Gilles Duceppe

Gilles Duceppe ( born July 22, 1947 in Montreal, Quebec ) is a Canadian politician and trade union official. He was from 1997 to 2011 chairman of the separatist Bloc Québécois motion. In the Canadian House of Commons he represented the electoral district of Laurier -Sainte -Marie in the center of Montreal. His father is the actor Jean Duceppe.

Biography

Duceppe studied political science at the Université de Montréal, but did not graduate. He was Vice President of the Student Association Union générale des étudiants du Québec, in 1970 the editor of the university newspaper Quartier Libre 1968. During his student days he sympathized with communism and was briefly a member of the Communist Workers Party ( Parti Communiste Ouvrier ). In 1972 he began a career union activist until 1986, he was promoted to chief negotiator of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the second largest union in Québec.

In December 1990, Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois was a candidate in a by-election and was elected to the House of Commons. Legally, he stepped back then as a non-party to, as the recently-established Bloc had not been registered as a party (all other members of the party were previously in the course of the year, resigned from the Liberal Party or the Progressive Conservative Party ). Duceppes victory proved that the Bloc contrary to the view of many policy experts francophone voters spoke in Quebec and could be victorious in elections.

As party founder Lucien Bouchard resigned in January 1996 and moved to the province of politics, Duceppe took over for a month on an interim basis the Presidency, until the election of Bouchard's successor Michel Gauthier. But Gauthier already resigned in February 1997, after which Ducuppe was elected on 15 March 1997 as the new party chairman. Since the Bloc was the second strongest party, he also took over the role as official opposition leader. As such, he would have been entitled to be included in the Canadian Privy Council, but he refused.

In the 1997 General Election the Bloc lost ten seats and fell behind the Reform Party back to third place. During the election campaign, Duceppe had visited a cheese factory and had been doing photographed with a hygiene protection hood on her head, which was like a swimming cap. This photo was later parodied in comedy shows for months. In the general election, 2000, the Bloc achieved his worst result and lost six seats.

After the resignation of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin took office, the Bloc could significantly increase again, especially after the discovery of the sponsorship scandal. In the general election, 2004, the Bloc grew by nine percent and justify his best result. Due Duceppes general popularity among the population of the Bloc was hoping for an absolute majority in Quebec City at the general election in 2006, but with three seat losses ran these elections disappointing.

On 11 May 2007 Duceppe publicly declared his interest in the presidency of the Parti Québécois, which would have meant a change in the provincial policy. But on the next day he took out his official candidacy. In the general election of 2011, the Bloc Québécois had to suffer a crushing defeat and lost 43 out of 47 seats. Duceppe also defeated in his constituency, and he resigned with immediate effect as party chairman.