Ginette L'Heureux is an administrator and former politician in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

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 ...

, Canada. She was a member of the

Montreal city council The Montreal City Council (french: Conseil municipal de Montréal) is the governing body in the mayor–council government in the city of Montreal, Quebec. The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the ...

from 1986 to 1994, serving as a member of the Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM) party.

Early life and career

L'Heureux worked as an aide to

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishin ...

(PQ) legislator

Louise Harel Louise Harel (born April 22, 1946) is a Quebec politician. In 2005 she served as interim leader of the Parti Québécois following the resignation of Bernard Landry. She was also interim leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Que ...

before her own election and supported

Pauline Marois Pauline Marois (; born March 29, 1949) is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a member of the National Assembly in various ridings since 1981 as a member of the Parti Québ� ...

's first bid for the PQ leadership in 1985. She was thirty-seven years old in late 1986 and administered a project to reintegrate women into the workforce.

Municipal councillor

L'Heureux was first elected to the Montreal city council in the 1986 municipal election, defeating a Civic Party candidate in the east-end Maissoneuve ward. The MCM won a landslide majority in this election, and L'Heureux was appointed by new mayor

Jean Doré Jean Doré (12 December 1944 – 15 June 2015) was a Canadian politician and mayor of the City of Montreal, Quebec. Background Doré studied law at the Université de Montréal, where he was president of the student union from 1967 to 1968. ...

as his assistant on international affairs. She was also appointed to the board of directors of the Montreal Urban Community Transit Corp. (MUCTC). L'Heureux took part in a delegation to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1987 with Mayor Doré and other officials. In July 1989, however, she announced that Montreal would discontinue several planned political exchanges with

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

to protest

's campaign against political dissidents following the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

. The two cities had signed a friendship agreement four years earlier. L'Heureux later attended a meeting of francophone mayors in

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

and led a city delegation to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. She was re-elected in the 1990 municipal election, in which the MCM won a second consecutive majority. She continued to serve as Montreal's international affairs representative and as a MUCTC director after the election. In September 1992, she took part in a municipal delegation to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. L'Heureux was named as interim chair of the MUCTC in August 1994, when

Robert Perreault Robert Perreault (born 13 May 1947) is a Canadian politician and administrator in the province of Quebec. He was a prominent city councillor in Montreal from 1982 to 1994, a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 ...

resigned to run for provincial office. The following month, she announced that more than 1,600 advertising spaces on buses and trains had been made available for anti-violence advertising. She did not seek re-election in the 1994 municipal election and was replaced as MUCTC chair by

Yves Ryan Yves Ryan (28 February 1928 – 2 February 2014) was a Canadian politician in the province of Quebec. He served as the mayor of Montreal North from 1963 until 2001, when the suburban city was amalgamated into the new city of Montreal. Family and ...

in November 1994.

Administrator

L'Heureux was later appointed as a spokesperson for the

Quebec Human Rights Commission The ''Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse'' (CDPDJ; English: "Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission") is a government agency created by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1975. The current name a ...

. In 2007, she issued an opinion that a Parti Québécois proposal requiring all newcomers to Quebec to prove their knowledge of

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

before being granted citizenship was discriminatory.Kevin Dougherty, "Rights commission 'astonishes' Marois; Spokesperson tells paper Bill 195 violates charter," ''Montreal Gazette'', 27 October 2007, A11.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:L'Heureux, Ginette Living people Montreal city councillors Women in Quebec politics Women municipal councillors in Canada Year of birth missing (living people)