Laurier Lévesque (October 13, 1929 – September 7, 2005) 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 ...

educator and a politician in the Province of New Brunswick. A graduate of St. Joseph's College in

Memramcook Memramcook, sometimes also spelled Memramcouke or Memramkouke, is a village in Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Canada. Located in south-eastern New Brunswick, the community is predominantly people of Acadian descent who speak the Chiac der ...

and the New Brunswick Teachers' College in Fredericton, Laurier Lévesque taught school before entering political life. A resident of

Edmundston, New Brunswick Edmundston is a city in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada. On 1 January 2023, Edmundston will expanded, annexing the village of Rivière-Verte and parts of the local service districts of the parish of Saint-Jacques and the parish of Sai ...

, he was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the

1960 New Brunswick general election The 1960 New Brunswick general election was held on June 27, 1960, to elect 52 members to the 44th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The election resulted in the defeat of the incum ...

as a

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

candidate for one of the three seats for

Madawaska County Madawaska County (2016 population 32,741), also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle", is located in northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. Over 90% of the county's population speaks French. Its Francophone population are known as "Brayons." Fore ...

. He was reelected in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

. In the 1974 election, he lost by 95 votes to the Progressive Conservative candidate

Jean-Pierre Ouellet Jean-Pierre Ouellet (born August 21, 1946 in Saint-Éleuthère, Kamouraska County, Quebec) is a Canadian politician in the province of New Brunswick. He is a three-term member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick representing the rid ...

in the newly created riding of Madawaska-les-Lacs. Without the

Parti acadien The Parti Acadien was a political party in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1970s and 1980s. The party was founded in 1972 by Acadians who were upset over poorer living conditions in predominantly francophone areas of the province versus those areas d ...

contesting the riding, Lévesque may have won. The Parti acadien received 99 votes, ones that are generally accepted as being traditional Liberal supporters. Laurier Lévesque attempted a political comeback in the City of Edmundston riding in 1982 but lost to Jean-Maurice Simard. As a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the government of Premier

Louis Robichaud Louis Joseph Robichaud (October 21, 1925 – January 6, 2005), popularly known as "Little Louis" or "P'tit-Louis", was the second (but first elected) Acadian premier of New Brunswick, serving from 1960 to 1970. With the Equal Opportunity p ...

, Laurier Lévesque was an ardent defender of Francophone rights and was one of the first Members to give his speeches in the Assembly in the French language. Out of politics, in 1990 the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

appointed him to diplomatic missions abroad which organized and supervised democratic

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s in 10 African countries, in 2 countries from the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, as well as in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

References

Journals of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levesque, Laurier 1929 births 2005 deaths St. Joseph's College alumni Canadian schoolteachers New Brunswick Liberal Association MLAs People from Edmundston Acadian people