Peter John Veniot, (October 4, 1863 – July 6, 1936) was a businessman and newspaper owner and a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic Canad ...

, Canada. He was the first

Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the ...

premier of New Brunswick The premier of New Brunswick (French (masculine): ''premier ministre du Nouveau-Brunswick'', or feminine: ''première ministre du Nouveau-Brunswick'') is the first minister and head of government for the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The ...

Early life and career

He was born in

Richibucto, New Brunswick Richibucto is a town in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada. Geography The town is situated on the Richibucto River where it discharges into the Northumberland Strait. History Richibucto had been the location of an annual Mi'kmaq summer ...

but later moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia with his family. Veniot worked as a journalist and typographer for the ''Pictou Standard'' and then the '' Moncton Transcript''. He then moved to Bathurst, where he became editor and later owner of '' Le Courrier des Provinces Maritimes''.

Political career

Veniot was first elected to the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an ...

in 1894, but left politics in 1900 for a customs job. In 1912, he was hired to reorganize the Liberal Party of New Brunswick, and became a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) again in 1917. He served in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

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Walter Foster as Minister of Public Works. As Minister, Veniot was responsible for the creation of the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission and the modernization of the province's highway system. Veniot became Premier in 1923 following Foster's resignation. He was a supporter of the

Maritime Rights Movement The Maritime Rights Movement arose in the 1920s in response to perceived unfair economic policies in Canada that were affecting the economies of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. At a time of rural protest in ...

or Duncan Commission, which advocated more power for the

Maritime provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

Canadian confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominion ...

. His government was defeated in the 1925 provincial election. Veniot resigned as provincial Liberal leader in 1926 in order to enter federal politics in the 1926 federal election. He served as

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in the

William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...

. In cabinet, Veniot advocated implementation of the Duncan Commission recommendations on alleviating Maritime alienation. Recommendations of freight-rate reductions and subsidy increases were implemented, but suggestions for subsidies based on fiscal need and transportation use to encourage regional development were ignored.

Death

Veniot remained a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

until his death at his home in Bathurst in 1936.

Personal life

Married in 1885 to Catherine Melanson,L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia
/ref> their son

Clarence Joseph Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a loca ...

was elected in the federal riding of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...

after his death. He and his wife are interred in Bathurst, in the cemetery adjacent to the offices of the newspaper that made his fortune.

Electoral record

References

*
Government of New Brunswick biography
(pdf)