Joseph Hamelin

Background

Hamelin was born in Saint Vital, Manitoba (now part of Winnipeg), the son of Firmin Hamelin and Clemence Breland, and was educated in Saint Boniface and at the Juniorate of the Sacred Heart in Ottawa.

Career

He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1927. Hamelin"s paternal grandfather, Salomon Hamelin, served in the Legislative Council of Manitoba from 1871 to 1876. He then returned to Manitoba and worked as a merchant, becoming manager of the Joseph Hamelin Company general store in Ste.

Rose du Lac in 1912.

He served as reeve of Ste. Rose from 1900 to 1916. Hamelin was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1914 provincial election.

Running for the Conservative Party in Ste.

Rose, he defeated Liberal candidate Judge-Advocate Campbell by sixty votes. After the election, he served as a backbench supporter of Rodmond P. Roblin"s government.

Hamelin"s time on the government benches was brief. The Roblin government was forced to resign amid scandal in early 1915, and was resoundingly defeated in the 1915 provincial election.

Hamelin was the last member to speak against the bill granting women the vote in Manitoba in 1916.

In the end, he voted in support of the bill, making its passage unanimous. He identified himself as an independent candidate during this campaign, although most political observers considered him to be a Conservative in all but name. He appears to have rejoined the Conservative caucus during the parliament that followed.

In the 1927 election, he lost the Ste.

Rose constituency to Progressive candidate Maurice Dane MacCarthy by 224 votes. Hamelin attempted to return to the legislature in the 1936 election, but lost to Liberal-Progressive candidate Sauveur Marcoux by 830 votes in the Louisiana Verendrye constituency.

They had 10 children. Hamelin died in Niagara Falls, Ontario on August 29, 1947.

Achievements

• Hamelin was one of only five Conservatives to win re-election, defeating Liberal candidate Z.H. Rheaume by twenty-nine votes. He was again returned in the 1920 election, in which the Conservatives won eight seats out of fifty-five. In the 1922 election, Hamelin won re-election over United Farmers of Manitoba candidate Thomas McDonald by ninety votes.