Osie Villeneuve

Osias F. "Osie" Villeneuve (June 28, 1906 – September 25, 1983) was a longtime politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the House of Commons of Canada, and was an elected representative almost continuously from the 1940s until his death.

Osie Villeneuve
Ontario MPP
In office
1975–1983
Preceded byNew riding
Succeeded byNoble Villeneuve
ConstituencyStormont—Dundas and Glengarry
In office
1963–1975
Preceded byFernand Guindon
Succeeded byRiding abolished
In office
1948–1957
Preceded byEdmund MacGillivray
Succeeded byFernand Guindon
ConstituencyGlengarry
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Glengarry—Prescott
In office
1957–1962
Preceded byRaymond Bruneau
Succeeded byViateur Éthier
Personal details
Born(1906-06-28)June 28, 1906
Maxville, Ontario
DiedSeptember 25, 1983(1983-09-25) (aged 77)
Ottawa, Ontario
Political partyOntario Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Spouse(s)Alma MacLeod
Children3
OccupationLivestock broker

Background

Villeneuve was born on June 28, 1906, in Maxville, Ontario, and educated in the area. In his early days he worked as a livestock dealer. He married Alma MacLeod in 1930, and together they raised three sons. He played and coached minor league hockey in the 1930s and 1940s, including coaching and managing the Maxville Millionaires for which in part he was inducted into the Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. Villeneuve also spearheaded many local projects, including the Jubilee Rink, the village's first covered rink, and forty years later the Maxville and District Sports Complex to replace the Jubilee. In recognition of this, the arena in the new complex was named in his honour. Villeneuve was also a founding member of the organizing committee for the first Glengarry Highland Games in 1948.[1]

Politics

Villeneuve served on the local school board on council, and was reeve of Maxville in 1948.[1]

In the 1945 provincial election, he ran for the Progressive Conservative Party, and lost to Liberal incumbent Edmund MacGillivray by 1,613 votes in Glengarry.[2] After winning the reeveship of Maxville in 1948, he ran again in the 1948 provincial election, and defeated MacGillivray by 1,788 votes.[3] Villeneuve served as a government backbench supporter under Thomas Laird Kennedy and Leslie Frost, and won re-election in the Progressive Conservative landslides of 1951 and 1955.[4][5]

Villeneuve resigned from the provincial legislature in May 1957 to run federally, as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He was successful, defeating Liberal incumbent Raymond Bruneau by 1,580 votes in Glengarry—Prescott in the 1957 election.[6] He served as a backbench supporter of John Diefenbaker's minority government for a year, and defeated Bruneau a second time in the Progressive Conservative landslide of 1958.[7]

He was defeated in the 1962 election, losing to Liberal Viateur Éthier by 2,857 votes.[8] Villeneuve then returned to the Ontario legislature in the 1963 election, winning his old seat of Glengarry by 1,363 votes over a Liberal challenger.[9] He was re-elected in 1967, 1971, 1975, 1977 and 1981, and served as a backbencher in the John Robarts and William Davis governments. He was never appointed to cabinet at either the federal or provincial levels.

Villeneuve suffered a heart attack in September 1983 while attending a reunion of former Progressive Conservative MPPs, and died in hospital a few hours later.[10] His seat in the Ontario legislature was subsequently won by Noble Villeneuve, a distant relative.[11]

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References
  1. "1995: Angus George, Brian Gilmour, Pierre Guindon, Gerry Simpson, Osie F. Villeneuve". Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame. 1995.
  2. Canadian Press (June 5, 1945). "How Ontario Electors Voted in all 90 Ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. p. 5.
  3. Canadian Press (June 8, 1948). "How Ontario Electors Voted in all 90 Ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. p. 24.
  4. Canadian Press (November 22, 1951). "Complete Ontario Vote". The Montreal Gazette. Montreal. p. 4.
  5. Canadian Press (June 10, 1955). "Complete Results of Ontario Voting by Constituencies". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa. p. 4.
  6. "Latest coast-to-coast results in Monday's Federal election". The Windsor Star. June 11, 1957. pp. 10–11. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  7. "Detailed ruslts show breadth of Tory sweep". The Ottawa Citizen. April 1, 1958. pp. 24–25. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  8. "How Canada voted". The Windsor Star. June 19, 1962. pp. 17, 20. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  9. Canadian Press (September 26, 1963). "78 in Tory Blue Wave -- 23 Is All Grits Saved". The Windsor Star. Windsor, Ontario. p. 25.
  10. "Osie Villeneuve: Down-to-earth Tory dean of Ontario House". Globe and Mail. September 27, 1983.
  11. "Conservative wins by-election handily in Eastern Ontario". The Globe and Mail. December 16, 1983. p. 12.
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