Réal Ménard
Canadian politician
Réal Ménard (born May 13, 1962) is a Canadian politician, who was a Bloc Québécois member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2009. He was the second Canadian member of Parliament to come out as gay .[ 1]
Ménard is a political scientist with B.A. and M.A. degrees and also holds his law degree from the University of Ottawa .
Federal politics
He first stood for federal office in the 1984 federal election as candidate for the small Parti nationaliste du Québec in Hochelaga—Maisonneuve . Defeated in this first try, he contested the riding in the 1993 election for the new and larger Bloc Québécois. He was elected, and re-elected in the riding in the 1997 and 2000 elections.[ 2] Hochelaga in the 2004 , 2006 and 2008 federal elections.
Early in his parliamentary career, he served variously as Bloc critic for Health , for science, research and development, for Labour , for National Defence , and for the Federal Office of Regional Development-Quebec . From 1998 to June 29, 1999, he was critic for Citizenship and Immigration and for public housing ; he then returned as health critic and served as vice-chair of the Standing Committee for three sessions. On September 14, 2001, he took on additional critic responsibility for the Montreal region.
On February 15, 1994, Ménard was the first member in the house of commons to use the word 'internet' saying "in building the electronic highway, the government will respect areas of provincial jurisdiction and ensure that communications linking us to Internet are also in French" [ 3]
In March 2006 he was shuffled from the health critic position to become the Bloc Québécois justice critic.
Municipal politics
In June 2009, Ménard announced that he was resigning from the House of Commons, effective September 16, in order to run as a Vision Montreal candidate for borough mayor of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal's 2009 municipal election .[ 4] Louise Harel , Vision Montreal's 2009 candidate for Mayor of Montreal , when she was a provincial MNA .[ 5]
He won election to the borough mayoralty on November 1, 2009.[ 6]
Municipal Federal
2008 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 22,720
49.73
−5.85
$28,893
Liberal Diane Dicaire
9,442
20.67
+3.43
not listed
New Democratic Jean-Claude Rocheleau
6,600
14.45
+5.54
$21,479
Conservative Luc Labbé
4,201
9.20
−3.01
$8,586
Green Philippe Larochelle
1,946
4.26
−0.60
not listed
neorhino.ca Simon Landry
230
0.50
–
not listed
Communist Marianne Breton Fontaine
184
0.40
$898
Marijuana Blair T. Longley 183
0.40
−0.32
not listed
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
177
0.39
−0.09
not listed
Total valid votes
45,683 100.00
Total rejected ballots
644
Turnout
46,327 58.24 −0.07
Electors on the lists
79,542
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada .
2006 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 25,570
55.58
−4.54
$25,836
Liberal Vicky Harvey
7,932
17.24
−8.39
$10,318
Conservative Audrey Castonguay
5,617
12.21
+8.15
$30,705
New Democratic David-Roger Gagnon
4,101
8.91
+3.42
$2,780
Green Rolf Bramann
2,235
4.86
+1.88
none listed
Marijuana Blair T. Longley 332
0.72
−0.33
none listed
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
220
0.48
+0.23
none listed
Total valid votes
46,007 100.00
Total rejected ballots
723
Turnout
46,730 58.31 +0.52
Electors on the lists
80,142
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada .
2004 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 27,476
60.12
+9.60
$35,055
Liberal Benoit Bouvier
11,712
25.63
−10.06
$22,566
New Democratic David Gagnon
2,510
5.49
+3.55
$695
Conservative Mario Bernier
1,856
4.06
−3.33
$2,131
Green Rolf Bramann
1,361
2.98
$963
Marijuana Antoine Théorêt-Poupart
482
1.05
–
none listed
Communist Pierre Bibeau
190
0.42
$647
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
112
0.25
none listed
Total valid votes
45,699 100.00
Total rejected ballots
936
Turnout
46,635 57.79
Electors on the lists
80,702
Percentage change figures are factored for redistribution. Conservative Party percentages are contrasted with the combined Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative figures from 2000. Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada .
2000 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga—Maisonneuve
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 21,250
49.20
+3.18
$59,310
Liberal Louis Morena
16,143
37.38
+3.17
$52,743
Progressive Conservative Benoit Harbec
1,751
4.05
−11.86
$497
Alliance Stephanie Morency
1,502
3.48
$365
Marijuana Alex Néron
1,227
2.84
–
none listed
New Democratic Milan Mirich
767
1.78
+0.05
none listed
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
275
0.64
−0.29
$10
Communist Pierre Bibeau
274
0.63
$187
Total valid votes
43,189 100.00
Total rejected ballots
1,385
Turnout
44,574 58.69 −13.87
Electors on the lists
75,947
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada .
1997 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga—Maisonneuve
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 21,938
46.02
$51,213
Liberal Denise Malo
16,308
34.21
–
$32,101
Progressive Conservative Charles Boudreault
7,583
15.91
$2,329
New Democratic Milan Mirich
825
1.73
$0
Natural Law Richard Lauzon
577
1.21
$0
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
444
0.93
$142
Total valid votes
47,675 100.00
Total rejected ballots
2,188
Turnout
49,863 72.56
Electors on the lists
68,720
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and official contributions and expenses submitted by the candidates, provided by Elections Canada.
1993 Canadian federal election : Hochelaga—Maisonneuve
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Réal Ménard 26,170
61.37
$31,198
Liberal Jules Léger
10,675
25.03
–
$11,028
Progressive Conservative Allan Koury 3,723
8.73
$43,692
New Democratic Paul Vachon 1,050
2.46
$2,715
Natural Law Richard Lauzon
588
1.38
$15
Marxist–Leninist Christine Dandenault
259
0.61
$80
Commonwealth of Canada Steve Bélanger
180
0.42
$0
Total valid votes
42,645 100.00
Total rejected ballots
1,857
Turnout
44,502 74.24
Electors on the lists
59,945
Source: Thirty-fifth General Election, 1993: Official Voting Results, Published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Financial figures taken from the official contributions and expenses submitted by the candidates, provided by Elections Canada .
References
^ Bull, Chris (2002-09-17). "Northern enlightenment: Canada has something to teach the U.S. when it comes to equal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships" . The Advocate the original on 2004-11-02. Retrieved 2007-03-21 . ^ Hill, Tony L. (2002). Canadian politics, riding by riding : an in-depth analysis of Canada's 301 federal electoral districts . Minneapolis: Prospect Park Press. ISBN 0972343601 OCLC 50401264 . ^ "Lipad - 3957111 - Permalink Speech from the Canadian House of Commons" .^ "Bloc MP runs for municipal politics" . CTV News , June 25, 2009.^ "Harel bolsters lineup with Bloc MP" Archived June 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine . The Gazette ^ Montreal Civic Vote 2009: Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve . cbc.ca , November 1, 2009.
External links