Denis Lebel (born May 26, 1954) 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 ...

politician and who served as mayor of

Roberval, Quebec Roberval is a city on the south-western shore of Lac Saint-Jean in the Le Domaine-du-Roy Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada. With a population of 9,840 in the Canada 2021 Census, it is the fourth largest city on this lake after Alma, ...

and deputy leader of the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

. Lebel was born in Roberval,

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 ...

Political career

Lebel 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, in the Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean by-election, as a member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Four years later, it emerged that he had been an active member of the Bloc Quebecois from 1993 to 2001. Lebel stated that he joined the Conservatives because Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

recognized the Québécois nation, and maintains that he has always been a

Quebec nationalist 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 thirteen p ...

. On October 30, 2008, he was appointed to Harper's cabinet as

minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec The Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec () is the member of the Cabinet of Canada who also serves as the chief executive of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. Prior ...

. Following the 2011 election, Lebel was promoted to

minister of transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

. He was shuffled out of the post in July 2013, shortly after the Lac-Megantic rail disaster. He was also the minister of infrastructure, communities and intergovernmental affairs and served as the

Harper government The premiership of Stephen Harper began on February 6, 2006, when the first Cabinet headed by Stephen Harper was sworn in by Governor General Michaelle Jean. Harper was invited to form the 28th Canadian Ministry and become Prime Minister of ...

's Quebec lieutenant. In the 2015 election, Lebel was re-elected in the new

Lac-Saint-Jean Lac-Saint-Jean () is a federal electoral district in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, northeast Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 2004, and has been represented since 2015. Demographics ...

riding. After the election, he and fellow member of Parliament (MP)

Michelle Rempel Michelle Rempel Garner (''née'' Godin; born February 14, 1980) is a Canadian politician who sits in the House of Commons as the member of Parliament (MP) for the Alberta riding of Calgary Nose Hill. A member of the Conservative Party, she was ...

proposed to become joint interim leaders of the party but ultimately lost to

Rona Ambrose Ronalee Ambrose Veitch ( , née Chapchuk; born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian former politician who was interim leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of the Opposition between 2015 and 2017. She was the Conservative Party member of ...

. On November 18, 2015 he was named deputy leader of the Conservative Party and thus deputy Opposition leader.

Career after politics

Lebel announced on June 19, 2017 that he will be stepping down as an MP in the following weeks, before the House of Commons resumed sitting in the fall. The seat was lost to the liberals in the following

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. The ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'' reported on June 20, 2017 that Lebel is to be appointed as the CEO of Québec Forest Industry Council. It has also been reported that then-

premier of Quebec The premier of Quebec ( French: ''premier ministre du Québec'' (masculine) or ''première ministre du Québec'' (feminine)) is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the ...

Philippe Couillard Philippe Couillard (; born June 26, 1957) is a Canadian business advisor and former neurosurgeon, university professor and politician who served as 31st premier of Quebec from 2014 to 2018. Between 2003 and 2008, he was Quebec's Minister of Hea ...

was interested in recruiting Lebel to run for the Quebec Liberals in the

2018 Quebec general election The 2018 Quebec general election was held on October 1, 2018, to elect members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The election saw a landslide victory for the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) led by François Legault, which won 74 of 125 seats, ...

, but he did not run.

Electoral history

References

External links

Denis Lebel
official site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebel, Denis 1954 births Conservative Party of Canada MPs French Quebecers Living people Mayors of places in Quebec Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Roberval, Quebec Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry Deputy opposition leaders