Robert "Bob" Bertrand (April 4, 1953 – May 17, 2022) was a Canadian politician. He was born in

Fort-Coulonge, Quebec Fort Coulonge is a village in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in western Quebec, Canada, at the mouth of the Coulonge River. It is the francophone centre of the otherwise largely (57%) anglophone Pontiac MRC, with 79.6% listing French ...

. Bertrand was a federal member of Parliament for the riding of

Pontiac—Gatineau—Labelle Pontiac (formerly known as Pontiac—Gatineau—Labelle) is a federal electoral district in western Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1949 and since 1968. In every election since its crea ...

. He ran and won in the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Canadian federal elections This article provides a summary of results for Canadian general elections (where all seats are contested) to the House of Commons, the elected lower half of Canada's federal bicameral legislative body, the Parliament of Canada. The number of s ...

with significant majorities under the banner 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'' ...

. Although considered a

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

, he was very active in

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 ...

, participating in several standing committees including primarily

National Defence National security, or national defence, is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as p ...

and

Veterans Affairs Veterans' affairs is an area of public policy concerned with relations between a government and its communities of military veterans. Some jurisdictions have a designated government agency or department, a Department of Veterans' Affairs, Minist ...

; working to study and improve the poor quality of life for members of the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

and their families. He also served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of National Defence from 1998 to 2000.

Lost nomination in 2004

Although prepared to run in the 2004 federal election, he lost the

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

nomination Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

to an unknown at the time, David Smith. This was due to new party nomination rules put in place by

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

that changed the long-standing policy of selecting the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

acclamation An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts. Voting Voice vot ...

, part of the infighting that was present within the party at the time. Many rural party members (who traditionally supported Bertrand) felt disenfranchised by this defeat because of the new party nomination rules which called for 3 polling locations spread out across the riding (

Fort-Coulonge Fort Coulonge is a village in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in western Quebec, Canada, at the mouth of the Coulonge River. It is the francophone centre of the otherwise largely (57%) anglophone Pontiac MRC, with 79.6% listing French a ...

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

and

Maniwaki Maniwaki is a town located north of Gatineau and north-west of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, Canada. The town is situated on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Quebec Route 105, Route 105 and Quebec Route 107, Route 107, not far south ...

) instead of the traditional 1 neutral polling site for both candidates. They believed this favoured the

area party members (most of whom supported Smith) because of the greater concentration in their numbers in conjunction with their polling location.

Attempt to run as a Liberal candidate in the 40th Canadian federal election

An article in

The Hill Times ''The Hill Times'' is a Canadian twice-weekly newspaper and daily news website, published in Ottawa, Ontario, which covers the Parliament of Canada, the federal government, and other federal political news. Founded in 1989 by Ross Dickson and Jim ...

indicated that Robert Bertrand wished to run as a Liberal candidate in the upcoming federal election. His original request to run was refused in March 2007 and the nomination was closed, giving the candidacy instead to Cindy Duncan-McMillan in order to "meet the party’s target of 33 per cent female candidates". On April 4, Bertrand received a call from the current director of the Liberal Party of Canada in Quebec, Serge Marcil, telling him that the candidacy was re-opened, however he was given an impossible deadline of one week to collect memberships and present himself as a candidate. Bertrand refused this offer and the nomination went ahead with Duncan-McMillan winning over Ottawa lawyer Richard Mahoney on April 15, 2007.

Later life and death

He lived in

with his wife Sandra where he operated a small business and had three children. In October 2016, Robert Bertrand was elected as the National Chief of the

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) (formerly the Native Council of Canada and briefly the Indigenous Peoples Assembly of Canada), founded in 1971, is a national Canadian aboriginal organization, that represents Aboriginal peoples ( Non-Sta ...

. Bertrand died in

Shawville, Quebec Shawville is a town located in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Outaouais in western Quebec, Canada. History At the end of the 1860s, a group of citizens from Clarendon Centre, under the leadership of Jam ...

on May 17, 2022, aged 69.Robert Bertrand
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Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertrand, Robert 1953 births 2022 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Liberal Party of Canada MPs French Quebecers 21st-century Canadian politicians People from Outaouais