Douglas Corney Breton (25 November 1883 – 11 February 1953) was an

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada farmer, soldier and a provincial politician. He served as a

United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it forme ...

member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

from 1926 to 1930.

Early life

Douglas Corney Breton was born 25 November 1883 at

Simon's Town Simon's Town (), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern s ...

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

to William Edwards Breton (18521914) an Inspector General of the

Royal British Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, and Alice Maud, the daughter of Jules Dudoit, French Consul to the Hawaiian Islands. Breton moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

at the age of 20 in 1904. He settled at Telfordville near Leduc and became a prominent farmer and merchant there. He also was appointed election returning officer and was involved in local government in the Strawberry district. He served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as a member of the British Expeditionary Force in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was captain of the Machine Gun Corps from 1914 to 1919. On 24 January 1920, Breton married Dorothy Blanche Frost, the daughter of Mark Edwin Prescott Frost . They came as a couple back to his farm in Alberta. Together they had two children.

Political career

Breton ran for a seat in the

1926 Alberta general election The 1926 Alberta general election was held on June 28, 1926, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Farmers of Alberta government that had first been elected in 1921 was re-elected, taking a majority of the seats in ...

as a United Farmers candidate in the electoral district of Leduc. In the three-way race, he and the Liberal candidate were close in votes, with the Conservative in distant third place. No candidate had majority of votes in the first round. Under the rules of

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where Sequential loser method, one or more eliminations are used to simulate Runoff (election), ...

, the election method in use at the time, the least-popular candidate, the Conservative candidate, was eliminated and his votes transferred according to the back-up preference marked thereon if any. The transfer gave Breton a majority of the votes, and he won the seat for his party. A year after being elected to office the name of the village of Keystone,

was changed to Breton in 1927 in his honor. Breton ran for a second term in office in the

1930 Alberta general election The 1930 Alberta general election was held on June 19, 1930, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Farmers of Alberta won election to a third term in government, and John E. Brownlee continued as premier. This pro ...

. He was defeated in a close two-way race, losing by just 60 votes to Liberal candidate Arthur Mitchell.

Later life

Breton moved to England in 1934, and died in

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

on 11 February 1953 at the age of 69.

References

External links

*
Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breton, Douglas United Farmers of Alberta MLAs British Army personnel of World War I Royal Hampshire Regiment officers People from Simon's Town 1883 births 1953 deaths Cape Colony emigrants Immigrants to Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta