Harold Neufeld (born October 10, 1927, in

Altona, Manitoba Altona is a town in southern Manitoba, Canada, about 100 km south-west of Winnipeg and 158 km north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The population at the 2011 Census was 4,123 residents. Old Altona was founded in 1880 by Plautdietsch-spe ...

) is a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

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 ...

, Canada. He was a member of 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 1988 to 1993, and 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

Gary Filmon Gary Albert Filmon (born August 24, 1942) is Canadian politician from Manitoba. He was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba from 1983 to 2000, and served as the 19th premier of Manitoba from 1988 to 1999. Political care ...

from 1988 to 1992. Neufeld began a public practice as a Chartered Accountant in 1954, and was a member of the ''Chartered Accountants of Manitoba''. He first ran for the Manitoba legislature in the 1986 provincial election as a Progressive Conservative, losing to incumbent

New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

Vic Schroeder Victor Harold Schroeder (born February 16, 1944 to a Mennonite family in Altona, Manitoba) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1979 to 1988, and a senior cabinet minister in the New De ...

by 527 votes in the north-end

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

riding of

Rossmere Rossmere is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1968, and has formally existed since the provincial election of 1969. The riding is located in the northeastern section of th ...

. In the 1988 election, with NDP support falling throughout the province, he was able to defeat Schroeder by 526 votes in a rematch. Neufeld was appointed Minister of Energy and Mines with responsibility for the Manitoba Hydro Act and Seniors on May 9, 1988. He was relieved of the latter responsibility on April 21, 1989. He was re-elected by an increased margin in the 1990 provincial election. Neufeld stepped down from his cabinet position on January 14, 1992, and resigned from the legislature on May 12, 1993. There are suggestions that Neufeld resigned as a matter of principle, disturbed by the dubious methods used by the Filmon government to conceal its

deficit spending Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...

.Schellenberg, Harry. (1994, December 8). "Throne Speech Debate: Fifth Day of Debate." Manitoba. Legislative Assembly. Hansard, House Debates, Volume XLIV, No. 6. 35th Parliament, 6th session. Retrieved from https://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/business/hansard/39th_6th/vol6/h006_3.html A lifelong

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

, Neufeld joined the executive of Menno Simons College and became chair of the Menno Simons College Foundation after his retirement from the legislature.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neufield, Harold Neufeld, Harold Neufeld, Harold Neufeld, Harold Neufeld Neufeld Members of the Executive Council of Manitoba