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Edmond Prefontaine
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Farmer, MLA (1935-1936), MLA (1936-1940), MLA (1941-1945), MLA (1945-1949), MLA (1949-1953), MLA (1953-1957), MLA (1958-1959), MLA (1959-1962).
Born in Manitoba on 18 July 1898, son of Albert Prefontaine and Albina L’Heureux (1868-1908), he graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1918. He served as President of the Winnipeg and District Milk Producers Cooperative Association. In a 1935 by-election, he was elected MLA for the Carillon riding, replacing his father who had been Minister of Agriculture under John Bracken and had served as an MLA for 30 years. He was re-elected in 1936, 1941, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1958, and 1959.
Prefontaine was Minister of Municipal Affairs from 1951 to 1958 and Provincial Secretary from 1956 to 1958. He was the major critic in the House of the Roblin government’s plans to build the Winnipeg Floodway. He left politics in 1962 and lived in retirement in Quebec. He and wife Lucienne Sicotte (1901-1987) had six children: J. Rene Prefontaine, Gilbert Prefontaine, Marcel Prefontaine, Albert Prefontaine, Jacqueline Prefontaine (wife of Raymond Roy), and Alice Prefontaine (wife of Paul Regnier). In 1970, in recognition of his community service, he received a Manitoba Centennial Medal from the Manitoba Historical Society and was inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great (1963).
He died at Quebec City on 9 October 1971 and was buried there.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Under The Golden Boy, Manitoba’s M.L.A.s,” Winnipeg Tribune, 15 March 1943. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B9, page 126]
“Ex-cabinet minister dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 11 October 1971, page 6.
“Edmond Prefontaine,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 October 1971, page 25.
Obituary [Lucienne Prefontaine], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 July 1987, page 18.
Members of the Legislative Assembly (deceased), Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Oliver Bernuetz for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 16 September 2020
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