Richard Nadeau (born April 5, 1959 in

Hawkesbury, Ontario Hawkesbury is a Franco-Ontarian city in United Counties of Prescott and Russell, Prescott-Russell county in Eastern Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Canada. The vast majority of its 10,550 inhabitants are Francophone Canadians, francophone. The Long-Sa ...

) is a teacher and

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 ...

politician in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. He is the former

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 ...

for the riding of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

. Nadeau attended the University of Ottawa where he received degrees in history, political science and education. In addition to being a teacher, Nadeau has worked as an adviser and director of educational programs, and as a researcher and an archivist. He has also been a lobbyist for French education and has been involved in community theatre in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. He taught at the Gisèle Lalonde High School in Orleans, near

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, where he, amongst other things, supervised and acted as speaker for the student debate club. In the 2000 federal election, Nadeau finished second in Gatineau behind Mark Assad of the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

by 13,197 votes. In the 2004 federal election, he finished second behind

Françoise Boivin Françoise Boivin (born June 11, 1960 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Gatineau in the House of Commons of Canada until 2015. She first represented the district from 2004 to 2006 as a member ...

of the Liberals by 830 votes—a surprisingly close result, given that this had long been reckoned as one of the more federalist regions of Quebec. He was elected in the 2006 federal election in a rematch against Boivin, becoming the first Bloc MP elected in the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

. He was also the third Bloc MP ever elected in the entire Outaouais region, after Maurice Dumas and

Mario Laframboise Mario Laframboise (born November 7, 1957) is a Canadian politician who served as Mayor of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix and Reeve of the Papineau MRC before getting into federal politics. In the 2000 Canadian federal election, Laframboise was elected ...

. Nadeau's wife, Edith Gendron, is the head of a Quebec separatist group called "Le Quebec, Un Pays". She was also the

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 ...

candidate for the riding of Chapleau in

, in the 2007 provincial election. In the

2008 Canadian federal election The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on October 14, 2008, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the 39th Canadian Parliament, previous parliament had been dissolved by Governor General of ...

Nadeau received the smallest percentage of votes for a winning candidate, at just 29.13%, meaning that less than 3 out of 10 voters chose him as their candidate, despite him winning a plurality of votes and carrying the district for the Bloc over Boivin, now running for the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

. Nadeau was heavily defeated by Boivin in the 2011 election by over 27,000 votes as part of the massive NDP surge across Quebec. He tallied barely half of his vote from 2008.

Works

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nadeau, Richard 1959 births Living people Bloc Québécois MPs Franco-Ontarian people French Quebecers Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Politicians from Gatineau University of Ottawa alumni People from Hawkesbury, Ontario 21st-century Canadian politicians