Marcel Lessard, (August 14, 1926 – November 19, 2023) was a Canadian politician. Lessard was first elected 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

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

Member of Parliament (MP) for

Lac-Saint-Jean Lac-Saint-Jean (, ) is a federal electoral district in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, northeast Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 2004, and has been represented since 2015. Demographics ...

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, ...

as part of

Réal Caouette David Réal Caouette (; September 26, 1917 – December 16, 1976) was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the '' Ralliement des créditistes''. O ...

's breakthrough in the province in the 1962 election. He was re-elected in the 1963 election. The Social Credit Party split soon after along English and French lines, however, Lessard declined to join the majority of Social Credit's Quebec MPs who followed Caouette into the ''

Ralliement Créditiste There were a few political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement in Quebec. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; th ...

'' and remained with the Alberta-based Social Credit Party led by Robert Thompson for the rest of the parliamentary term. During the 1964 Great Flag Debate, Lessard was a member of the parliamentary committee that recommended the adoption of the Maple Leaf flag. In the 1965 federal election, he ran as an independent candidate and was defeated by the ''Ralliement Créditiste'' candidate. Lessard returned to the House in the 1968 election as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

. In 1970, Lessard became parliamentary secretary to the

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

. In 1975, he was appointed to the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Minister of Regional Economic Expansion Minister of Regional Economic Expansion was an office in the Cabinet of Canada The Canadian Ministry (Canadian French, French: ''Conseil des ministres''), colloquially referred to as the Cabinet of Canada (), is a body of Minister of the Crown, ...

. He remained in that position until the 1979 election that defeated the Liberal government. Lessard retained his seat, and joined the Liberals on the

Opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comedy ...

benches. He retired from politics at the 1980 federal election. Lessard died at Hôpital Saint-François d'Assise in Quebec City on November 19, 2023, at the age of 97.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lessard, Marcel 1926 births 2023 deaths Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Social Credit Party of Canada MPs 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada