FranoisEugneAlfred vanturel was speaker of the Legislature of Ontario in 18971902 and served as Liberal MLA for Prescott from 1886 to 1904. His name also appears in an anglicized form as Francis Evanturel.
He was born at Quebec City in 1846, the son of Franois vanturel, and studied at the Petit Sminaire de Qubec and the Universit Laval. He was called to the Lower Canada bar in 1871 and set up practice at Quebec. In 1873, he married Maria Victoria Louisa Lee. The following year, he went to Ottawa, where he was employed in the secretariat of the Minister of Public Works. After working with the Post Office Department, he moved to Alfred, Ontario in 1881. He became a strong proponent for Francophone rights in the province and was particularly opposed to the policy of Englishonly schools supported by the provincial Conservatives. In 1886, he established a weekly newspaper LInterprte in Alfred. In 1892, the paper was purchased by Henri Bourassa and relocated to Montebello, Quebec. He was made speaker in the legislature as a result of pressure from Wilfrid Laurier and became the first and, to date, the only Francophone to occupy that post. In 1904, he became a minister without portfolio in the
Source: Wikipedia