Albert Prefontaine

Albert Préfontaine (October 11, 1861 - February 21, 1935) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as leader of the Manitoba Conservatives in the late 1910s, and was subsequently a member of the United Farmers of Manitoba.

Born in Upton, Canada East (now Quebec), the son of Firmin Prefontaine and Mathilde (Mathilda) Desautels, Préfontaine was educated in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He subsequently moved to Manitoba in 1880, where he worked as a farmer and store manager and served as Reeve of the Municipality of De Salaberry from 1892 to 1896. In 1888, he married Albina L'Heureux. Préfontaine was president of the Carillon Agricultural Society, of the Carey Elevator Company and of the St. Pierre Trading Company.

Préfontaine was first elected to the provincial parliament in 1903, running for Rodmond Roblin's governing Conservatives in the francophone riding of Carillon. He was re-elected in 1907 and 1910.

In 1914, Préfontaine lost his seat to Liberal Thomas Molloy by seven votes. He was re-elected the following year, despite the disastrous showing of the Conservatives in the rest of the province. His victory may be credited to the fact that the provincial Conservatives were seen as more supportive of francophone rights than were Tobias Norris's Liberals (indeed, Norris' government withdrew state funding for French-language education soon after the election).

Conservative leader James Aikins lost his seat in the 1915 election, and Préfontaine was chosen to lead the small opposition caucus in parliament (he was sworn in as leader of the opposition in January 1916). He declined to be a candidate in the party's leadership convention, held on November 6, 1919.

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