Damien Hétu (October 24, 1926 – February 15, 2010) was a

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politician. Hétu served as

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Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts () is a town in the province of Quebec, Canada, in the regional county municipality of Les Laurentides in the administrative region of Laurentides, also known as the "Laurentians" or the Laurentian Mountains (in English) ...

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, ...

on two separate occasions and was a Liberal member of 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 1985 to 1989.

Early life and career

Hétu was born in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and received his early education in the town. He trained as an electrician and radio/television technician, and in 1952 he began working as an electrician and entrepreneur in his home community. He successfully campaigned for a local sports center, which was opened in the 1970s., ''L'information du nord'', 16 February 2010, accessed 27 April 2011. Hétu was a municipal councillor in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts from 1959 to 1965 and was the community's mayor from 1970 to 1974. In the same period, he was an organizer for both the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

and the Quebec Liberal Party. He ran for the Quebec legislature in the 1981 provincial election and lost to incumbent

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 ...

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

Jacques Léonard in

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Legislator

Hétu was elected to the national assembly on his second attempt in the 1985 provincial election. The Liberal Party won a

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...

in this election under

Robert Bourassa Robert Bourassa (; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just ...

's leadership, and Hétu served for the next four years as a government

backbench 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 t ...

er. A 1988 newspaper report indicates that he had one of the best attendance records in the legislature, missing fewer than one per cent of recorded votes. He was defeated by Léonard a second time when seeking re-election in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Return to municipal politics

Hétu was re-elected as mayor of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts in 1990 and served until 1994. He presided over a water boil advisory for the community in 1992, due to concerns about contamination from lead pipes.Ann McLaughlin, "High levels of lead found in Ste. Agathe water," ''Montreal Gazette'', 14 July 1992, A5.

Death

Hétu died in February 2010, after an extended illness.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hetu, Damien 1926 births 2010 deaths People from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts Politicians from Laurentides Quebec Liberal Party MNAs 20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec 20th-century mayors of places in Quebec