{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{Use Canadian English|date=December 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = AldisBernard.jpg | image_size = 180px | honorific_prefix = Mayor | name = Aldis Bernard | honorific_suffix = | caption = | order = 15th Mayor of Montreal | term_start = June 1873 | term_end = 1875 | predecessor = Francis Cassidy | successor = William Hales Hingston | birth_date = {{circa}} 1810 | birth_place = Eastern Townships, Quebec ? | death_date = 3 July 1876 | death_place = San Jose, California, United States | constituency = Montreal Centre | party = | alma_mater = | spouse = Mary Webb Meredith (?–1845)<br />Sarah Couch (1852–1876) | profession = Dentist | signature = | footnotes = }} '''Aldis Bernard''' ({{circa}} 1810 – 3 July 1876) was a Canadian dentist and politician, the Mayor of Montreal, Quebec between 1873 and 1875.
==Dental career== Bernard was educated in dentistry at Philadelphia, after which he practiced as a dentist in the southern United States. He married there and in 1840 moved back to Canada first residing in the Niagara Peninsula. In 1841, he settled in Montreal and established a dental practice there.<ref name=CanBio>{{cite web | url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4828 | title=Bernard, Aldis | publisher=University of Toronto, Université Laval | work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography | accessdate=2008-07-20 | year=2000 }}</ref>
When the government was planning a governing organisation for doctors in 1847, Bernard lobbied to have dentistry included in the law that would establish the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada. This effort was unsuccessful largely due to the medical establishment's negative view of dentistry at that time. The Dental Association of the Province of Quebec was eventually formed in 1869 with Bernard as its founding President.<ref name=CanBio /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cda-adc.ca/_files/cda/about_cda/history/HSPart2.pdf|accessdate=2008-07-20 |title=A Century of Service |publisher=Canadian Dental Association |year=2002 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927065432/http://www.cda-adc.ca/_files/cda/about_cda/history/HSPart2.pdf |archivedate=27 September 2006 }}</ref>
==Political career== His first terms as a Montreal municipal councillor for Montreal Centre ward began in 1858 and ended in 1861. He returned to city politics in 1866 and again served as a councillor until the death of Mayor Francis Cassidy in June 1873. City Council then appointed Bernard as interim Mayor to serve out the remainder of Cassidy's term. Voters returned Bernard to the Mayor's post in the 1874 city elections. Under his leadership, urban parks such as Mount Royal Park and Dufferin Park were established. Work on a new city hall also commenced under Bernard's watch.<ref name=MtlMayor>{{cite web | url=http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/archives/democratie/democratie_en/expo/maires/bernard/index.shtm | title=Aldis Bernard (1873–1875) | work=Mayors of Montreal | publisher=City of Montreal | accessdate=2008-07-20 }}</ref>
==Personal life== The circumstances of Bernard's birth have not been confirmed, but his obituaries suggest he was born in Quebec's Eastern Townships to United Empire Loyalist parents.
Mary Webb Meredith was Bernard's first wife until her death in 1845. He remarried in 1852 to Sarah Couch, a member of the Roman Catholic Church in contrast to Bernard's Protestant church membership. He had eight children, one of whom with his first wife.
Bernard did not seek another term as Mayor in 1875. He moved to San Jose, California shortly before his death in July 1876. His body was returned to Montreal for burial on 15 July 1876.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071019123949/http://www.lemontroyal.qc.ca/en_anniversaire/3.html A Brief History of Mont Royal: A day-in-the-life of Victorian-Era Montreal]
{{Mayors of Montreal}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Aldis}} Category:1876 deaths Category:19th-century mayors of places in Quebec Category:Canadian dentists Category:Mayors of Montreal Category:1810s births Category:19th-century dentists