Réal Ménard

Réal Ménard
Réal Ménard
Borough Mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Montreal City Councillor
	In office; January 1, 2010 – November 16, 2017
Preceded by	Lyn Thériault
Succeeded by	Pierre Lessard-Blais
Member of Parliament; for Hochelaga; (Hochelaga—Maisonneuve; 1993–2004)
	In office; October 25, 1993 – September 16, 2009
Preceded by	Allan Koury
Succeeded by	Daniel Paillé
Personal details
Born	May 13, 1962 (age 62); Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Bloc Québécois; Coalition Montréal; Vision Montréal (formerly)
Residence	Montreal
Profession	Political scientist

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] Following redistricting, he was re-elected in the new riding of 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] Prior to his first election to the House of Commons, he was a political assistant to 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]

Electoral record (incomplete)

Municipal

v t e 2009 Montreal municipal election: Borough Mayor, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Vision Montreal		Réal Ménard	20,103	52.53
Projet Montréal		Ann Julie Fortier	9,640	25.19
Union Montreal		Claire St-Arnaud	8,528	22.28
Total valid votes			38,271	100
Source: Municipal Election Results, 2009, City of Montreal.

Federal

v t e 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.

v t e 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.

v t e 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.

v t e 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.

v t e 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.

v t e 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.

1984 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Progressive Conservative	Édouard Desrosiers	13,244
	Liberal	Serge Joyal	12,201
	New Democratic	Marie-Ange Gagnon-Sirois	3,596
	Rhinoceros	Richard A. Sirois	1,847
	Parti nationaliste	Réal Ménard	1,089
	Communist	Gaetan Trudel	99
	Commonwealth of Canada	Daniel Gonzales	63