Robert Benoit (born April 11, 1944) 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 in the province of

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, ...

. He served in 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 ...

from 1989 to 2003 as a member of the

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...

Early life and career

Benoit was born in

Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec Saint-Hyacinthe ( , ) is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 57,239. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie r ...

and studied commerce and administration at the Collège Paul-Valéry in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. He received an investment dealer's diploma in 1968 and was hired by Dominion Securities Quebec in the same year. He became active with the Liberal Party in 1978 and campaigned for the "non" side in the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. Benoit was president of the Quebec Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989 and led the party's finance committee for at least part of this time. At the party's 1987 conference, he called for Liberals to shift from a purely economic focus and devote more attention to social issues, creating policies to benefit the homeless and unemployed. The following year, Benoit helped persuade the party's youth wing to endorse the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. He also supported the unsuccessful

Meech Lake Accord The Meech Lake Accord () was a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister of Canada, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all 10 Canadian provincial Premier (Canada), premiers. It was intended to ...

on reforming the

Canadian constitution The Constitution of Canada () is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various ...

. For twenty-three years, Benoit was the next-door neighbour of Canadian author Mordechai Richler.

Legislator

Benoit was chosen as the Liberal candidate for Orford in the 1989 provincial election, despite objections from some local organizers who regarded him as a candidate of the party establishment. He was easily elected. The Liberals won a second consecutive

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...

, and Benoit entered legislature as a backbench supporter of

Robert Bourassa Robert Bourassa (; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just ...

's government. He was appointed as

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

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

on November 29, 1989, and served in this position until December 14, 1993. Benoit campaigned in Quebec's

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (, ) is a historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Lowlands, St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby, Quebec, Granby in ...

in support of the

Charlottetown Accord The Charlottetown Accord () was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canada, Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendums in Canada, referendum on October ...

on Canadian constitutional reform in 1992. The accord was defeated in a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

. In April 1993, Benoit said he would support a liberalization of Quebec's

Charter of the French Language The ''Charter of the French Language'' (, ), also known as Bill 101 (, ), is a law in the Canadian province of Quebec defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is th ...

, which restricts the public use of languages other than French. He was re-elected in the 1994 election as the Liberals lost government to 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 ...

. After the election, he served as his party's critic for the environment and industry. In 1995, Benoit supported Progressive Conservative candidate Guy Lever in a federal

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in Brome—Missisquoi. Lever finished a distant third against Denis Paradis of the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

. Benoit later became one of the first Quebec Liberal MNAs to encourage federal Progressive Conservative leader

Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding se ...

to seek the Quebec Liberal leadership in 1998. Charest was eventually chosen as leader without opposition. Benoit was elected to a third term in the 1998 provincial election. The Parti Québécois were re-elected provincially, and Benoit once again served as his party's critic for the environment. In 2002, he negotiated with Parti Québécois minister

André Boisclair André Boisclair (; born April 14, 1966) is a former Canadian politician in Quebec, Canada. He was the leader of the Parti Québécois, a social democratic and sovereigntist party in Quebec. Between January 1996 and March 2003, Boisclair serv ...

to secure the amalgamation of

Magog, Quebec Magog ( , ) is a city in southeastern Quebec, Canada, about east of Montreal at the confluence of Lake Memphremagog—after which the city was named—with the Rivière aux Cerises and the Magog River. It is a major centre and industrial city ...

with neighbouring communities. He did not seek re-election in 2003, standing aside for

star candidate A star candidate () is high-profile individual who is entering or re-entering elected politics. In Canada and the United Kingdom, the recruitment of a star candidate often includes a guaranteed nomination in a winnable seat. Star candidates com ...

Pierre Reid Pierre Reid (August 16, 1948 – November 14, 2021) was a Canadian politician and educator in the province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 2003 to 2018, representing Orford as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. R ...

Out of the legislature

After leaving the legislature, Benoit taught history at the college level and tutored in the

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

program. Benoit strongly opposed the Charest government's decision to sell part of the

Mont-Orford National Park Mont-Orford National Park is a national park in Orford, Quebec, Canada that is maintained and protected by the Sépaq, a provincial body. Geography The park is located immediately north of Magog in the Eastern Townships tourist region of the ...

to private developers in 2006. He helped form the group ''SOS Parc Mont-Orford'' to lobby against the sale and tried to overturn the decision via an emergency resolution within the Liberal Party. He called for fundamental changes to the Liberal Party in 2010, saying that it had become simply "a machine for collecting money."Don MacPherson, "Liberals might need a timeout to renew," ''Montreal Gazette'', 20 November 2010, B7.

Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Robert 1944 births Living people Quebec Liberal Party MNAs People from Saint-Hyacinthe Politicians from Montérégie 20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec