Éric Dorion (born June 2, 1970) is an administrator and politician in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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, ...

. He served in the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...

from 2007 to 2008, representing Nicolet-Yamaska as a member of the

Action démocratique du Québec The (, ), commonly referred to as the , was a right-wing populist and conservative provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. On the sovereignty question, it defined itself as autonomist; it had support from nationalists and federalists. Its ...

(ADQ).

Early life and career

Dorion was born in

Drummondville Drummondville () is a city in the Centre-du-Québec region of Quebec, located east of Montreal on the Saint-François River. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 79,258. The mayor of Drummondville is Stéphanie Lacoste. Drummondville ...

, and by his own admission had a troubled early life. He received a two-year suspended sentence for illegal possession of a vehicle in 1992, at a time when he was battling drug and alcohol addiction. He has also admitted to having written false cheques in this period. He later regained control of his life and began working for the treatment and prevention of drug addiction; he founded the intervention centre "De l'autre côté de l'ombre" in 1996 and served as its president and director until his election to the Quebec legislature. He also completed a training program in drug addiction and psychology at the

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières The (, ''University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières'', UQTR), also known as "l'université du peuple", established in 1969 and mainly located in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada, is a public university within the network. As of April 2016, the uni ...

in 1997-98. In his spare time, he has been a minor league

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

coach in Bécancour.

Legislator

Dorion was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2007 general election, winning a seat that was previously held by 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 establishi ...

. His criminal background was discovered by the media during the campaign and was reported in newspapers across Canada; he initially denied having a police record, but acknowledged the truth when presented with incontrovertible evidence. ADQ leader

Mario Dumont Mario Dumont (born May 19, 1970) is a Canadian television personality and former politician in Quebec, Canada. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA), and the leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), from 1994 to 2 ...

accused the media of conducting a "witch hunt" against Dorion, who he said had turned his life around several years earlier. After his election, Dorion said that his top priority would be preventing drug addiction. The

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...

formed a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

after the 2007 election, and the ADQ became the

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

in the National Assembly. Dorion was appointed as his party's critic for social solidarity. As a legislator, he took part in all-party efforts to ensure that future Quebec legislation would be free of

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

. He later helped promote his party's controversial social security reforms in the 2008 Quebec election.Antoine Robitaille, "Dumont veut mettre un terme à l'aide sociale comme «mode de vie»," ''Le Devoir'', 21 November 2008, A5. Dorion was personally defeated in 2008, finishing third against

candidate

Jean-Martin Aussant Jean-Martin Aussant () is a Canadian economist, musician, and politician, now serving as Executive director of the Chantier de l' économie sociale. He represented Nicolet-Yamaska in the National Assembly of Quebec from 2008 to 2012, first as ...

amidst a provincial swing away from the ADQ. He returned to work at "De l'autre côté de l'ombre" after the election.

Electoral record

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorion, Eric 1970 births Action démocratique du Québec MNAs Living people People from Drummondville Politicians from Centre-du-Québec 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec