Raymond Préfontaine

Mayor
Raymond Préfontaine
25th Mayor of Montreal
In office
1898–1902
Preceded by Richard Wilson-Smith
Succeeded by James Cochrane
Personal details
Born 16 September 1850
Longueuil, Province of Canada
Died 25 December 1905(1905-12-25) (aged 55)
Paris, France
Profession lawyer

Joseph Raymond Fournier Préfontaine, PC (16 September 1850 25 December 1905) was a Canadian politician.

Biography

Born in Longueuil, Quebec, he studied at the law faculty of McGill College, articled with Antoine-Aimé Dorion and Christophe-Alphonse Geoffrion, and was called to the bar in 1873. He was named a Queen's Counsel in 1899.

In 1875, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Chambly. A Liberal, he was defeated in 1878. He was re-elected in an 1879 by-election, but was defeated again in 1881.

He was acclaimed to the Canadian House of Commons for the riding of Chambly in an 1886 by-election. A Liberal, he was re-elected in every election in one or another riding until dying in office in 1905. From 1902 to 1905, he was the Minister of Marine and Fisheries. When Joseph-Israel Tarte resigned from the Cabinet as Minister of Public Works in October 1902, Wilfrid Laurier, under pressure from Montréalers, gave Préfontaine the portfolio of Marine and Fisheries and, for the same reason, transferred to it from public works as "the major services relating to navigation." The new minister, while maintaining his predecessor’s policy, tackled his duties with dynamic energy. He approved experiments in winter navigation and a program for installing illuminated buoys in the channel of the St Lawrence. He appointed a commissioner to preside over all inquiries into marine disasters, in place of the harbour commissioners. He also investigated the possibility of creating an independent Canadian Navy. He sent Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier to explore the Arctic in order to strengthen Canada’s rights in this region.

In 1905, he went to Great Britain and France, one of his goals being to promote a sea link between Marseilles and Montréal. He was in Paris when he was struck down by angina pectoris on 25 December. The French government held his funeral in the Église de La Madeleine in central Paris. A British battleship brought his remains back to Halifax for subsequent burial in Montréal.

From 1879 to 1883, he was the mayor of Hochelaga, after which the city was amalgamated with Montreal. From 1898 to 1902, he was the Mayor of Montreal.

Montréal's Préfontaine metro station, aréna Raymond-Préfontaine, parc Raymond-Préfontaine and rue Préfontaine are all named in his honour.

Gallery

External links

Legislative Assembly of Quebec
Preceded by
Gédéon Larocque
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Chambly
1871–1875
Succeeded by
Michel-Dosithée-Stanislas Martel
Preceded by
Michel-Dosithée-Stanislas Martel
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Chambly
1879–1881
Succeeded by
Michel-Dosithée-Stanislas Martel
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by
Pierre-Basile Benoit
Member of Parliament for Chambly
1886–1896
Succeeded by
Christophe-Alphonse Geoffrion
as MP for Chambly—Verchères
Preceded by
Séverin Lachapelle
as MP for Hochelaga
Member of Parliament for Maisonneuve
1896–1905
Succeeded by
Alphonse Verville
Preceded by
Léon Adolphe Chauvin
Member of Parliament for Terrebonne
1900–1902
Succeeded by
Samuel Desjardins
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