Leonard C. Jones was a Canadian

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...

 lawyer and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, who served as mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of the city of Moncton, New Brunswick

Moncton, New Brunswick

Moncton is a Canadian city, located in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. The city is situated in southeastern New Brunswick, within the Petitcodiac River Valley, and lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces...

 between 1963 and 1974, and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for the constituency of Moncton

Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe

Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe is a federal electoral district in New Brunswick, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1968...

 between 1974 and 1979.

Political career

Jones was elected to Moncton City Council in 1957, and was voted mayor in 1963. He is best remembered for his opposition to the use of the French language

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...

 in city business, requiring all council meetings to be conducted exclusively in 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...

 although the city is one-third francophone

Francophone

The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....

. In 1972, Jones rejected the use of bilingual municipal street signs. This frequently put him at odds with New Brunswick's Liberal Premier Louis Robichaud

Louis Robichaud

Louis Joseph Robichaud, PC, CC, QC , popularly known as "Little Louis" or "P'tit-Louis" , was a Canadian lawyer and politician...

, who was concurrently adopting legislation recognizing the equality of the French language within the province. Conservative Premier Richard Hatfield

Richard Hatfield

Richard Bennett Hatfield, PC, ONB was a New Brunswick politician and long time Premier of the province .- Early life :...

, who succeeded Robichaud in 1970, regarded Jones as a bigot.

After Robichaud opened the Université de Moncton

Université de Moncton

The Université de Moncton is a French language university located in Moncton, New Brunswick serving the Acadian community of Atlantic Canada...

, a French-language university, in the city in 1964, Jones quickly became a target for frequent protests by students at the new school. Jones frequently decried the violent tactics of some Acadian

Acadian

The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...

 protestors. The most publicized incident was in 1968, when two students delivered a severed pig

Pig

A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...

 head to Jones' house.

With linguistic tensions high on both sides during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jones remained popular with the anglophone

English Canadian

An English Canadian is a Canadian of English ancestry; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadian. Canada is an officially bilingual state, with English and French official language communities. Immigrant cultural groups ostensibly integrate into one or both of these communities, but...

 majority in Moncton. He left the mayor's chair to run as a Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 candidate in the 1974 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1974

The Canadian federal election of 1974 was held on July 8, 1974 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 30th Parliament of Canada. The governing Liberal Party won its first majority government since 1968, and gave Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau his third term...

. After Jones won the nomination, party leader Robert Stanfield

Robert Stanfield

Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...

 refused to sign Jones' nomination papers, citing his opposition to the party's policy of bilingualism. Jones ran instead as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

candidate, and won with 46% of the vote. He decided not to run for a second term.