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Louis Plamondon (born July 31, 1943) is a politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He is the longest-serving current member of the Canadian House of Commons, having represented Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour (formerly Richelieu) since 1984. Originally elected as a Progressive Conservative, Plamondon was a founding member of the Bloc Québécois in 1990 and has been re-elected under its banner in every election since then.
[edit] Early life and careerPlamondon was born in Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf, Quebec. He has a teaching certificate from L'École normale Maurice L. Duplessis (1964), a Bachelor's Degree degree from Laval University (1968), and a B.A.An. from the University of Montreal (1976). He was a math teacher and restaurant owner before entering political life.[1] Plamondon supported the "yes" side in Quebec's 1980 referendum on sovereignty.[2] He is the brother of the Quebec-born lyricist Luc Plamondon.[3] [edit] Member of Parliament[edit] Progressive Conservative MPPlamondon was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1984 federal election, defeating incumbent Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Jean-Louis Leduc in Richelieu. The Progressive Conservatives won a landslide majority government under Brian Mulroney in this election, and Plamondon entered parliament as a government backbencher. He was associated with the Quebec nationalist wing of his party, and soon developed a reputation as a maverick.[4] He criticized Justice Minister John Crosbie in 1986 for appointing an anglophone to replace the sole francophone judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal.[5] He later criticized Industry Minister Sinclair Stevens for awarding an multi-million-dollar untendered contract to a shipbuilding company in Quebec City.[6] Plamondon also expressed sympathy with fellow MP Robert Toupin, who left the Progressive Conservatives in May 1986 to sit as an independent. He said that he would not leave the party himself, but would fight to change it from within.[7] Plamondon expressed socially liberal views on several issues during his first term in office. He voted against a motion to reintroduce capital punishment in 1987,[8] and later opposed attempts to restrict abortion services.[9] He strongly supported the Mulroney government's efforts to strengthen official bilingualism, and criticized dissident anglophone Tory MPs who tried to water down the government's reforms.[10] Plamondon was also one of the more pro-labour members in the Tory caucus. In 1985, he promoted a partnership between the federal and Quebec governments and the Quebec Federation of Labour's Solidarity Fund.[11] Two years later, he stood with striking letter carriers in Sorel and criticized his own government's decision to approve replacement workers.[12] He was also prominent among a group of Quebec Tory MPs who ried to reduce the party's reliance on corporate donations.[13] Ricardo Lopez, a very right-wing Quebec Tory MP, once suggested that Plamondon would be more suited to the social democratic New Democratic Party.[14] Plamondon was re-elected without difficulty in the 1988 federal election, as the Progressive Conservatives won a second majority government across the country. In subsequent months, he became even more affiliated with the Quebec nationalist wing of his party. He supported Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa's use of the Canadian constitution's notwithstanding clause to prohibit outdoor English-language signs, and expressed regret that the ban was not extended to indoor signs.[15] He also criticized D'Iberville Fortier, Canada's official languages commissioner, for suggesting that Quebec was acting in an unjust manner toward its anglophone minority.[16] Consistent with his nationalist views, Plamondon was a vocal supporter of the Mulroney government's proposed Meech Lake Accord on constitutional reform, and opposed Jean Charest's attempts to modify the accord in early 1990.[17] Plamondon speculated that sovereignty-association between Quebec and Canada would be "logical and reasonable" if the accord failed, and added that he himself might become a "Quebec-only MP" in that event.[18] When the accord was rejected in June 1990, Plamondon informed the House of Commons that he could no longer support a united Canada, and resigned from the Progressive Conservative caucus.[19] [edit] Bloc Québécois MP
Plamondon was one of a group of Progressive Conservative and Liberal MPs who left their parties after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. This group soon coalesced as the Bloc Québécois, under the leadership of Lucien Bouchard. The Bloc was not initially given official recognition in the House of Commons, and its members were designated as independent MPs. Plamondon was recognized as the Bloc's house leader in 1992. In its original form, the Bloc Québécois was a loose alliance of parliamentarians rather than a formal political party. Plamondon was one the first Bloquistes to promote the creation of a strong party organization to challenge the Progressive Conservative Party's Quebec machine in the next federal election. Others, including Lucien Bouchard, initially favoured a weak party structure that would simply allow Bloc candidates to have their party designation appear on the ballot.[20] The vision favoured by Plamondon ultimately won out, and the Bloc Québécois became a prominent organization throughout Quebec. Shortly after joining the BQ, Plamondon called for the federal government to apologize to the province of Quebec and provide financial compensation for those who were wrongly arrested under the War Measures Act during the 1970 FLQ Crisis.[21] He later spoke against a bid by Izzy Asper to bring his Global Television Network to Montreal, arguing that the market was already saturated.[22] In 1992, he described Mordechai Richler's book Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! as hate literature.[23] Plamondon was charged with attempting to hire a prostitute following an undercover sting operation in April 1993.[24] He claimed innocence, saying that the charge was the result of a "bad joke between friends which lasted 45 seconds," but nevertheless resigned as his party's House Leader pending resolution of the matter.[25] He was renominated as the Bloc candidate for Richelieu despite the controversy; Lucien Bouchard remarked that the matter was unrelated to his duties as an MP.[26]
Plamondon was re-elected without difficulty in the 1993 federal election, as the Bloc won 54 out of 75 seats in Quebec to become the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The Liberal Party won a majority government under the leadership of Jean Chrétien. At his own request, Plamondon was left out of the Bloc's shadow cabinet.[27] He pleaded guilty to the charge against him in April 1994, maintaining his innocence but adding that he wanted to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. He received an absolute discharge, and does not have a criminal record.[28] The matter did not affect his popularity; Plamondon has been re-elected without difficulty in every election since this time. Plamondon co-chaired a funding and membership drive for the Bloc in early 1995.[29] He opposed Finance Minister Paul Martin's austerity budget in the same year, arguing that it placed an unfair financial burden on the provinces in order to fight the federal deficit.[30] He was personally opposed to the Chrétien government's gun registry, which the Bloc supported, and absented himself from the parliamentary vote that led to its passage.[31] Lucien Bouchard left the Bloc Québécois to become leader of its provincial ally, the Parti Québécois (PQ), after a narrow nationalist defeat in Quebec's 1995 referendum on sovereignty. Plamondon initially favoured Bernard Landry to become the new Bloc leader, arguing that he was best positioned to keep the various factions of the party united.[32] Landry decided not to run, however, and Gilles Duceppe succeeded Bouchard as leader.[33] Plamondon supported the Chrétien government's choice of Dyane Adam to become Canada's official language commissioner in 1998, saying that she would be "tougher" than her predecessor Victor Goldbloom (whom he nonetheless acknowledged had done good work on education).[34] He later endorsed Adam's criticism of the Chrétien government in 2000, when she wrote that it was not sufficiently committed to defending official bilingualism.[35] Plamondon strongly opposed the Clarity Act legislation introduced by Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion in 1999, arguing that it would create confusion in any future referendum on Quebec sovereignty.[36]
Paul Martin replaced Jean Chrétien as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada in late 2003. Shortly before he was sworn in, Plamondon published an 88-page book entitled Le mythe Paul Martin.[37] As might be expected, the work was highly critical of its subject: Plamondon accused Martin of damaging Quebec's interests during his time in the Chrétien cabinet.[38] He also argued that Martin would become an ally of United States President George W. Bush, neglect the low-income residents of Canada and Quebec, and favour the interests of English Canada. The Bloc distributed one thousand free copies of the book, while a further 1,500 were put on sale in bookstores. Martin's supporters dismissed the work as a negative campaign ploy lacking any progressive vision,[39] while Liberal MP Don Boudria asked the Speaker of the House of Commons to investigate whether Plamondon had broken parliamentary rules by using the publicly-funded Bloc research staff to help compile the book.[40] It was initially believed that Paul Martin would win a majority of seats in Quebec, as he was more sympathetic to Quebec nationalism than was Chrétien. The Liberal Party's fortunes were instead damaged by the Sponsorship Scandal, in which some advertising revenues approved by the Chrétien government to promote Canada in Quebec were found to have been misused. The Bloc soon re-established itself as the dominant party in Quebec at the federal level,[41] and the Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the 2004 federal election. After the election, Plamondon was chosen as BQ caucus chair.[42] When Bernard Landry resigned as Parti Québécois leader in 2005, rumours circulated that Gilles Duceppe would run to succeed him. Plamondon said that most Bloc MPs wanted Duceppe to stay in federal politics, but would respect his decision one way or the other.[43] Duceppe chose to remain with the Bloc, and Andre Boisclair became PQ leader.
Plamondon was elected to a seventh term in the 2006 federal election, as the Conservative Party won a minority government under the leadership of Stephen Harper. Plamondon remained as the Bloc's caucus chair.[44] Widely respected for his skills as an electoral strategist, he prepared an internal brief for the Bloc examining why the party had lost seats in the Quebec City area to the Conservatives.[45] Andre Boisclair resigned as Parti Québécois leader after a poor showing in the 2007 provincial election, and rumours again circulated that Duceppe would run to succeed him. This time, Plamondon told reporters that Duceppe should run for the provincial leadership to impose some discipline on the notoriously unruly party.[46] Some in the PQ objected to this comment, which galvanized resistance to a Duceppe candidacy.[47] Duceppe eventually entered the leadership contest, but withdrew after only one day due to poor polls and a growing sense that the sovereigntists would be badly divided if he won. He stayed as leader of the Bloc, and Plamondon helped ensure his successful transition back to the federal scene.[48] When Brian Mulroney released his memoirs in September 2007, he alleged that Lucien Bouchard had conspired with Jacques Parizeau to create the Bloc Québécois while still a federal cabinet minister. Plamondon rejected this, arguing that Bouchard had been loyal to Mulroney until resigning in protest against the government's handling of the Meech Lake Accord.[49] Plamondon also criticized Jean Chrétien later in the same year, for writing in his memoirs that he would not have recognized a narrow sovereigntist victory in the 1995 referendum.[50] Plamondon was re-elected again in the 2008 election, as the Conservatives won a second minority government nationally. He was again chosen to serve as BQ caucus chair.[51] As the longest-serving member of the House of Commons, Plamondon was also recognized as Dean of the House after the election; he acknowledged the irony that an MP from a sovereigntist party would hold this position.[52] As Dean, Plamondon presided over the Commons when it chose its speaker.[53] [edit] Publications
[edit] Electoral record
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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