Manitoba_general_election dbr:15th_Manitoba_Legislature dbr:Leader_of_the_Opposition_(Manitoba) dbr:Minister_of_Agriculture_(Manitoba) dbr:Aimé_Bénard dbr:Edmond_Prefontaine dbr:Carillon_(electoral_district) dbr:Joseph_Prefontaine dbr:List_of_Manitoba_by-elections dbr:Maurice_Duprey dbr:Prefontaine dbr:John_Bracken dbr:Manitoba_Legislature dbr:Albert_Préfontaine |
| is dbp:after of | dbr:John_Bracken |
| is dbp:predecessor of | dbr:Edmond_Prefontaine |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:Albert_Prefontaine |