Joël Arseneau is a

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, who was elected to 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 ...

in the 2018 provincial election. He represents the electoral district of Îles-de-la-Madeleine as a member of 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 ...

. As of September 8, 2024, he serves as the parliamentary leader of the Parti Québécois and the party's spokesperson on Health, Transport, International Relations and Francophonie, Mental Health, Loneliness, Fisheries and Mariculture, and for the Maritime Strategy. Arseneau previously served as mayor of

Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine The Magdalen Islands (, ) are a Canadian archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Since 2005, the 12-island archipelago is divided into two municipalities: the majority-francophone Municipality of Îles-de-la-Madeleine and the majority-angloph ...

from 2005 to 2013. He was removed from office on fraud charges resulting from delayed expense claim payments. Although he was acquitted of the charges on the grounds that the issue was a personal accounting error rather than a deliberate attempt to defraud the municipality, he was barred in 2015 from running for municipal office for five years, leading to some controversy when his selection as a Parti Québécois candidate for the provincial legislature was announced."Quebec election: Man barred from municipal posts fit to be MNA, PQ says". ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'', September 19, 2018.

Electoral record

Provincial

References

Living people Parti Québécois MNAs Politicians from Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine 21st-century mayors of places in Quebec Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec {{PartiQuébécois-Quebec-MNA-stub