Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac (born February 6, 1972) is a former

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician. She served as a

member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (BQ; , "Québécois people, Quebecer Voting bloc, Bloc") is a list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty movement, Que ...

in the riding of

Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot (formerly known as Saint-Hyacinthe and St. Hyacinthe—Bagot) is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935. It is located in Quebec, C ...

from 2007 to 2011. She was the first

Vietnamese Canadian Vietnamese Canadians ( vi, Người Canada gốc Việt; french: Canadiens vietnamiens) are Canadian citizens of Vietnamese ancestry. As of 2016, there are 240,615 Vietnamese Canadians, most of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British Co ...

ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons."NDP, Tories score upsets in Quebec byelections"
canada.com, September 18, 2007.

Early life

Born in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

to a Cham family,Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac aspire à présider le PQ
/ref> Thi Lac was adopted at age two by a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

family and grew up on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

near Acton Vale.

Career

Prior to her election, she worked for her predecessor,

Yvan Loubier Yvan Loubier (born April 10, 1959 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian politician and one of the founders of the Bloc Québécois. He was a Bloc Québécois member of the House of Commons of Canada representing the district of Saint-Hyacinthe—Bag ...

, as an executive assistant in his constituency office.

Political career

She was elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

on September 17, 2007, as the

candidate in the Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election, defeating the Conservative candidate Bernard Barré. She acknowledged that

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

was a factor at the outset of her campaign, but stressed her local roots by joking that having grown up on a farm, she was the only candidate in the race who knew how to

castrate Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceut ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

. She later credited her willingness to simply talk to people as her most effective strategy: She was re-elected in the

2008 election This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are no ...

, but was defeated in the 2011 election by Marie-Claude Morin of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

Electoral record

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Bloc Québécois MPs Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Francophone Quebec people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec People from Saint-Hyacinthe Vietnamese emigrants to Canada Canadian politicians of Vietnamese descent Women in Quebec politics 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians {{BlocQuébécois-MP-stub