Joseph Alfred (Fred) Laberge (February 16, 1893 - March 27, 1964) was a

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politician, who served as mayor of

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...

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in 1920 and 1921. Laberge was the son of Jean-Baptiste Laberge, who founded the Laberge Lumber Company and constructed many of the earliest buildings in Sudbury."Laberge Lumber Company Founded 38 Years Ago, Has 52 on Payroll". ''

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'', May 8, 1936. p. 6. He later took over management of the company from his father. Elected mayor in 1920,Wallace, C. M.; & Thomson, Ashley (Eds.) (1993). ''Sudbury: Rail Town to Regional Capital'' (3rd ed.).

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. . Laberge was at 27 years old the youngest mayor ever elected in Sudbury at that point. He was also the first mayor to have been born in Sudbury, and the first francophone to hold the mayoralty since Francis Lemieux in 1903. His election marked at least a temporary end to linguistic tensions between the city's anglophone and francophone communities initiated by the

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, and ironically occurred just one year after the first municipal election in the city's history in which francophone candidates had failed to win a single seat on council. Following his term as mayor, Laberge ran for the

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nomination in Nipissing in the 1925 federal election, but was subjected to a

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attempt by Elzéar Cousineau, who wrote him an anonymous letter demanding a $2,000 payout."Threatening letter has court sequel: Alleged blackmail plot against J. A. Laberge stirs Sudbury". ''

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'', September 2, 1925. Laberge turned the letter over to the police, and on their advice left a dummy package in Cousineau's requested location, and Cousineau was arrested when he arrived to retrieve the package. Despite Cousineau's arrest, however, Laberge withdrew from the nomination race in favour of John Ferguson. Ferguson failed on election day to defeat incumbent MP

Edmond Lapierre Edmond Anthony Lapierre (25 January 1866 – 20 June 1960) was a Liberal party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was born in Montreal and became a sales representative. Lapierre attended St. Mary's Academy in Montreal. He worked ...

; Laberge was selected as the party's candidate in the subsequent 1926 election, but also lost to Lapierre. After his retirement from the lumber business, Laberge moved to

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, and died at his home in

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on March 27, 1964."Former Mayor Dies in Montreal". ''

'', March 28, 1964, p. 3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laberge, Alfred 1893 births 1964 deaths Franco-Ontarian people Mayors of Sudbury, Ontario Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) candidates for the Canadian House of Commons 20th-century mayors of places in Ontario