William Bredin

William Fletcher Bredin (1862 – 1942) was a Canadian pioneer businessman and politician. He intermittently farmed and operated businesses in the Canadian West and then served as MLA in the Alberta Legislature.

William Fletcher Bredin
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
In office November 9, 1905 – March 22, 1909
Preceded by	New district
Succeeded by	Jean Côté
Constituency	Athabasca
Personal details
Born	1862 Stormont Count, Canada West
Died	December 30, 1942 (aged 80)
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Anna Brown Marsh
Occupation	Farmer

Born in Stormont County, Canada West[1] he went west to Winnipeg where he farmed with his father near Winnipeg. He moved to the U.S. and provided railway ties to the Northern Pacific Railway. Liver-Eating Johnson advised him to join his brother who was farming in Edmonton.[2]

In 1882 he went north on the Whoop-up Trail to Calgary then north on the Calgary-Edmonton Trail to Edmonton, arriving shortly after his brother died. He took over the homestead and was joined by his father. He spent some time in Calgary working in a coal mine and settled at Red Deer Crossing in 1883, where he took over a claim from Esias Myers. He sold his Edmonton farm in 1884 and prospected for valuable minerals in the Rockies.[3]

In Calgary, he opened a store with R. Steen, engaged in freighting between Calgary and Edmonton, and was active with the Oddfellows. He also established the Climax coal mine, 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Calgary.[4]

He established the Buffalo Lakes Trading Post in the area later known as Lamerton in 1892, when there were only seven settlers in the area. He sold the post to Joe Edminson in 1895.[5] Around 1897, he travelled by boat down the Athabasca River to the Mackenzie River.[1]

He eventually settled in the Peace River Country, where he opened a series of fur trading posts with James Cornwall and Alexander Monkman;[6] they sold these to the Revillon Frères in 1906.[7] By 1907 he claimed to have lived "all over the Northwest pretty well".[1]

He ran as candidate in the first election after Alberta became a province in 1905. He ran as a Liberal in Athabasca, He took the seat by acclamation. (He was the only MLA acclaimed in that election.)[8] In office, he advocated for a railway to be built into the northeast corner of the new province.[9] He also gave testimony to a select committee of the Senate of Canada in 1907 about agricultural conditions in northwest Canada, drawing on his experience living and travelling in the area, including his boat trip down the Athabasca of ten years before.[1] In his testimony, he estimated that the "good land north of Edmonton, east of the Rocky Mountains" amounted to at least 100,000,000 acres (40,000,000 ha).[10]

He married Anna Brown Marsh in Clarksburg, Ontario in September 1907.[11]

Bredin sought re-election in the 1909 election, but was defeated by fellow Liberal Jean Côté.[12] He sought to return to office in the 1913 election as an independent Liberal in Peace River. He finished a distant third of three candidates. (His candidacy likely awarded the seat to the Conservative as it likely split the Liberal vote and the Conservative got the seat although he did not receive a majority of the votes.)[13]

After leaving office, Bredin returned to farming and fur trading around Lesser Slave Lake. During the 1920s, he served as a director on the executive of the United Farmers of Alberta; in this capacity, he moved a successful resolution protesting a new pelt tax, as many northern farmers supplemented their incomes by trapping.[14]

William Bredin died on December 30, 1942, at the age of 80.[15]