Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac (born February 6, 1972) is a former

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

politician. She served as a member of Parliament for the

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (, , BQ) is a centre-left politics, centre-left and list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism, Quebecois nationalism, social democracy, and the promotion o ...

in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot from 2007 to 2011. She was the first

Vietnamese Canadian Vietnamese Canadians (; ) are Canadians, Canadian citizens of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. As of 2021, there are 275,530 Vietnamese Canadians, most of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. Hi ...

ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons."NDP, Tories score upsets in Quebec byelections"
canada.com, September 18, 2007.

Early life

Born in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

to a

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script * Cham Albani ...

family,Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac aspire à présider le PQ
/ref> Thi Lac was adopted at age two by a

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

family and grew up on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

near Acton Vale.

Career

Prior to her election, she worked for her predecessor, Yvan Loubier, as an executive assistant in his constituency office.

Political career

She was elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

on September 17, 2007, as the

candidate in the Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot by-election, defeating the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

candidate Bernard Barré. She acknowledged that

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

was a factor at the outset of her campaign, but stressed her local roots by joking that having grown up on a farm, she was the only candidate in the race who knew how to

castrate Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical d ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

. She later credited her willingness to simply talk to people as her most effective strategy: She was re-elected in the 2008 election, but was defeated in the 2011 election by Marie-Claude Morin of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

Electoral record

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Bloc Québécois MPs Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Francophone Quebec people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec People from Saint-Hyacinthe Politicians from Montérégie Vietnamese emigrants to Canada Canadian people of Vietnamese descent Women in Quebec politics 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century Canadian women politicians Vietnamese Cham people {{BlocQuébécois-MP-stub