__NOTOC__ André Pierre Bourque Jr. (October 7, 1958 – August 28, 2021) was a race car driver, developer, journalist, broadcaster and former politician in Ottawa, Ontario, and operated the online

news aggregator In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, podc ...

site ''Bourque Newswatch'' (Newswatch). Bourque was born at the

Ottawa General Hospital The Ottawa Hospital's General Campus is one of three main campuses of The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With 569 beds, the General Campus includes The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and the Cancer Centre. The Ottawa General Ho ...

in 1958, the son of Pierre Bourque (Sr.) and Barbara McNeil. He was the grandson of E. A. Bourque, Ottawa's first francophone mayor.

Politics

Following a ten-year career as a race car driver, and a brief apprenticeship with his father's land development business, Bourque was appointed to

Ottawa City Council The Ottawa City Council (french: Conseil municipal d'Ottawa) is the governing body of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is composed of 24 city councillors and the mayor. The mayor is elected at large, while each councillor represents war ...

and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in March 1991 to fill a vacancy after

Marc Laviolette Marc Laviolette (born c. 1950s in Ottawa, Ontario) was Mayor of Ottawa for much of 1991. He was declared Mayor on 18 February 1991 after Jim Durrell resigned to become president of the fledgling Ottawa Senators ice hockey team. Laviolette had b ...

became mayor. Bourque was appointed following a council vote, defeating 17 other candidates, including community activists Maurice Pagé and Richard Cannings. Bourque was supported by the "pro-developer" bloc on council, and was opposed by the council's left wing, who coalesced behind Pagé. Bourque's stay on council was short lived, however, and he was defeated by Cannings in the

municipal election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

that November. While on council, he opposed "all big projects", including bringing in a Triple-A baseball team and improving

Lansdowne Park Lansdowne Park is a urban park, historic sports, exhibition and entertainment facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by the City of Ottawa. It is located on Bank Street adjacent to the Rideau Canal in The Glebe neighbourhood of central Otta ...

. He also opposed all tax increases, and called for the demolition of some heritage buildings in his ward such as the Daly Building. He had near-perfect attendance in both committee and council meetings. Two years later, he ran for

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in the

1993 Canadian election The 1993 Canadian federal election was held on October 25, 1993, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the 35th Canadian Parliament, 35th Parliament of Canada. Considered to be a major political realignment, it wa ...

as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate in the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

riding of Rosemont, and lost to

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (BQ; , "Québécois people, Quebecer Voting bloc, Bloc") is a list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty movement, Que ...

candidate

Benoît Tremblay Benoît Tremblay (; born 16 March 1948) was a Canadian politician and a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1997. Background Tremblay was born on 16 March 1948 in Val-Brillant, Quebec. He had a career in Economics and Adm ...

. Bourque ran for Ottawa city council again in 1994, in the new Bruyère-Strathcona Ward but was defeated by

Stéphane Émard-Chabot Stéphane Émard-Chabot is a former Ottawa city councillor who has served as assistant dean of the University of Ottawa law school since 2001. A native of Sandy Hill, he has a B.Comm and law degree from Ottawa and a degree from École Supérieure ...

. At this point in his career, he was vice president of his father's company, Bourque, Pierre & Fils. He ran on a platform of safety, improving street lighting and basic services, and called for the removal of traffic barriers in the Byward Market. He also wanted to "control taxes by cutting frivolous expenditures". Despite his campaign of fiscal restraint, Bourque was embroiled in a scandal during the campaign as he owed $1.1 million to creditors, after his father promised to repay some of his debts, but went to other debts instead.

Journalism

In 2001, the ''

Ryerson Review of Journalism The ''Review of Journalism'' (formerly the ''Ryerson Review of Journalism'') is a Canadian magazine, published annually by final-year journalism students at Toronto Metropolitan University. The magazine profiles personalities, issues and controv ...

'' (RRJ) criticized Bourque and Newswatch. RRJ said Bourque had not written some of his books but only acted as a researcher. In addition, many of Newswatch's breaking stories had often been inaccurate. RRJ also reported that, despite Bourque's web traffic claims, a random sample indicated that Canadian Internet users had not visited the Newswatch site and that no major Canadian journalist used Newswatch as a source. Newswatch has also been criticized for allowing advertisers to purchase headlines and to "torque" them to highlight a positive news story about itself or a negative story about an opponent. Bourque was a fill-in host and contributor to radio talk shows on 580 CFRA.

Racing driver

Bourque was race car driver in the NASCAR Busch East Series and

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series The NASCAR Pinty's Series (french: Série NASCAR Pinty's), commonly abbreviated as NPS, is a national NASCAR racing series in Canada, and is a continuation of the old CASCAR Super Series which was founded in 1981. History In September 2006 NASCAR ...

, competing from 2007 to 2011.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

Rolex Sports Car Series

Grand Touring

(

) Bold – Pole Position. (Overall Finish/Class Finish).

Personal life

Bourque was married to Kristine Haselsteiner and had two children.

Death

Bourque died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 2021.

References

External links

Personal site
*
''Bourque Newswatch''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourque, Pierre 1958 births 2021 deaths Ottawa city councillors Candidates in the 1993 Canadian federal election Journalists from Ontario Canadian sportsperson-politicians Racing drivers from Ontario Sportspeople from Ottawa NASCAR drivers ARCA Menards Series drivers Franco-Ontarian people Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Real estate and property developers Canadian talk radio hosts