William Bredin
William Fletcher Bredin | |
---|---|
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta | |
In office November 9, 1905 – March 22, 1909 | |
Preceded by | New district |
Succeeded by | Jean Côté |
Constituency | Athabasca |
Personal details | |
Born | 1862 Canada West |
Died | December 30, 1942 (aged 80) |
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse | Anna Brown Marsh |
Occupation | Farmer |
William Fletcher Bredin (1862 – 1942) was a Canadian pioneer businessman and politician. He intermittently farmed and operated businesses in the Canadian West and then served as MLA in the Alberta Legislature.
Born in
In 1882 he went north on the Whoop-up Trail to Calgary then north on the Calgary-Edmonton Trail to Edmonton, arriving shortly after his brother died. He took over the homestead and was joined by his father. He spent some time in Calgary working in a coal mine and settled at
In
He established the Buffalo Lakes
He eventually settled in the Peace River Country, where he opened a series of fur trading posts with James Cornwall and Alexander Monkman;[6] they sold these to the Revillon Frères in 1906.[7] By 1907 he claimed to have lived "all over the Northwest pretty well".[1]
He ran as candidate in the first election after Alberta became a province in 1905. He ran as a Liberal in Athabasca, He took the seat by acclamation. (He was the only MLA acclaimed in that election.)[8] In office, he advocated for a railway to be built into the northeast corner of the new province.[9] He also gave testimony to a select committee of the Senate of Canada in 1907 about agricultural conditions in northwest Canada, drawing on his experience living and travelling in the area, including his boat trip down the Athabasca of ten years before.[1] In his testimony, he estimated that the "good land north of Edmonton, east of the Rocky Mountains" amounted to at least 100,000,000 acres (40,000,000 ha).[10]
He married Anna Brown Marsh in
Bredin sought re-election in the 1909 election, but was defeated by fellow Liberal Jean Côté.[12] He sought to return to office in the 1913 election as an independent Liberal in Peace River. He finished a distant third of three candidates. (His candidacy likely awarded the seat to the Conservative as it likely split the Liberal vote and the Conservative got the seat although he did not receive a majority of the votes.)[13]
After leaving office, Bredin returned to farming and fur trading around Lesser Slave Lake. During the 1920s, he served as a director on the executive of the United Farmers of Alberta; in this capacity, he moved a successful resolution protesting a new pelt tax, as many northern farmers supplemented their incomes by trapping.[14]
William Bredin died on December 30, 1942, at the age of 80.[15]
Electoral record
1913 Alberta general election results (Peace River)[13] | Turnout 82.2% | |||
Conservative
|
Alphaeus Patterson | 475 | 49.53% | |
Liberal | William Archibald Rae | 437 | 45.57% | |
Independent Liberal | William Fletcher Bredin | 47 | 4.90% | |
1909 Alberta general election results (Athabasca)[12] | Turnout 62.3% | |||
Liberal | Jean Côté | 230 | 59.59% | |
Liberal | William Fletcher Bredin | 149 | 38.60% | |
Conservative
|
V. Maurice | 7 | 1.81% | |
1905 Alberta general election results (Athabasca)[16] | Turnout N/A | |||
Liberal | William Fletcher Bredin | Acclaimed |
References
- Davis, Thomas Osborne (1908). Canada's Fertile Northland: a glimpse of the enormous resources of part of the unexplored regions of the Dominion; evidence heard before a select committee of the Senate of Canada during the parliamentary session of 1906–07, and the report based thereon. Vol. 1. Government Printing Bureau. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- Rennie, Bradford (2000). The Rise of Agrarian Democracy: The United Farmers and Farm Women of Alberta, 1909–1921. ISBN 0-8020-8374-9.
- Thomas, Lewis Gwynne (1959). The Liberal Party in Alberta. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press.
Notes
- ^ a b c d Davis 95
- ^ Monto, Old Strathcona, Edmonton's Southside Roots, p. 40
- ^ Alberta Historical Review, Summer 1971
- ^ "Pioneer Profiles (B)". Southern Alberta Pioneers and Their Descendants. Archived from the original on 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ "Alberta History, 1882–1883". Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ Traux and Sheehan, People of the Pass, p. 1-3
- ^ "James Kennedy Cornwall Fonds". Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ Thomas 28
- ^ Thomas 64
- ^ Davis 98
- ^ "Report of marriages". Edmonton Daily. September 11, 1907. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ a b "Election results for Athabasca, 1909". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ a b "Election results for Athabasca, 1909". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ Rennie 75
- ^ "1942 Edmonton Journal obituaries". Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ^ "Election results for Athabasca, 1909". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-10-13.