François Eugène Alfred Évanturel (August 31, 1846 – November 15, 1908) was speaker of the Legislature of Ontario in 1897-1902 and served as Liberal MLA for Prescott from 1886 to 1904. His name also appears in an anglicized form as Francis Evanturel. He was born at Quebec City in 1846, the son of

François Évanturel François Évanturel (October 22, 1821 – March 12, 1891) was a Quebec lawyer, journalist and political figure. He was born in Quebec City in 1821, the son of a soldier in Napoleon's army who had joined the British Army after having been taken ...

, and studied at the

Petit Séminaire de Québec Petite or petite may refer to: *Petit (crater), a small, bowl-shaped lunar crater on Mare Spumans * ''Petit'' (EP), a 1995 EP by Japanese singer-songwriter Ua * Petit (typography), another name for brevier-size type *Petit four * Petit Gâteau *P ...

and the Université Laval. He was called to the Lower Canada bar in 1871 and set up practice at Quebec. In 1873, he married Maria Victoria Louisa Lee. The following year, he went to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, where he was employed in the secretariat of the Minister of Public Works. After working with the Post Office Department, he moved to Alfred, Ontario in 1881. He became a strong proponent for

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

rights in the province and was particularly opposed to the policy of English-only schools supported by the provincial Conservatives. In 1886, he established a weekly newspaper ''L'Interprète'' in Alfred. In 1892, the paper was purchased by Henri Bourassa and relocated to

Montebello, Quebec Montebello is a municipality located in the Papineau Regional County Municipality of Western Quebec, Canada. At the 2001 census, there were 1,039 permanent residents. The village has a total area of , and is located at the eastern edge of Quebec's ...

. He was made speaker in the legislature as a result of pressure from Wilfrid Laurier and became the first and, to date, the only Francophone to occupy that post. In 1904, he became a minister without portfolio in the provincial cabinet, thus becoming the first Francophone cabinet minister in the province. He died in Alfred in 1908. His son Gustave served in both the House of Commons and the Ontario assembly. The township of

Evanturel Évanturel (2016 population 449) is a township in Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. It almost completely surrounds the town of Englehart. The main settlement in Évanturel is the community of Heaslip. It was named after François-Eugèn ...

took its name from Évanturel.

References

* * 1846 births 1908 deaths Franco-Ontarian people Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Université Laval alumni {{Liberal-Ontario-MPP-stub