Gérard Asselin (born April 19, 1950 in

Sainte-Flavie, Quebec Sainte-Flavie is a parish municipality in the La Mitis Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, about northwest of Mont-Joli. It is named after Flavia, a martyred saint. Sainte-Flav ...

- February 9, 2013) was 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 who was a Bloc Québécois member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Manicouagan from 2004 to 2011 and

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...

from 1993 to 2004.

Career

Asselin was a foreman, and was previously a city councillor in

Baie-Comeau Baie-Comeau (; 2021 city population 20,687; CA population 26,643) is a city located approximately north-east of Quebec City in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River nea ...

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 ...

from 1979 to 1993. In his first run for federal office, in 1993, Asselin won the riding of former

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 ...

Brian Mulroney in a landslide, finishing 16,500 votes ahead of his closest opponent. The

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

candidate finished a distant third, and nearly lost his deposit. Asselin was reelected almost as easily in every election until losing to

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 ...

challenger

Jonathan Genest-Jourdain Jonathan Genest-Jourdain, (born July 16, 1979) is a Canadian politician from Quebec. Genest-Jourdain served as the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for Manicouagan and as a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet from 2011- ...

in 2011. Asselin was one of the party's few more socially conservative members. In 2005, Asselin joined five other Bloc Québécois members opposing Bill C-38, which extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in Canada. At the end of the 37th Canadian Parliament, Asselin was the Bloc's Forestry critic. He also served as Natural Resources Critic.

Electoral record (partial)

References

External links

How'd They Vote?: Gérard Asselin's voting history and quotes
* 1950 births 2013 deaths Bloc Québécois MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec People from Baie-Comeau People from Bas-Saint-Laurent 21st-century Canadian politicians {{BlocQuébécois-MP-stub