Francis Campbell Bell (May 31, 1892 in

Clearwater Clearwater or Clear Water may refer to: Places Canada * Clear Water Academy, a private Catholic school located in Calgary, Alberta * Clearwater (provincial electoral district), a former provincial electoral district in Alberta * Clearwater, Briti ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

– May 10, 1968) was a politician in Manitoba,

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. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...

from 1936 to 1958 as a

Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no Liberal-Progressive party: it was an alliance between two parties. In Manitoba, a party existe ...

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 ...

, and was a

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

in the government of Douglas Campbell. The son of Thomas Bell and Annie Edith Reynolds, Bell was educated in Clearwater and was hired by the Union Bank after he completed his schooling. He served overseas with the Canadian military for three years. In 1916, he married Eva Wright Rumbal. After his return, Bell became a bank manager at Rosebank. He was transferred to

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after a few months. He served as a secretary-treasurer for the Rural Municipality of Archie. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

candidate W.C. Wroth by only twenty-seven votes in the rural constituency of Birtle. He defeated Wroth by a greater margin in the 1941 election, and was returned without difficulty in the elections of

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and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

. In the 1949 election, Bell was elected without opposition. After serving as a backbencher for over twelve years, Bell was appointed to cabinet on December 14, 1948 as Douglas Campbell's

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

. He served in this capacity until November 7, 1952, when he was named

Minister of Health and Public Welfare Manitoba Health (formerly Health, and Seniors Care, MHSC; also known as Manitoba Health) is the department of the Government of Manitoba that is responsible for leading the development of policy and publicly-administered health system planning i ...

. Further cabinet shuffles saw him named as

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(January 25, 1955) and

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(July 6, 1956).

Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Manitoba) (CCF), known informally as the Manitoba CCF, was a provincial branch of the national Canadian party by the same name. The national CCF was the dominant social-democratic party in Canada from th ...

leader

Lloyd Stinson Lloyd Cleworth Stinson (February 29, 1904 – August 28, 1976) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and the leader of that province's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1953 to 1959. Although widely regarded as a capable leader, he ...

once described him as "competent but unspectacular". The Liberal-Progressives were defeated in the 1958 election, and Bell lost to Progressive Conservative candidate John Thompson by 1,273 votes in the redistributed constituency of Virden. He formally resigned from cabinet on June 30, 1958. His brother James R. Bell was a provincial livestock commissioner and later served as deputy minister of agriculture. Bell died in Winnipeg at the age of 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Francis 1892 births 1968 deaths Manitoba Liberal Party MLAs Members of the Executive Council of Manitoba