First Century Afterthe Expulsion 97

political arena. They elected their first member of the Legislative Assembly in 1854: Stanislas-F. Poirier, or Perry, as he preferred to sign his name. In the meantime more than one politician took advantage of the Acadian vote, and not always honestly.

The election of an Acadian to the Legislature marked the begin- ning of an important transformation in the Acadian community on the Island. It began to move out of its century-old isolation and to open up to the English-speaking world that surrounded it.