Marcel Beaubien (born ) is a former politician in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

from 1995 to 2003 and unsuccessfully sought election to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

as the

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candidate in the federal riding of Sarnia-Lambton in 2004.

Background

Beaubien was an insurance broker in private life, and served as President of the Sarnia United Way.

Politics

He began his political career at the municipal level, serving as a councillor in Petrolia, of which he later became mayor. He also served as a regional councillor for

Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Cla ...

. He was elected to the Ontario legislature for the provincial riding of Lambton in the provincial election of 1995, defeating Liberal candidate Larry O'Neill by over 4,000 votes. The Progressive Conservatives won the election, and Beaubien served as a government backbencher for the next four years. In 1995, Beaubien put pressure on the newly elected provincial government to intervene in the native protest at Ipperwash which culminated in the

Ipperwash Crisis The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, on September 4, 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had be ...

. From July 1995 to April 1997, Premier Mike Harris assigned him as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. In 1998, he was responsible for a spearheading a government decision to deny

Ontario Health Insurance Plan The Ontario Health Insurance Plan ( French: ''Assurance-Santé de l'Ontario''), commonly known by the acronym OHIP (pronounced ), is the government- run health insurance plan for the Canadian province of Ontario. OHIP is funded by a payroll ded ...

(OHIP) coverage to patients seeking sex-change operations. In the provincial election of 1999, Beaubien defeated O'Neill again by fewer than 1,000 votes in the redistributed riding of

Lambton—Kent—Middlesex Lambton—Kent—Middlesex could refer to: * Lambton—Kent—Middlesex (federal electoral district) * Lambton—Kent—Middlesex (provincial electoral district) {{Disambiguation ...

. As before, he was not appointed to cabinet and served as a government backbencher. On April 25, 2002, newly minted Premier

Ernie Eves Ernest Larry Eves (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003. A Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Progressive Conservative, he took over the premiership up ...

appointed him to the position of

parliamentary assistant In British politics and some Commonwealth nations, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan staff member employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work ...

to the

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

Janet Ecker Janet Ecker (born October 18, 1953) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003, and was a senior cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Backgr ...

. The Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the provincial election of 2003, and Beaubien lost his seat to Liberal

Maria Van Bommel Maria Van Bommel is a former Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. From 2003 to 2011, she was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the London area riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex for the Ontario Liberal Party. P ...

by over 3,500 votes. The following year, he challenged long-serving Liberal MP Roger Gallaway in the federal riding of Sarnia—Lambton, and lost by over 5,000 votes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaubien, Marcel 1940s births Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Living people People from Lambton County Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Year of birth missing (living people)