Douglas Breton

Douglas Corney Breton (25 November 1883 – 11 February 1955) was a soldier and a provincial politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a United Farmers of Alberta member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1926 to 1930.

Early life
Douglas Corney Breton was born 25 November 1883 at Simon's Town, Cape Colony to William Edwards Breton (1852 –1914) an Inspector General of the Royal British Navy, and Alice Maud Breton (ńee Dudoit) the daughter of Jules Dudoit French Consul to the Hawaiian Islands. Breton moved to Canada at the age of 20 in 1904. On 24 January 1920, Breton married Dorothy Blanche Frost, the daughter of Mark Edwin Prescott Frost, together they had three children.

He served in World War I as a member of the British Expeditionary Force in Afghanistan and India.

Political career
Breton ran for a seat in the 1926 Alberta general election as a United Farmers candidate in the electoral district of Leduc. In the three-way race, he and the Liberal candidate were close in votes, with the Conservative in distant third place. Under the rules of instant-runoff voting, the election method in use at the time, when it was found that no candidate had a majority in the first count, the Conservative candidate was eliminated and his votes transferred according to the back-up preference marked thereon if any. after the transfser, it was found that Breton had accumulated a majority of the votes so he picked up the seat for his party.

A year after being elected to office the town of Keystone, Alberta was changed to Breton, Alberta in 1927 in his honor.

Breton ran for a second term in office in the 1930 Alberta general election. He was defeated in a close two-way race, losing by just 60 votes to Liberal candidate Arthur Mitchell.

Later life
Breton moved to England in 1934, and died in Winchester on 11 February 1953 at the age of 69.