Yves Lévesque

Yves Lévesque
Mayor of Trois-Rivières, Quebec
In office
November 4, 2001 – December 27, 2018
Preceded byGuy Leblanc
Succeeded byJean Lamarche
Personal details
Born1957
Political partyConservative (federal)
Conservative (provincial; 2021-present)
Other political
affiliations		CAQ (provincial; after 2003, before 2021)
Parti Quebecois (provincial; before 2003)

Yves Lévesque (born 1957) is a Canadian politician, who served as Mayor of Trois-Rivières between 2001 and 2018.

Career

City Councillor

Lévesque won his first electoral victory in 1994, when he became city councilor in Trois-Rivières-Ouest. He was re-elected in 1998.

Mayor of Trois-Rivières

In the wake of the province-wide municipal merging of 2001, he ran for Mayor of Trois-Rivières and won an upset victory against favourite candidate and Cap-de-la-Madeleine Mayor Alain Croteau. In the 2003 provincial election, he campaigned in favour of the re-election of Parti Québécois incumbent Guy Julien, who lost.

In 2005, Julien ran against Lévesque for mayor, but the incumbent was easily re-elected with 70% of the vote.[1]

Recently,[when?] Lévesque has been trying to get the Trois-Rivières Draveurs, a franchise of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, back in town.[2]

On December 27, 2018, Lévesque announced he was retiring as mayor for medical reasons.[3]

Federal politics

Lévesque with Andrew Scheer in 2019

Lévesque officially joined the Conservative Party of Canada in May 2018, taking out a party membership and speaking at the party's convention in Saint-Hyacinthe. He stated at the time that he was considering running for the party in the 43rd election.[4] He joined the Conservative Party because of its stated goal of decentralizing power to the provinces.[5]

On May 30, 2019, Lévesque was named the Conservative candidate for the riding of Trois-Rivières.[6] During the race, he was expected to win; however, he lost the race, standing third. Lévesque blamed party leader Andrew Scheer's first French-language debate, wherein Scheer's perceived inability to defend his personal views from the other leaders shifted support from the Conservatives in Quebec, which never recovered.[7]

Lévesque ran in Trois-Rivières again as a Conservative in 2021 and gained 17,027 votes (an increase of 1,787) but came in second.

Electoral record

Federal

2021 Canadian federal election: Trois-Rivières
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Bloc Québécois René Villemure 17,136 29.49 +1.01 $16,854.26
Conservative Yves Lévesque 17,053 29.35 +4.17 $40,285.49
Liberal Martin Francoeur 16,637 28.63 +2.57 $80,504.68
New Democratic Adis Simidzija 4,680 8.05 -8.61 $4,281.85
People's Jean Landry 1,115 1.92 +0.99 $0.00
Green Andrew Holman 754 1.30 -1.17 $0.00
Free Gilles Brodeur 735 1.26 – $1,244.68
Total valid votes/expense limit 58,110 97.95 – $120,485.08
Total rejected ballots 1,214 2.05 –
Turnout 59,324 64.19 -2.53
Eligible voters 92,413
Bloc Québécois hold Swing -1.58
Source: Elections Canada[8][9][10][11]
2019 Canadian federal election: Trois-Rivières
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Bloc Québécois Louise Charbonneau 17,240 28.48 +11.48 $19,118.47
Liberal Valérie Renaud-Martin 15,774 26.06 -4.16 $59,713.01
Conservative Yves Lévesque 15,240 25.17 +6.54 none listed
New Democratic Robert Aubin 10,090 16.67 -15.16 none listed
Green Marie Duplessis 1,492 2.46 +0.75 none listed
People's Marc-André Gingras 565 0.93 – $5,574.25
Independent Ronald St-Onge Lynch 137 0.23 – $0.00
Total valid votes/expense limit 60,538 100.0  
Total rejected ballots 1,092 1.77
Turnout 61,630 66.73
Eligible voters 92,362
Bloc Québécois gain from New Democratic Swing +7.82
Source: Elections Canada[12][13]

Municipal (mayoral)

2017

Mayoral candidate Vote %
Yves Lévesque (X) 26,503 51.37
Jean-François Aubin 23,252 45.07
André Bertrand 1,837 3.56

2013

Party Mayoral candidate Vote %
  Independent Yves Lévesque (X) 29,204 49.25
  Independent Sylvie Tardif 18,491 31.18
  Independent Catherine Dufresne 8,324 14.04
  Independent Marcelle Girard 1,609 2.71
  Force 3R Richard St-Germain 1,321 2.23
  Independent Pierre Benoit Fortin 352 0.59

2009

Candidate Party Vote %
Yves Lévesque (X) Independent 25,637 54.9
André Carle Force 3R 21,077 45.1

2005

Candidate Vote %
Yves Lévesque (inc.) 34,298 70.3
Guy Julien 13,741 28.2
Serge Simard 754 1.5

Footnotes

  1. ^ Yves Lévesque l'emporte facilement, Radio-Canada, November 7, 2005
  2. ^ Le retour des Draveurs ?, Radio-Canada, May 30, 2007
  3. ^ Yves Lévesque quitte la mairie de Trois-Rivières, Radio-Canada
  4. ^ Marquis, Melanie (12 May 2018). "Ex Bloc Quebecois leader Michel Gauthier joining Conservatives". iPolitics. Retrieved 14 July 2019. One of those being courted by the party is the well-known mayor of Trois-Rivieres, Yves Levesque, who said Saturday that he was seriously considering whether to make the leap to federal politics.
  5. ^ Lepage, Caroline. "Yves Lévesque digère déjà bien sa "défaite"". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  6. ^ "Yves Lévesque devient candidat du Parti conservateur". Le Nouvelliste Trois-Rivières. La Presse. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  7. ^ Stephanie Levitz. "Bittersweet Conservative post-election gathering set for Ottawa Wednesday". The Chronicle-Journal. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  8. ^ "List of confirmed candidates – September 20, 2021 Federal Election". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  9. ^ "Election Night Results - Electoral Districts".
  10. ^ "Election 2021 Results Map | CTV News | Canada Election Coverage".
  11. ^ "Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  12. ^ "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  13. ^ "Election Night Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved November 9, 2019.