Larry Duchesne (born 1949) 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 leader of the

Prince Edward Island New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island (NDP PEI) is a social-democratic political party in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and a branch of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). CCF The NDP's predecessor, the Co-opera ...

from 1991 to 1995. A teacher and former journalist from Kinkora,

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

, he won the party leadership on February 3, 1991, over Mike Leclair and Judy Whittaker. He had previously been a candidate for the party in provincial elections in both Prince Edward Island and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He led the party into the 1993 election, and was the party's assemblyman candidate in

4th Prince 4th Prince was an electoral district in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, which elected two members to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (french: Assemblée législative ...

, but won no seats on election day. Following the election loss, he took a three-month unpaid leave of absence from his position as leader, so that he could collect

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployment, unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are fun ...

and thus save the party money through not having to pay his leader's salary. He resigned as party leader in November 1994, and was succeeded in 1995 by

Herb Dickieson Herb Dickieson (born March 8, 1954) is a retired physician and a former educator and politician in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Dickieson was the first and, to date, only member of the New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island to have sat i ...

. He ran as the party's candidate in the new district of

Parkdale-Belvedere Parkdale-Belvedere was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, Canada. It was created before the 1996 election out of the dual-member 5th Queens riding. It was abolished prior to the 2007 election int ...

in the 1996 election, but was again not elected to the legislature. In the 1997 federal election, he ran in the district of Cardigan, but did not win the seat. Duchesne was the

Nova Scotia New Democratic Party The Nova Scotia New Democratic Party is a social-democratic, progressive provincial party in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the provincial entity of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). It was founded as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C ...

candidate in

Cumberland South Cumberland South is a provincial electoral district in Cumberland Country, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. The riding was created before the 1993 election from most of Cumberland West and Cumberlan ...

for the 2013 Nova Scotia provincial election, but was defeated by Progressive Conservative leader

Jamie Baillie Jamie Baillie (born April 28, 1966) is a Canadian former politician. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia from 2010 to 2018, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 2013 until January 2018, when he resigned ...

. In February 2017, Duchesne was again nominated as Cumberland South's NDP candidate for the

next Nova Scotia general election The 42nd Nova Scotia general election will be held on or before 15 July 2025 to elect members to the 65th General Assembly of Nova Scotia. During the 2021 election, the Progressive Conservatives included a commitment in their platform to introd ...

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchesne, Larry 1949 births Living people New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island leaders New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Nova Scotia New Democratic Party politicians People from Kinkora, Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island candidates for Member of Parliament Candidates in Nova Scotia provincial elections