Madeleine Bélanger (née Audet; born April 7, 1932) is a Quebec politician who served as a Member of the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (officially in french: link=no, Assemblée nationale du Québec) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; french: link=no, déput ...

(MNA) for the riding of

Mégantic-Compton Megantic-Compton is a former provincial electoral district in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada. As of its final election, it included the municipalities of East Angus, Cookshire-Eaton, Lac-Mégantic, Weedon, Lac-Drolet and Chartierville. ...

from 1983 until 2003. Following the death of her second husband, Fabien Bélanger, on October 2, 1983, she was elected as his replacement on December 5, 1983. She served as a member of the

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; french: Parti libéral du Québec, PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; e ...

. Bélanger's daughter,

Johanne Gonthier Johanne Gonthier (born November 3, 1954, in Montreal, Quebec) is a former Canadian politician who served as a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the riding of Mégantic-Compton from 2007 to 2012. She is the daughter of former MN ...

, served as the Liberal MNA for the same riding from 2007 to 2012. Bélanger's nephew,

Gérard Gosselin Gérard (French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitue ...

, served as a

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishin ...

MNA for

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

from 1976 to 1981.

Biography

Bélanger was born April 7, 1932, in Saint-Sébastien, Quebec to Léopold Audet, a farmer, and Zélia Saint-Pierre. She worked as an elementary school teacher at Saint-Samuel-Station for three years. She owned two hairdressing salons and worked as an administrator and manager of a home electrical installation company for three years, then as a director of two residential development companies.

Political career

Bélanger's husband, Fabien Bélanger, died suddenly on October 2, 1983. She secured the Liberal nomination for

and won the ensuing by-election. She was re-elected in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. Bélanger served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs during the brief government of

Daniel Johnson Jr. Daniel Johnson Jr. (born December 24, 1944) is a former Canadian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Quebec and was the 25th premier of Quebec for nine months in 1994 until his party's defeat in the provincial general election. ...

and later became Chair of the Committee on Planning and the Public Domain as well as the Chairperson of the Committee on Education during her time in office. She did not seek re-election in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Electoral record

Provincial

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bélanger, Madeleine 1932 births Living people Canadian hairdressers Canadian schoolteachers Quebec Liberal Party MNAs People from Estrie Real estate and property developers Women MNAs in Quebec 20th-century Canadian legislators 20th-century Canadian women politicians 21st-century Canadian legislators 21st-century Canadian women politicians