Marcel Boulic
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Marcel Boulic (January 15, 1916 – September 22, 1959) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Progressive Conservative from 1958 to 1959, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Dufferin Roblin.
Boulic born at Altamont, Manitoba, and was educated at St. Boniface College. He was elected as a school trustee in 1940, and served in this position for three years. He was later a councillor, and then the reeve of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes. Boulic was initially a farmer in private life, and later operated a creamery.[1]
1955 by-election
Boulic first for the Manitoba legislature in a by-election held on June 27, 1955. He agreed to run as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Mountain after meeting with Dufferin Roblin, who had been chosen as the party's leader the previous year. Roblin has said of their first meeting that Boulic struck him as "a man in his forties, open-faced, well set-up, of diffident manner, but clearly a leader", adding "[h]is politics were in doubt but I got know him just the same. When the by-election came, I had my man".[2]
On election day, Boulic lost to Liberal-Progressive candidate Walter Clark by 276 votes. Notwithstanding his defeat, Boulic's showing was considered both impressive and significant. Mountain had been considered one of the safest Liberal-Progressive seats in the province, and the Conservatives had not even fielded a candidate in the division since 1932. Several prominent Liberal-Progressives campaigned on Clark's behalf, and senior party members were reported as being concerned with the close result.[3] Roblin wrote that Boulic, in defeat, "[laid] the foundations for victory in 1958".[2]
Newspaper reports indicate that Clark's support came largely from Mountain's Anglo-Saxon majority and significant Flemish community, while Boulic did well among French Canadians, who made up about one-third of the electorate.[3]