Kevin Arseneau 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, who was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

in the 2018 election. He represents the electoral district of Kent North as a member of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

. He is the first Acadian to be elected as a third-party MLA in New Brunswick as well as the first Francophone in North America to be elected under the Green Party banner.

Early life and education

Arseneau was born on August 25, 1985, in

Robertville, New Brunswick Robertville is an unincorporated community in Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada. Situated northwest of the outskirts of Bathurst, it is mostly surrounded by forest. Among other communities in the surroundings are Beresford, Petit Roch ...

. In 2003, he graduated from

École Secondaire Népisiguit École Secondaire Népisiguit ( en, Nepisiguit Secondary School) is the only French-speaking high school in the Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from ...

in Bathurst. He holds an education degree from the Université de Moncton with a major in geography and a minor in history. He also has a diploma in adventure tourism from the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles.

Career

Arseneau is a farmer and member of the Ferme Terre Partagée workers’ cooperative, a farm that produces organic fruit and vegetables and raises animals humanely, and which received an award in 2018 from RDÉE Canada (Réseau de développement économique et d’employabilité) in the young entrepreneur category. He is also a storyteller and musician who has given hundreds of performances in New Brunswick, elsewhere in Canada, and in Europe. He has also taught at École W.-F.-Boisvert, in Rogersville, and contributed to implementing a philosophy program for children in kindergarten to Grade 4 classes, in cooperation with the Université de Moncton. He previously chaired the Rogersville Local Service District Advisory Committee and was President of the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB). He has served on the boards of the Kent Regional Service Commission, the Société nationale de l’Acadie (SNA), the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA), and the Rogersville Cooperative. He was President of the Fédération des étudiants et étudiantes du Centre universitaire de Moncton
FÉÉCUM
and served on the Équiterre family farmers network follow-up committee.

Political career

He was first elected on September 24, 2018, to represent the riding of Kent North and reelected in the 2020 provincial election. Arseneau is critic for the second opposition group in the following areas: developing and strengthening communities; food sovereignty; fiscal, economic, and social justice. He is a member of the Legislative Administration Committee, the Standing Committee on Estimates and Fiscal Policy, and the Standing Committee on Economic Policy.

Electoral record

References

Living people Green Party of New Brunswick MLAs 21st-century Canadian politicians 1985 births {{NewBrunswick-MLA-stub