Elsie Lefebvre

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Elsie Lefebvre (born in Montreal on May 5, 1979) is a Quebec politician. She is a Member of the National Assembly for the Laurier-Dorion riding and official critic for Community Action within the Parti Québécois shadow government in Quebec City. She is trilingual, in French, Spanish and English.

Contents

Profile

Background

Elsie Lefebvre has been involved in politics since the age of 17 years old in the Parti Québécois. Her studies brought her to the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. She gathered much political experience, notably as an intern of the Quebec Government House of Mexico City and as parliamentary collaborator of French politician Philippe Séguin.

Election

In 2004, she won the PQ candidacy for the coming by-election in her native riding, Laurier-Dorion, and began a campaign of outspoken left-wing and sovereigntist politics (opposing the neoliberal Charest government). On September 20, 2004, at the age of 25, she became the youngest elected female MNA of the National Assembly of Quebec's history (elected at 23 years old, the péquiste André Boisclair is the youngest MNA elected in history, male or female). Her arrival has been touted as the sovereigntist new blood and proverbial breath of fresh air for the party and movement. Four by-elections occurred on the day of her victory. The Liberals lost all but one (with a smaller victory than usual for one of the strongest Liberal fortresses, Nelligan), the PQ won two, the ADQ one.

Won in the midst of the Charest government popularity debacle, her victory in the Laurier-Dorion was described as historical for some reasons, other than her relative youth. Laurier (later merged with the Dorion riding) was won only once before by the PQ by Lise Payette and had been occupied by Liberal Christos Sirros for two decades. The riding being one of the most multicultural of Quebec, the surprise victory was seen as a major step in the long ongoing PQ charm operation towards the Quebec cultural minorities. Also, the riding is remembered as the first riding of the party founder and spiritual father of sovereigntism René Lévesque. Twice elected Laurier representative as a Liberal, he never managed to win it as a péquiste, despite his party leader status, and finally got elected in Taillon in the 1976 taking of power.

However, it should also be noted that by-election victories in Canada are rarely ever indicative of future trends, as many are known to be "protest votes" to send the government a message rather than defeating them in a general election. Careful analysis of Lefebvre victory gives not much hope of reelection. She did receivre a very clear support from the Villeray part of the riding but the Parc Extension part of the riding voted for her with less than 10% and the participation in that area was less than in Villeray.

Parliament

Since her victory, she was entrusted with the duty of Community Action critic for the Official Opposition on the following October 18. In the PQ leadership debate, she threw her support behind then leader Bernard Landry in February 2005. She was part of a controversy dubbed the Elsie Lefebvre Affair. The latter erupted when, after answering her question at the National Assembly about a possible conflict of interest involving his spouse, Premier Jean Charest mumbled "ostie de chienne", an insult which would roughly translate in English as "f-word bitch". On September 20, 2005, she announced her support for Richard Legendre, in the context of the Parti Québécois leadership election of 2005.

Reference

See also

External links

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