George R. Provost was a businessman and city councillor in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He served on council from 1977 to 1980, and later sought election to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the lieutenant governor form the Legislature of Manitoba, the legislature of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly in provincial general elections, all in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post...

.

Councillor

Provost was a publisher, consultant and entrepreneur in private life. He served on the old St. Boniface City Council from 1964 to 1967, before the city was amalgamated into Winnipeg. He later sought re-election to the council in a 1970 by-election, but lost to rival candidate Michael Dennehy.

He was elected to Winnipeg City Council in the 1977 municipal election as an independent candidate, defeating incumbent councillor Ed Kotowich from the centre-right Independent Citizens' Election Committee (ICEC) in the Langevin ward. During a March 1978 debate on bus fares, Provost said that he would oppose any fare increase for senior citizen

Senior citizen

Senior citizen is a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English, and it implies or means that the person is retired. This in turn implies or in fact means that the person is over the retirement age, which varies according to country. Synonyms include pensioner in UK...

s. He later voted with the majority on council to introduce bilingual English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 signs to Winnipeg. When confronting local opposition to this initiative, Provost said that there were many anti-French bigots in the city.

He was defeated for re-election in the 1980 municipal campaign, finishing third against independent candidate Evelyne Reese

Evelyne Reese

Evelyne Reese is a retired politician in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She served on the Winnipeg City Council for fifteen years, and ran for the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba on two occasions as a candidate of the Liberal Party....

. The Globe and Mail newspaper indicates that he lost public support after railing against what he believed were fire hazards in municipal hospitals, even after an investigation concluded that he was mistaken.

Later life

Provost later served as general manager of the Manitoba division of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, and was appointed executive director and secretary treasurer of the Insurance Brokers Association of Manitoba Inc. in 1997. He also started a company called Showtime Marketing Services Ltd., and produced a series of novelty Manitoba license plates in 1994 to commemorate the province's 125th anniversary the following year.

Provost ran as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...

 in the 1981 provincial election

Manitoba general election, 1981

The Manitoba general election of November 17, 1981 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It was won by the opposition New Democratic Party, which took 34 of 57 seats. The governing Progressive Conservative Party took the remaining 23, while the...

, and finished a distant second against New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party of Manitoba

The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation...

 candidate Gerard Lecuyer

Gerard Lecuyer

Gerard Lecuyer is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988, and a cabinet minister in the New Democratic Party government of Howard Pawley from 1983 to 1988.Lecuyer was educated at the University of Manitoba, and worked as an...

 in Radisson. He sought re-election to city council in 1983

Winnipeg municipal election, 1983

The 1983 Winnipeg municipal election was held on October 26, 1983 to elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees in the city of Winnipeg. There were also two referendum questions, on bilingualism and nuclear disarmament....

 and 1992

Winnipeg municipal election, 1992

The 1992 Winnipeg municipal election was held on October 28, 1992 to elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees in the city of Winnipeg.Susan Thompson defeated Greg Selinger in the mayoral contest.-Councillors:...

 but finished third against Evelyne Reese both times.

He was a candidate for the St. Boniface ward in the 1995 municipal election

Winnipeg municipal election, 1995

The 1995 Winnipeg municipal election was held on October 25, 1995 to elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees in the city of Winnipeg.Susan Thompson defeated Peter Kaufmann and Terry Duguid in the mayoral contest.-Councillors:...

, but withdrew from the campaign before election day. He ran again in 1998

Winnipeg municipal election, 1998

The 1998 Winnipeg municipal election was held on October 28, 1998 to elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees in the city of Winnipeg.Centre-left candidate Glen Murray defeated populist right-winger Peter Kaufmann in the mayoral contest.-Councillors:...

, and finished third against incumbent councillor Dan Vandal

Dan Vandal

Daniel 'Dan' Vandal is a politician in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He has represented St. Boniface on the Winnipeg City Council for all but two years since 1995, and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Winnipeg in 2004...

. During this election, he identified property taxes as the most important issue facing the ward.

Provost ran for a seat on the St. Boniface School Board in a 1999 by-election, and finished second against Tricia Barnabe. He ran for another seat on the same board in a further by-election in 2000, and finished fourth against Laura Reimer.

He died on July 17, 2002, at age 65.