Robert G. Brett

Robert G. Brett

Robert George Brett (born November 15, 1851 in Strathroy , † September 6, 1929 in Calgary ) was a Canadian politician. From 1915 to 1925 he was Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Alberta .

biography

Brett attended Strathroy Grammar School during his childhood, and later studied medicine at the University of Toronto , where he ultimately received his PhD. After receiving his doctorate, he worked for a time at the universities in New York , Philadelphia and Vienna . He then embarked on a military career that enabled him to command a regiment in Toronto in 1869 and rise to lieutenant in Ontario . During the First World War he was a colonel in the 82nd Canadian Battalion.

In 1883 Brett moved to Banff , which was then still in the Northwest Territories . Three years later he opened his own sanatorium there, where he worked as a doctor, after having worked as a doctor in Arkona in the 1870s.

His political career began in 1888 after he was able to enter the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for the constituency of Red Deer. He was confirmed in office three years later, but now represented the constituency of Banff. Brett was also able to win the elections in 1894 and 1898.

When Alberta received provincial status in 1905, Brett ran for the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta in the first elections to the Alberta Legislative Assembly , but could not prevail against his liberal rival candidate. In 1909 he was elected president of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, but was not the party's political leader. In the provincial elections in the same year he failed again.

On October 20, 1915, Brett was named lieutenant governor of the Province of Alberta; in the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta . In 1914 he had become president of the Alberta section of the Canadian Red Cross. He used his new position as lieutenant governor to raise money to buy medicine and equipment for the benefit of troops deployed during World War I. He remained in office until October 29, 1925. Brett died almost four years later and was buried in Banff.

Web links

• Robert G. Brett . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Site of the Lieutenant Governors of the State of Alberta