Leon Earl Benoit (born July 7, 1950) 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.

Career

Benoit was a

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

, representing the riding of

Vegreville—Wainwright Vegreville—Wainwright was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. History This riding was created in 2003 from Lakeland, Elk Island and Crowfoot ridings. It ...

from 2004 to 2015, Lakeland from 1997 to 2004 and

Vegreville Vegreville ( uk, Веґревіль) is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is on Highway 16A approximately east of Edmonton, Alberta's capital city. It was incorporated as a town in 1906, and that year also saw the founding of the ''Vegrev ...

from 1993 to 1997. He has also been a member of the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed u ...

(2000-2003) and the

Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada (french: Parti réformiste du Canada) was a right-wing populist and conservative federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada-based protes ...

(1993-2000). Benoit is a former economist and farmer. As an Opposition MP Benoit was the official opposition critic of Public Works and Government Services and of the Canadian Wheat Board, Intergovernmental Affairs, Citizenship and Immigration, and National Defence. In May 2007 when Benoit was the chair of the

Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade The Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT) is a committee in the House of Commons of Canada. It focuses on international trade. The committee was established in the 39th Parliament, having split off from the Standing Committee on Foreign ...

he came under scrutiny when he adjourned the committee after the opposition overruled him. His move was "unprecedented". After he abruptly adjourned the committee, the Vice-Chair took over and the meeting resumed after he and three of the four other Conservative members had left. The meeting had to do with North American Energy Security. Gordon Laxer presented a talk in which he questioned why Canada's oil exports were being used to guarantee US energy security, as opposed to Canada using its energy resources to provide for the security of Canadians first, and then others. Benoit felt Laxer had not been on topic. Regarding the Citizen's Arrest and Self-Defence Act, Benoit stated that the legislation would expand the circumstances in which citizens can make arrests, as well as it simplifies the self-defense and defense of property provisions in the Criminal Code. In 2013, Benoit joined two other Conservative MPs (Saskatchewan MP

Maurice Vellacott Maurice Vellacott (born September 29, 1955) is a former Canadian politician. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2015 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan variously as a member of the Reform Party, the ...

and Ontario MP

Wladyslaw Lizon Wladyslaw Lizon ( pl, Władysław Lizoń; born June 27, 1954) is a Polish Canadian former politician. He was a Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2011 to 2015 who represented the Greater Toronto Area riding of Mississaug ...

) in writing a letter to the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

requesting a homicide investigation into some late term abortions that may have resulted in live births. The letter was criticized as an attempt to reopen the abortion debate.

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 is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

said, "I think all members of this House, whether they agree with it or not, understand that abortion is legal in Canada and this government, myself included, have made it very clear that the government does not intend to change the law in this regard." In 2017 Benoit endorsed

Brad Trost Bradley Ryan Trost (born May 15, 1974) is a former Canadian politician who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada, representing the ridings of Saskatoon—Humboldt from 2004 to 2015 and Saskatoon—Unive ...

for the

2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election The 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was held on May 27, 2017. Party members chose Andrew Scheer as leader, replacing Stephen Harper, who led the Conservative Party of Canada as its leader from 2004 following the merger ...

he was the first MP in 2017 to have endorsed Trost before

in April 2017.

References

External links

Official site

How'd They Vote?: Leon Benoit's voting history and quotes
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Leon 1950 births Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Reform Party of Canada MPs Canadian Alliance MPs Conservative Party of Canada MPs People from Lloydminster Canadian anti-abortion activists 21st-century Canadian politicians