Diane St-Jacques (born May 16, 1953) is a

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 ...

business person and former politician. St-Jacques served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2004.

History

St-Jacques was born in Granby,

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 ...

. She was a promotional coordinator for Agropur in Granby and an advertising consultant for a radio station in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

. St-Jacques was involved in the community in a variety of volunteer roles. Involved in politics since 1979, St-Jacques first stood for office in the 1997 federal election as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Shefford. With Sherbrooke's

Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012 and the fifth deputy prime minister of Canada in 1993. Charest was elected to the House o ...

as a national leader, the party experienced a resurgence in Quebec's Eastern Townships, and St-Jacques was elected to the House of Commons, taking her seat from the Bloc Québécois. Until she left the PC caucus, she was its designated parliamentary critic for

International Cooperation In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal. Definitions Multilateralism, in the form of membership in international institutions, serves to bind powerful nations, discourage u ...

La Francophonie LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

, and children and youth. She was also identified as the PC "family critic." In 1999, St-Jacques joined MPs

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(

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

) and

Réal Ménard 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. Ménard is a political scien ...

(Bloc), both openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, and Toronto

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MP Bill Graham, in a "pink caucus" across party lines. The group advocated that the legal definition of spouse include

same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...

. The

social conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social instituti ...

Campaign Life Coalition decried St.-Jacques as "a married mother of one, who says she isn't a lesbian but who supports the

gay agenda "Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. Th ...

." St-Jacques spoke in Parliament in favour of

medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...

rights. In April 1998, Charest left federal politics to seek the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, and Tory support in Quebec declined under

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's leadership. On September 12, 2000, with an election increasingly close, St-Jacques, with fellow Tory MP David Price and independent, formerly Tory MP André Harvey, joined the Liberal Party of Canada and the Liberal caucus. St-Jacques and Price reportedly told Clark they would leave the party months earlier. In the 2000 election, St-Jacques retained her Shefford seat as a Liberal. She served as Parliamentary Secretary to the

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in the government of

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Jean Chrétien from January 13 until December 11, 2003, and as Deputy Government Whip under Chrétien's successor

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from February 2, 2004, until she left office. In the 2004 federal election, she lost her seat to Robert Vincent of the Bloc Québécois. She ran again in the 2006 federal election, placing third place behind Vincent and the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate Jean Lambert. She received 23.4% of all votes cast.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:St-Jacques, Diane 1953 births Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec People from Granby, Quebec Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians French Quebecers