(1897-1 July 1971), businessman, deputy sheriff. (J. Domina Villeneuve, J. D. Villeneuve, Domina Villeneuve, spelling also Domino) Brother of Ben F. and Osie Villeneuve. Born at Moose Creek, Ont. Parents: Frank B. Villeneuve and his wife Fabiola Marion. He was associated with his father in droving and meat-marketing in Maxville, and owned and operated two butcher shops in Maxville. In 1919 he was married to Mary Helena Cleary (Helena Cleary), a schoolteacher. (six children) In the Ontario provincial election of 19 June 1934, J. Domina Villeneuve was the Conservative candidate for the electoral district of Glengarry (GC plus a part of Prescott County), but was defeated by the Liberal candidate, James A. Sangster. The election, which took at one of the worst periods of the Depression in Glengarry County and in the province, produced a Liberal landslide in Ontario, and swept Mitch Hepburn into the premiership. J. Domina Villeneuve was the first French Canadian to stand for election as an MLA in Glengarry County. (The first French Canadian to stand for election as an MP in GC was J. A. C. Huot) Angus H. McDonell states (Glengarry News 15 June 1977) that J. Domina Villeneuve’s “chief assistant” in the 1934 campaign was his brother Osie and that the “campaign manager” was George Simon.

     J. Domina Villeneuve had left the butcher shop business by about the early 1940s, and then sold stock food for a time. He was made deputy sheriff of SDG in the fall of 1945. (Standard Freeholder 9 Oct. 1945, Glengarry News 12 Oct. 1945) As deputy sheriff, he lived in Cornwall. His son Dr Bernard is separately noticed in this dictionary. Another son, Cleary Villeneuve, was a sergeant in the Canadian Army overseas in World War II. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1951 and was for many years a priest in Japan, returning to Canada in 2002 to reside. Another son of the family, Rudolph Villeneuve (Mgr Villeneuve), born in 1923 and ordained to the priesthood in 1947, is a well-known priest of the diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from Fordham University and is the author of a number of books, including the history of his diocese which appears under the abbreviation Villeneuve in the notes to the present dictionary. The Villeneuve sons were highly active in sports and music in Maxville, and the Villeneuve brothers’ vocal quartet was well known and much in demand at public events. Four of the boys were in the army reserve camp in the summer of 1939. J. Domina Villeneuve, who in his latter years had been living with his son Fr Rudolph Villeneuve at Glen Walter, died at Cornwall’s Hotel Dieu Hospital. (six children)

Glengarry News 8 July 1971 * Maxville (1991) 164-166, 296, 304, 311, 866-870 (with portrait) * Roderick Lewis, 96 * marriage, Cornwall Standard 4 Sept. 1919 * as chief census enumerator for GC, calls meeting of district enumerators, GN 15 May 1931 * nominated Conservative candidate, election defeat, Glengarry News 18 May & 22 June 1934 * interview with Fr Rudolph Villeneuve, recorded in Aug. 1977 for the Multicultural History Society of Ontario